North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State and Virginia Coaches' Quotes
11/16/2000 12:00:00 AM | Football
Do you believe in charmed seasons?
We are living one. You want to call it charmed. You want to call it
blessed or whatever you want to call it. You take two games out of
those
nine games we played, one where we won big and one when we got whacked,
and the rest of them you throw in the hat and it is like playing
pill-pool. Our average time per game is not 60 minutes, it's 64 minutes.
To have a good season you have to have luck and you have to win the
close
games. We've had a lot of fortune. We have luck because we have a kid who
does not shave yet has been performing very admirably. We have won close
games and we have lost some. We could be worse or we could be better. We are
happy to be where we are at.
On Duke
I tip my hat to them. They came over on a kamikaze mission. They get
stopped. They punt. They score, they did what they had to do to win the
football game. We don't score touchdowns in the red zone unless its
overtime. That is why I called time out because I wanted to tell them it
was overtime. We get it down there (in the first quarter), it's first and
goal on the 8 and then
second and goal. We still end up kicking a field goal. We wanted to keep
people in suspense.
On Virginia scoring only 20 points in the last three games and is Ellis
healthy?
That does not mean anything. Duke had only scored 17 or something points
in the first half and they scored 21 points against us. But on to Ellis,
he was held out of the Florida State game. I don't see anything. A
hamstring does not get completely well. He is their leader. He does a
good job of throwing the football and gets the football to the right
people. It's a typical Virginia team. They are big and strong up front.
They have a plethora of tailbacks. They have tough, hard-nosed running
backs, like they always do. You know what we have to stop to get them to
do the other thing.
On not being on TV
I like being on television. It gives us exposure. We can tell youung men
who we are recuiting that we were on TV seven times. A lot has to do
with
the excitement of having a young quarterback and having new players. It
is out of my hands. We just go with the flow. We would like to be, but
we
will go out at 2:30 and play. I am surprised no one else picked it up.
There is a lot riding on this game. These are two good football teams
going after each other. However, it is not my decision. Mine is, who is
going to play tight end and who is going to start tackling better.
What is Philip Rivers' schedule this week
He is practicing. He had his week of rest. He came through the game. He
is 95 percent. We can count the number of passes he throws. Maybe his
injury was not as bad as we thought. He had a slight separation in high
school so it could have been that. He gave us all a big scare., but like
I said he survived the game and he put up the best numbers he had all
season.
VIRGINIA HEAD COACH GEORGE WELSH
On Virginia's offensive production against Georgia Tech:
Well, we're a couple of inches off. When you are a couple of inches off
in
this game, it's not a game of inches anymore, it is a game of
half-inches
and then you're a mile off. Passes are not accurate, and when they are
accurate we have dropped some, we've fumbled. We've had guys open and
when
he was ready to throw the ball the pass protection breaks down. One of
those in the first half, they blow a coverage and we have our wide-outs
running down the field and there is nobody there. They are 15 yards
behind
everybody, but we don't get the ball off. We get sacked. Those are the
kinds of things that happened in that game. It was just one of those
where
everything went wrong.
On how his team will bounce back from loss:
There is always a concern. I told them yesterday that we bounced back
from
the Clemson loss and we bounced back from the Florida State loss and I
expect us to do the same. There is no question that our backs are to the
wall just like we were some other years here. We have to win the last
couple to have a good season.
On his team's continuity of play:
We shouldn't have regressed this much. We've definitely regressed. We
have
to get it back. Maybe some of it is mental with everybody trying to make
big plays instead of playing our game. When we finished, the staff
watched
the tape and graded it Friday afternoon. Then we said let's see what's
the
difference from when we were playing Maryland. There just seems to be a
big
difference in the way we were playing now than when you look at the
offense
against Maryland-there is a difference. The execution was much better,
the
timing was better, we were catching the ball, we're not doing that now.
Whether the defenses are that much better lately, it might be.
Comparing NC State's play from this year to last year:
It's a different offense. It's not that much different on defense. There
is
a different coordinator, but it is still a 4-3 defense. It's tilted more
toward the way Florida State plays. Offensively it is entirely
different.
It is different now that I've seen it, and I haven't seen all of it
yet, but it's the BYU concept in some ways, but there is more variety by
far.
On NC State quarterback Phillip Rivers:
They do a lot of quick stuff so he doesn't get sacked. They can go the
other way too. If you have a good pass rush on him and he is having
trouble
getting the ball off then they are going to go to the quick stuff. They
are
going to screen and dump and go quick. If he can go back there and wait
three seconds for those 15-yard routes to develop they'll do that too.
