North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State and Virginia Coaches Quotes
10/24/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 24, 2001
Virginia Head Coach Al Groh
On Florida State's depth as a team: "Just confirms, I think, what the record speaks of and what we all know. They've been harvesting great players there for a long time. As long as you've got 85 scholarships you have depth. But there's [a difference between] playable depth and depth. They obviously have playable depth. And that is of course the way those teams have been developed [at Florida State] over the years. They are well known for, even in the biggest of games, having young players take their turn in the big game, not a majority of them. And then when they become junior and senior players, they take a majority of the turns, but they've been in the games early."
On the importance of speed at Florida State and in general on a football team: "I have a strong appreciation for the importance of speed on the football field. You can make fast guys get a little faster, but you don't make guys that aren't fast get fast. If you want to be fast, recruit fast guys. If you want to be big, recruit big guys. If you want to be tough, then you recruit guys who have shown to be physically tough guys. You're not going to bring in a soft player and make him a tough guy, etc. A program that has been in the national championship game three years in a row allows them to be pretty selective. If they say 'we only want a certain type of player at the position,' then they can turn away from that player and move on until they find him. And then they feel they could fair pretty well in the odds of getting that player. If you don't have [speed], there is no way to compensate for it [on the field]."
On the cornerback position: "I think corner is one of the positions where players have to be the most instinctive. It doesn't minimize the teaching aspect of it but I think most of the top corners are pretty instinctive, all-skill wise, and good at sorting things out on the run. A lot of corners come from high school as safeties, wide-receivers, and some as running-backs. If your not rich in corners, then that is your biggest concern every week, not only in terms of coverage but corners have to become very important for the run [defense]."
On Philip Rivers, N.C. State's quarterback: "He is fun to watch. He's a sharp operator. I am very impressed with him. He's got a very quick delivery, he's quick in making decisions. He's got an unusual delivery, but that aids him in having a quick delivery. I don't know which one was the catalyst, and I can see where he grew up under the tutelage of a coach. I am sure he was groomed for a long time to play the position, maybe he was taught a certain way or maybe it happened naturally. But, regardless, the way that he throws the ball really gives him an advantage. He really gets it out of there right away. He makes quick decisions and he is very accurate. So he is clearly the guy who drives the operation. He also has the lowest interception ratio in the league."
On competitively tough players, such as Billy McMullen, Angelo Crowell, and Tyree Foreman: "I think one of those kind of guys are special on any team. And if they weren't, then everybody would be like that. When you try to put your team together, if you want to have a particular team, you get those kind of guys. If you want to have a competitively tough team, then put guys that perform in the big games on your team. How do you find out? Go through their background. I think those guys are special guys. That everybody isn't that way doesn't necessarily mark that person as being deficient. If this type of competitiveness were not a special quality, just like speed is a special quality, then everyone would have it. I think [Philip Rivers] has it. It is very apparent when you watch him play. I am very impressed with how he conducts the game and his competitive nature."
On Virginia's morale as a team: "Every week you think about your team and what the team needs, and that is more than the scheme you're going to run. And that's part of the job of being the head coach and part of the job of being the position coach-what do some of the guys in your position need. What does the team need to be told? There are some players whose confidence can be pretty good as a result of the game on Saturday night. They have to know that their confidence should be pretty good because they stacked up pretty well against some pretty good players. There are certain players whose confidence may be flustered as a result. So, I don't think you can put a blanket out there that can cover every single player."
On UVa's passing offense: "I did not anticipate [using the pass more] one way or the other coming in. How the games go have an effect on that. We've thrown the ball pretty effectively on occasions, sometimes better than running it. So, whether it is the players that we use or the schemes that we employ, we try to go about every game as we perceive for that week will give us the best chance to win. And if I thought the best chance to win, under the match-ups that we're dealing with, be the old tried-and-true formula of run the ball 60 times a game, play a really good rock-rib defense, and have really good special teams, then we would play that way. But, we have to be a little bit more creative in some match-ups."
NC State Head Coach Chuck Amato
On Virginia:"They run a million formations and they line-up properly in all of them. They motion here and there and spread it out. There's no question he's (Womack) a big loss for them, because he is a man. They have a big strong offensive line and they settled in on a quarterback and they have a wide receiver that is a go to man. He's tall and big, and they go to him."
On matching up with them as a team: "You look at some of these things and you can't ask for a more even game. We're last in the conference in rushing, and they're second to last. We're second in the conference in passing, and they're third. They're are so many similarities in these two teams statistically."
On players reading stuff in the media:"They're young kids and I tell them not to believe what you read in the paper but they do. They turn the internet on and sooner or later you will find something that will make you feel bad about yourself.
On DE Terrance Chapman:"I believe Terrance Chapman played 12-15 plays and he probably shouldn't have played that many. On really only two plays was he the Terrence Chapman of the first game were you could see his quickness and his athletic ability and the rest of the plays you saw a guy limping on that foot. "
On the JUCO players:"I said it may be one game or 14 games, but probably 6 or 7 games for theseyoungsters really get into the flow of knowing how to play hard every play, how to use their ability, and knowing what the terminology means as opposed to what they would call it at junior college. Shawn Price is a perfect example of that because he has come every week, played a little more, gotten a little better, and gotten more confidence in himself. Confidence is so very important and the other two have been injured. They haven't been able to get themselves into the flow of it."
On "Playing Well Enough to Win":"I think that on those given days we've had opportunities but the bottom line is we lost and when you lose to a team the bottom line is that team is better than you."
On losing two straight home games:"We not only owe it to us, we owe it to our fans and we owe it to this university and we need to win one at home. Win one for the Gipper."
