Sept. 28, 2002

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Sept. 28, 2002

North Carolina Head Coach John Bunting Quotes:

"There's not a whole lot to say here. You look back as a coach, at the end of the season, and you say 'There's another one - a game you should have won, could have won, and did not win.' And there are very glaring reasons for it. Do they have a football better than us? I don't know. They just won today. If we keep playing like we're playing on defense - missing tackles on defense - and making bone-headed plays to keep drives alive, we won't be very good.

"Offensively, we hardly had a chance in the second half. It was a little disappointing to lose the fumble on the first drive of the second half, a momentum swing that happens all the time in football. But to give them 18 plays to go down and score after the fumble is a real shame.

"Those kids were out there on the field for 82 plays compared to our 52 - that's too many plays. We've got to get the third down solved. We've got to learn how to tackle. Until we do, we're not going to be very good. We have a lot of work to do."

On going on 4th and 5 late in the 4th quarter:
"That's an easy call for me. We were moving the football, and we weren't sure if we were going to stop them on defense. We knew we had to go down to try to score and go for two. We had plenty of time left and we felt like we were moving the ball. Everyone had a lot of confidence, and that was my decision. "

On Michael Waddell:
"Michael's not playing well right now. I love that kid, and he'll be starting again next week, but he has to pay attention more to the details of playing the game. He'll be back in the starting lineup next week, but right now when things like that occur, I have to make a move for the whole team. I'm hopeful he'll get it back together, because he's too good of a football player to be playing like he has."

On the fundamentals:
"During the bye week, we worked awfully hard on the fundamentals and understanding the overall scheme of our defense. It didn't show up today. To me, tackling is a mentality. If what took place today is any reflection of our mentality, then we better get the mentality changed quickly. Believe me, it will be an interesting week around here on the practice field."

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UNC QB Darian Durant:

"It was hard for us to do things...we were trying to hard to make things happen.

"Our possessions were limited, I felt like we had to score instead of just letting the game come to me. I wish that I would've done that.

On the play to Bobby Blizzard early in the second half:
"If we would've scored then, the momentum would have been on our side. That play really hurt us, but that's part of football. Things like that happen. I told Bobby, 'Just keep your head up, you'll have some good plays and some bad plays,just don't let it get to you.'

"We realize that we played bad, but now we have to take the good things and focus on Arizona State."

UNC DE Will Chapman:

"We had so many opportunities to win that ball game. That's what makes it so tough, when you can go out there and you know you can stop them, and you've got them stopped on third down, with good field position for the offense. It's a stab in the heart when they make that long pass for one more yard or short run for another first down.

UNC TE Bobby Blizzard:

On his fumble near the end zone:
"After I broke the first tackle, I didn't even know where he came from. He hit me and bounced off and I looked and saw the other guy. He didn't have any control over me, I thought I was going to drag him into the endzone. Somehow the ball came out and I was just trying to get to the ground as fast as I could. I thought they were going to call it down.

"I was just looking at the end zone, I had tunnel vision.

"It was pretty hard for me to get back in the game in the beginning, I had never had anything happen to me like that before.

"We just have to get back to the fundamentals. Tomorrow we come in, watch film, study,and get ready for Arizona State next week."

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Georgia Tech Head Coach Chan Gailey

On the offensive line:
"They did an excellent job. I thought that they controlled the line of scrimmage for the most part today. The other thing that happened was that our protection was really good - on top of being able to run the football."

On Eziemefe:
"I knew that he had ability, but whether he would do that or not I had no idea. A couple of those runs nobody touched him for 15 yards too, so I thought the first question about the offensive line was true.

"He got told a lot of times that (not fumbling) was the No. 1 priority."

On the GT defense:
"How about the defense? Our defense gave up a couple of big plays, but really for the most part would not let them get down in the end zone. That is the bottom line, a couple of turnovers that they couldn't get points out of and they couldn't drive it the length on us."

On the rotating quarterbacks:
"I thought A.J. threw the ball very crisply on third down to some one on one bump coverages. Bilbo went in and made some things happen, a little change of pace and that was good for us. It kept them off balance."

Note: Gailey added that it was a planned quarterback rotation.

On the offense in general:
"Our running game is not as explosive without Tony because he can take it 60 in a heartbeat, but our running game was solid and our passing game stepped up, we just have to get better down inside the 25-yard line. "

On stripping Bobby Blizzard at the one, and the ensuing drive:
"How do you describe or put any worth on what that play was, causing the fumble down on the one yard line, the ball going in the end zone and us getting it.? To cap it with taking it 80 yards, 18 plays and eight minutes, you can't underestimate how big that was. That is probably the turning point, if you had to say there was one."