Oct. 10, 2009
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Box Score |
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Photo Gallery 3
North Carolina Head Coach Butch Davis
Opening statement:
"It's good to win. I told the players in the locker room that for as the coach, the best barometer for how you're going to play is how you practice. I thought our kids were very much aware of the potential things Georgia Southern could do. We knew they'd throw a tremendous amount of jailbreak screens, bubble screens. They tried to manipulate the box.
"One of the things that helped us tonight was the defensive line's ability to hold the run, which allows you to cheat the box, get more people out of the box to help on throws. They didn't have much success throwing the football. The throws that they completed were for minimal or short gains.
"I liked the way our offense started the ball game, taking the football, driving the length of the field, scoring the first points. It was a good momentum builder for the offense. They were certainly opportunistic with the defense creating turnovers and scoring points, it really helped the offense with some good field position.
"I thought that Shaun and Ryan ran the ball very hard. It was good to get what we consider our starting offensive linemen back in the game, to get Jonathan Cooper back in the game and Kyle Jolly together, it will be good to watch the film to find out just how good they did play. We pulled a lot of those guys at halftime. We didn't want to push the envelope, it would have been really, really foolish on our part to get them more reps.
"I don't like the way we played in the second half. Particularly, I thought we were sloppy and ineffective offensively. I told those kids in the locker room, `We want you to play.' There's nothing greater that I like than getting the guys that are on the second and third team some opportunities, because you don't get many of those, and when you go in you've got to play and play effectively. I didn't think we were very efficient from an offensive perspective once we started making some liberal substitutions.
On the takeaways:
"I think our players would tell you that we really watched a lot of film. They had a great idea of schematically what (GSU) was going to do. That's the only way you're going to play with confidence and feel like you are well-prepared. I think our defense felt like they were going to play well because they really, truly understand, conceptually, what Georgia Southern was trying to do. It allows you to take some liberties.
"Bruce knew instantly on the jailbreak screen exactly what was coming. You don't see interceptions by linebackers on those plays unless you have great anticipation and you know that the play has a chance to happen.
"They made plays, they created turnovers and that's a huge advantage.
"That's the story of the game. You guys have heard me say for two and a half years that the team that gets and makes the most turnovers has the best chance to win, and tonight we got six of them."
On offense scoring early:
"I've got to believe it gave them some confidence. One of the goals we have in every game is to be as efficient on first and 10 and have some success. Success doesn't mean we have to make 5, 10, 20, 15 yards, it's just making positive plays, staying out of those third and 10s and 11s and 13s, that just makes it difficult for everybody. It's a positive step, but I still want to take a look at the film and see if we did some of the things that I think we did. The only way that an offense can grow is to have the same guys playing together week after week after week after week."
North Carolina Player Quotes:
T.J. Yates, Junior, QB
On the win:
"Did all the things right today to get the win...got a lot of points on the board, it was fun sitting up there third quarter, fourth quarter watching other guys get some good work."
On building confidence:
"It does a lot, we knew we could run the ball, pass the ball, we knew we could do it...to just kinda get some confidence back, get us going into the bye week, going into Florida State."
On simplifying things:
"Going back to our base runs, base protections, cutting it down a little bit. Not doing so many protections calls or audible and stuff like that. Do our base thing and focus on that during the week and perfect, so come game time we can run it to perfection."
On the injuries and the bye week:
"Everyone is definitely going to use this bye week to heal up, try to take a little break, let our minds heal, our bodies heal. We were down for a little bit but I think this team is really looking for it. It will help tremendously, Florida State is a great opponent, fast and physical, we are going to need all the time we can have to prepare."
On having a short field:
"You get the ball at the 20 yard line, going out there playing with a lead, Bruce, Quan both took one back to the house. Gives you so much confidence of offense... you've got time, you can take your time, go through things work out different stuff."
Ryan Houston, Junior, TB
On coming backin the ACC:
"We've got more ACC games, we have to jump right back in the schedule, and this game really helped us get back from our little slump. Two ACC losses, and we got this win so we just have to build off this one."
On his touchdown at the end of the first half:
"We were talking the in the huddle, Coach Davis was saying we can for sure get three points out of this and I was like `Coach Davis, I know I can get this in there, we are in the inch yard line, put me in the replease, just let me just run it, I promise you I can get in there.' He said `Get in there and run it then.'"
On the offense's confidence:
"We put points on the board, the offensive line feels like we are doing a good job running the ball, so it's a confidence booster knowing that we can run the ball. It was a good confidence booster, we put up a lot of points, it's going to boost our offensive line, we are running the ball, passing the ball pretty good."
Greg Little, Junior,WR
On the bye week:
"Some guys are kind of banged up, always with a bye week it gives some time to heal but you don't want to lose your momentum coming off a win. Stay focused in practice,stay upbeat and not lose that focus."
On staying focused:
"Coming out to practice everyday ready to practice, staying consistent is the hardest part of it and Coach Davis will make sure, leaders on our team will make sure everyone stays up."
Quan Sturdivant, Junior, LB
On the defense getting turnovers:
"We try to do that every week but it hasn't been happening,but this week it happened. So we are going to try to continue to do this every week...everybody wants to do it,everybody wants a piece of the action"
On the win:
"It was a real big win, we needed this win, the last two weeks have been kind of rough for us."
Georgia Southern Head Coach Chris Hatcher
Opening statement:
"First of all, I know the score didn't indicate it, but our defense played outstanding. We gave up a 14-play drive and a 12-play drive and that was kind of our gameplan going in, to not give up the big play and make them work the ball down the field. They had had some offensive struggles but they executed well. We missed a few tackles, but we were outmanned at a lot of positions. Other than that, our defense shut them down the entire afternoon. We gave them a very short field on some of our turnovers, and it doesn't matter who you play, if you give up those types of turnovers you're not going to win the game.
I take a lot more positives out of the game. It doesn't feel good to get beat, but we knew we were up for a very tall task. We were very hopeful during the course of the week that we would go play well and have a chance to knock off an opponent, but since we've only beat one Division I opponent in our history, we know that doesn't happen very often. Defensively, we continued to play outstanding. And for the first time today our offensive line actually played pretty good. We pass-probed pretty decent, and we were able to run the ball a lot more effectively against those guys. I think they were the eighth-ranked defense in the country, and their front seven is as good as I've ever seen, even in my days at Kentucky. We really ran the ball good. We miss one block outside and we give up an interception. Hey, we make a couple plays here or there and it's a whole different ball game.
We played hard for 60 minutes. They substituted at the end and we substituted, even some of our third-team guys got in and held them out of the end zone. We won the second half, 5-0. That was kind of our goal to go and win the second half. Our goal was to win the game, but not doing that we wanted to win the second half. We did that. Look at our special teams, usually in a game against a team like this, your special teams are where you give up the biggest gains and momentum due to sheer numbers. We won that battle. Goodness, our kickoff return team was outstanding, our punt coverage team was great, and we had some good punt returns. We won that battle, and that's hard to do.
Offensively, we couldn't bust for nothing. We had a hard time getting off the jam, and we had to make an adjustment after 42 (Robert Quinn) out there, I don't even know his name because he runs too fast to see the name on the back of his jersey 42 had the big hit on (quarterback Lee) Chapple and we made an adjustment in our protection. But you don't turn the ball over, and it could have been a different game there at the end. I was real proud of our guys, we're not excited we got beat, but I'll tell you, we were a lot better out there today than we were against Wofford last week.
