By Greg Barnes
Inside Carolina
Posted Oct 27, 2010
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. --- North Carolina head coach Butch Davis spoke with reporters Wednesday for his weekly ACC teleconference.
Opening comments:
"Obviously, this is a bounce back week for us from the standpoint that we lost a tough game on the road. For our kids emotionally and psychologically we've got to bounce back and hold ourselves more accountable for the way that we play and practice.
"Our kids are working extremely hard. This has been a very challenging season from a standpoint of a variety of things. Obviously, Saturday there were a significant number of injuries that occurred during the course of the game, and that's put even more of a challenge on this football team from a physical standpoint to get prepared. Immediately upon watching film your kids start making decisions about the talent level of the team. And instantly I think all of our coaches and all of our players recognized that William & Mary is a very, very well-coached football team. Fundamentally, techniques, scheme-wise, you don't seem them making mistakes. They are in the right places. Kids play very well.
"There is a reason they're ranked as high as they are. You know, they've got some really good, talented football players, and I think that our kids recognize that we've got to play well."
Does it seem strange to be game planning against somebody that used to play for your team, Mike Paulus in particular?
"It's a little unique. I don't think I've ever faced that before. Mike's a very good kid. He's a very good quarterback. He's led them to some significant victories during the course of the season.
"The bizarreness of it is it is a little bit odd that somebody that played for you is on the field playing for another team. I don't think I've personally ever faced that before."
How do you talk to your guys about the difficulties that this game might present? Do you bring up the James Madison-Virginia Tech example? Are there other games to invoke, or do they need to be reminded?
"Well, I think every football team in the country certainly gets reminded of that because they watch the outcomes of games. The Jackson State win earlier this season just as dramatically as Appalachian State's victory was over Michigan a couple years ago.
"But if you've followed our program very much over the last three and a half years, two things that we obviously try to stress in our football program is that our performance on Saturday is a direct relationship about our expectations for the way that we play. It has absolutely nothing to do about the opponent.
"We want to try to hold ourselves to a performance level, and we didn't play well last week. So regardless of the opponent, we've got to play better as a football team. You've got to continue to improve.
"Then I think secondly, your football team, kids that play the game, they watch film, they look and they have respect by the opponent. They take a look at it and they see kids that are playing hard, making plays, fundamentally sound. You don't see people lining up and they're lined up wrong to certain formations. They're making mental mistakes, they're turning the football over. This is a good football team. This is a team with dangerous athletes and I think our kids recognize that."
I know they're sitting on your radar, but am I correct you're not on the voting panel for the USA Today Coaches' Poll?
"No, this is the first year as a head coach that I've not been on the panel."
I still would be curious to know your reaction to the big debate topic? How do you feel about the teams like Boise State, TCU in regard to the national title picture, or how would you be ranking them compared to maybe one-loss teams in the SEC or the Big 12?
"That's a difficult thing. I think each individual team has to be evaluated on the merit of its schedule. I think certainly in the case of Boise State, they had a very, very impressive victory early in the season against Virginia Tech. I think that certainly gives certainly credence to how good of a football team they are.
"I think over the last couple of years TCU has played extraordinarily well against people outside of their conference, whether it be in Bowl games or non-conference match-ups. I think people sometimes take all of those things into consideration.
"I think the more prevalence that teams like Boise, Nevada, and some of those schools that maybe don't get as much national notoriety from success over a lot of years or period of time certainly warrants the fact that they definitely deserve consideration, you know.
"It doesn't diminish the fact, I don't think, that week in and week out playing in the ACC or the SEC or the Big 12 is significantly challenging. That's not trying to pass judgment on the depth of any other conference, but those present enormous challenges. And sometimes there might be a one-loss team that might actually be truly better than any of the undefeated teams."
Just as a philosophical question: If they were one of the last two undefeated teams, do you think they would at that point deserve a spot in the title game or would you really look at those one-loss teams?
"Well, again, I think it has to do with the one-loss teams, who did they beat? They may have beaten four or five teams with losing records. I mean, it's hard to speculate until you say, okay, here's the two teams that you're considering. Compare their schedule, compare how they're playing, who they've played and maybe margin of victory.
"There are a lot of things that you would take into consideration as to whether or not you would take an undefeated team just solely because they were undefeated or a one-loss team solely because they played in a particular conference."
On the loss to Miami:
"There were two major factors in that ball game. One is from an offensive perspective -- you never want to turn the football over. And we've talk about that openly and honestly all of the time. A lot of the games that we've won this year and a lot of the games that we've won in the previous two years, if you win the turnover ratio, you have an opportunity to win games. If you turn the ball over, you're really putting yourself [at a disadvantage], especially against good teams. You can turn the ball over two or three times against a team that is absolutely awful and it won't make any difference. The opportunity is to capitalize on field position and opportunities to score. We have been good in the red zone this year. When we had to settle for three points on a field goal and then unfortunately turned the ball over on the catch that was a fumble in the end zone...
"The game changes so dramatically. If you take a 14-3 lead or maybe a 17-3 lead or maybe a 21-3 lead, then how the other team has to play is dramatically changed, and how you play is changed. So the missed opportunities and the things we didn't capitalize on in the first 18-20 minutes of the ball game. And then certainly we didn't play the run as well as we would have liked to. There was some improvement in some of the special teams areas, but there were things that we didn't do well and that's our responsibility this week to try to fix that."
On Miami's fumble on the kickoff return:
"The difference in that particularly play was that the referee on the field blew the play dead. And as soon as the official on the sidelines blows the play dead, it doesn't matter what happens, the play is over. Whether it's forward progress, whether his knee is down, whether there was a fumble or whatever, once they kill the play on the sidelines, it won't make any difference even if they did turn the football over. Then you have no opportunity. You can waste a challenge and waste a timeout, but all you're going to do is lose a timeout because they are going to come over to the sidelines and say the official blew it dead."
On recruiting a kicker:
"We are actively recruiting a young man right now that has got what we think is a dynamic leg. When you're watching film, they don't just have to kick into the end zone, they've got to kick it out of the end zone, two or three yards out of the back of the end zone. And then you know it's going to go two or three yards deep in the end zone in college [high schools kick off at the 40-yard-line]. But it's also the hang time. Kids that line drive it can kick it two or three yards deep, but it's only in the air 3.4 seconds and it's coming down faster than your guys can run down the field. So it's a combination of things, but we're in the process of recruiting a young man that we think has a dynamic, explosive leg. He's a good student. The timing would be good to recruit a guy to bring in. He's even talked about maybe coming at mid-term next semester because he knows Casey Barth is going to be the guy for next season. So we're actively looking across the country for guys that can help us in the kicking game."
On Jhay Boyd being shut down lately:
"Part of it is that other guys have got to have success. People recognize that Dwight Jones has had a very, very good year. He's really played well. He's stepped up and made plays. He's scoring touchdowns. You've got to get more productivity out of all of your receivers to take the pressure off of one particular guy. I think coaches are pretty smart guys, present company excluded. But most of them look at the film. Zack Pianalto was our leading receiver and a lot of that was that they were focusing a lot on our wide receivers and not focusing as much on Johnny White and Shaun Draughn in plays out of the backfield, Ryan Taylor, Zack Pianalto and Ed Barham catching balls from the tight end position. Those guys are catching balls and if they start having success and start hurting people, it will open some of those outside guys up even more."
On Kendric Burney's return:
"It's good. It's good for the football team. It's good for Kendric Burney. He's a good kid. It has been torturous for him to go out to practice every single day for the last seven ball games and to have to watch everybody and not be able to go out there. This is a kid that's been a four-year starter for this football program. He's three hours away from graduating and he wants so desperately to join his teammates and help, so it's good to get him back."
On Allen Mogridge and how he's done in his new role as recruiting coordinator:
"He's done outstanding... You can't find anybody that's got more passion about North Carolina and the Tar Heels. He loves UNC. His roots are deep. He lived here, he played here and he graduated from here. He's got such a charismatic personality that he's going to do an outstanding job. He's been working with the guys that are on the staff, Marcus Berry and the guys that work in player development, working on getting transcripts and getting film in.
"One thing is that we've probably got 15-16 solid commitments and we've probably got two or three that are going to announce here in the next two or three weeks. We've got a lot of official visits this weekend. I think we've got four players with their families coming in to visit this weekend... Allen's got his plate full, but he's doing an excellent job."
On January enrollees:
"I think we have nine opportunities to have players come at mid-term, and right now, we've got six of those slots filled with guys that have committed. They've already taken their official visits for games earlier this year. They're scheduled to enroll and they're going to be here."
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'Butch Davis Live' airs Wednesday evenings on Tar Heel Sports Network affiliates.
