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BUTCH DAVIS
Listen to Audio (10:19)
Opening remarks:
“Certainly through last season’s 12 games and this season’s eight games,
today was probably the most complete team game we have played. It was going
to take a pretty balanced performance and every single phase was going to
have to step up and help make some plays. We have a tremendous amount of respect
for Boston College. They are a massive, powerful team up front. It’s very
difficult to move those guys. We just felt like offensively we were going to have
to have some success throwing the football and defensively we needed to play
good pass defense.
“Chris Crane is a talented running back. He had success throwing the ball well against Virginia Tech and all of the other teams that they have played thus far. And a big part of that was not letting it become a two-dimensional game defensively, [not letting] them get a lot of success in the running game where we could really focus on the underneath coverage in the secondary and doing a good job of jamming, re-routing and being in the right places and being disciplined…
“But [we had to do] all the things you have to do to win games playing well on
special teams, making some plays, putting some pressure on the punter,
winning the turnover ratio [and] getting the interceptions. I don’t know what
you can say about Trimane Goddard’s and Kendric Burney’s interceptions
today. Those were just huge, huge plays. They flipped the field positions
and gave us some cheap and easy points and made them play the game one
dimensionally. There is not really an area where their performance wasn’t
important in the football game.”
On overcoming the early 10-0 deficit:
“This goes back to some of the things we do before the season starts. We’ve
laid the foundation that games are not won or lost in the first three or
four minutes. You have to persevere. It was unfortunate. Cam [Sexton] got
sacked, we missed an audible on a protection and the ball comes out and they
run it in for a touchdown. But we never felt like we didn’t have a grasp or
a feeling of what we wanted to do. We needed guys to stay positive and keep
chipping away and our guys believed in that philosophy.”
On Nicks’ performance:
“I’m not an English major, but I think ‘fantastic’ would maybe describe it. He is one of the unique, special guys I have seen that the bigger the moment, the bigger the stage the better he plays. He is such a fierce warrior. He just catches the ball so well. He
has got great concentration. There are a lot of guys who can catch the ball
on the perimeter. But if you watch over his three-year career there are
balls that he has to catch where there are safeties and middle linebackers
over the middle and his run after the catch is extremely strong. He is just
a very good football player.”
On Brooks Foster:
“Brooks stepped up today with seven catches. That was extremely
important today. As Greg Little gets more familiar we’ll slowly grow back
into being pretty dangerous with three wide receivers on the field.”
On Sexton:
“I hate that he felt like he got off to a bad start because he can only do so
much. All you can do is take the snap and throw, you can’t protect as well.
His pocket awareness is getting better every single week. Certainly the
scramble that completed to Brooks for the first down was a huge play.
"The
huge big play for the touchdown to Hakeem just showed great awareness
because he trusted the offensive line enough, he knew they were in a 3-man
rush, bought some time, stepped in there and threw the long touchdown pass.
I just think that shows growth on his part.”
HAKEEM NICKS
Listen to Audio (4:26)
On playing big since Brandon Tate’s injury:
"I wouldn't say I put more pressure on myself. I just knew I had to step up and contribute the best way possible. Any time they called on my name, I just felt like I had to make a play."
On Foster’s downfield block on his third touchdown:
"It was real big. I told him, if it wasn't for that block I probably wouldn't have seen the cutback. But he did a good job down the field at clearing out and I came through. That's a traditional play, as we call it, and I just had to make a big play."
On the last drive of the first half:
"We were calm. I went to Coach Davis on the sideline and said `We are going to go for the touchdown, right?' And he looks back at me and said `Shoot, yeah.' And I felt like I just had to make a play. I knew they were going to call on me and just did what I do. I just felt like it was going to happen, there was nothing urgent about it."
CAM SEXTON
Listen to Audio (2:46)
On Nicks:
“That kid is unbelievable. Hakeem and I have always had kind of a special bond, and I just know I have to get him the ball. I think he's got a pretty good idea that he's going to get it. Like I've said all year, and I'll say it through my entire career here - all I got to be is the middle man and just be efficient and not make mistakes [and] get those guys the ball. Those three touchdowns, maybe on one of them I worked the pocket pretty good, but other than that it was all Hakeem."
Did the game plan change after Boston College jumped on top 10-0?
“No, absolutely not. The only thing we do is bounce from sections of the game plan to sections of the game plan. We had answers to what we thought they were going to do, and of course, every week we see something a little different. They brought a couple of things different, but we did a good job of picking it up.”
TRIMANE GODDARD
Listen to Audio (1:32)
On UNC’s 17 interceptions on the season:
"We always believe we can get a hand on the ball, no matter what point it is in the game. We practice trying to get our hands on the ball and we try to carry that over into the game."
On the defensive performance:
"We wanted to come out and play a complete game because last time, we played good the whole game except that last drive. That's been bothering us throughout the week. So we just practiced real hard and came out and tried to play a complete game."