Sept. 6, 2005
– When you give P.J. Daniels a handoff from the shotgun formation instead of a regular handoff, does he make his reads differently and does he have more time to make his reads?
“It is different but there isn’t more or less time in regards to making reads. They come close to timing out pretty well and that’s why you can run similar plays from both sets. The difference is obviously the angle where he has his shoulders square and heading downhill as opposed to skating sideways until he sees the crease that he wants to take.”
When and why did you decide that you had to change some of the blocking schemes on offense?
“I basically looked at who we would probably have at spring practice.
Last year, we were stronger, more physical and experienced while this year, we have a lot of athletic talent and as a result, we decided to use a few more schemes. It’s more of assignment football rather than having to read everything that the defense might throw at you. The one thing that was amazing was that Auburn had not shown much stunning and North Carolina probably will. Our guys made the adjustment the other night and that was very impressive to me.”
Can you talk about (Eric) Henderson and his range of emotions from this past week (regarding Hurricane Katrina)?
“First of all, I think Eric has handled this entire situation very well. He stayed focused on what he had to do here, but on the other hand, his heart wasn’t here. That’s tough for a guy who cares about his team and his family. Where do you draw the line regarding who gets how much attention? It can’t be easy, and as much as I would like to empathize, all I can do is sympathize with him.”
Can you talk about the advantages of having a game under your belt as opposed to having a team like North Carolina who will be playing their season opener this weekend?
“I think you can see both sides. There are some things that we gained by seeing some of our younger players on the field this past Saturday which helped us to see where some our problems are. The disadvantage is that we don’t necessarily know what they’re going to do, but they have a good idea of what we’re going to do. There will be a game of cat and mouse at the beginning of this game, much like there was at last week’s game.”
How was North Carolina able to run the ball so effectively against you last year, and was any of it due to losing Eric Henderson?
“In a very simplified term, we lost containment. Losing Eric certainly was a part of why they ran so well against us. If you take an All-Conference player off the field, it definitely hurts you.”
Back to our Offensive line and the blocking changes, did you study another team or is this something you pulled from the past that you had done somewhere else?
“Several of our coaches have run similar schemes but we had not gotten to that point yet. Coach D’Alessandris and I had been together in the World League before and had used a lot of the same schemes. Coach Robinson and I had used it at Dallas so it wasn’t really new to any of us on the coaching side.”
How short-lived are your emotions after a big game like last weekend’s since you obviously don’t have the week off?
“Well, we have the 24-hour rule which has been in effect since I’ve been here. You have to be able to get ready for your next game. I doubt that North Carolina cares what happened to us last weekend, and how good or bad we feel. They are coming down here to win a football game, and we have to prepare ourselves for that.”
Can you compare and contrast our linebackers as opposed to last year’s group?
“That’s very hard to do, but I can talk about this year’s guys.
This group is very athletic, strong, can change directions very well, and they have very good speed as a group. We don’t have the experience that you would like, but with some more games under their belts, that will change.”
P.J. Daniels mentioned that maybe in the past, the 24-hour rule hasn’t always been followed. It seems that this year’s team is more aware of the fact that they must forget about the Auburn game and focus on North Carolina.
“In the past couple of years, I think the seniors have experienced some of the letdowns that have occurred after emotional games and they don’t want it to happen again.”
Are you impressed with some of the depth on the defensive line?
“I want to give a lot of credit to Eric Ciano and our strength and conditioning staff who did a wonderful job of getting our players in great shape and preparing them for training camp and the season. We had a lot of people play on the defensive front and that really helps. Any time you can give your guys rest for a couple of plays and rotate other players in, it will help you out during the course of the game. I really thought that was a positive for us in order to keep some pressure on the quarterback throughout the course of the game.”
In the age of the BCS, is it important for you to be ranked in order to gain some national respect?
“It really is not important to me because as quick as the national exposure comes, it can be gone the next day. There are a lot of games that have to be played, and what really matters is where we are at the end of the season. It’s a long journey and we just have to keep working at improving ourselves and stepping in the right direction.”
What are some of the things that UNC does that might give you headaches or keep you up at night?
“Well, they have 9 returning starters on defense who played well at the end of the year. I think that they have some question marks on offense but they have good receivers and linemen. It will be a challenge for us to play them and to achieve the same mental attitude week in and week out. Not knowing how some of these players like (Matt) Baker will play sometimes worries me more than knowing how they will play. He’s more of a thrower while Darian Durant was a 240-pound fullback who could throw the football. But he can throw, and he’s a good football player.
We don’t know what to expect in some instances and whether their thought process might have changed since last year.”
Was the fourth quarter of last week’s game the difference between having a sophomore quarterback making his first career start as opposed to a player like Reggie (Ball) in regards to decision-making?
“You hope that a guy starting his third year would know defenses better and would not make as many mistakes as a guy who is starting in his first game. Reggie was very much in control, both on the field and on the sideline. That’s one of the steps we have to take in order to get to where we want to be. I told everyone before the season started that I truly believe he will come out and have a very good year this year, but that consistency is the key.”
Do you have any thoughts about the fact that the North Carolina game is the only divisional game that you get to play at home this year?
“There are some things that you can’t control and there’s no point in spending time worrying about them.”
Having just played in one of the great stadiums and environments in college football, how important is it that you have a good crowd at this Saturday’s game?
“I hope that we can have the same Tech fans that we had at Auburn be at our game this weekend. I thought they were great and if we can transplant them throughout our stadium, all you can hope for is that their enthusiasm spreads.”
Does playing a team in your division make it more important than a regular conference game?
“It is definitely more important because not only is it a victory for you, but it’s a loss for them. Playing the teams in your division carries twice as much weight.”
Do you embrace the role of coming into a game as an underdog like you were last week and does that help you motivate your team?
“We won’t be underdogs if we keep winning but I don’t think you can worry about that. You have to play the game with the purpose of being the best team you can be and when you get to that mindset, the rest doesn’t matter. That’s why I constantly tell our players not to worry about the hype and to play to the best of our abilities.”
Is there a benefit to having your entire coaching staff come back this year?
“It definitely helps with our game planning, preparation, communication, and last but not least, recruiting. I certainly wanted the staff intact for this year and I thought that was a very important factor to having a successful season.”
