Oct. 2, 2005
Q. Tell us your thoughts on the game coach.
A. Well, we overcame a lot of mistakes and a lot of penalties. It's a credit to our kids that they found a way to win. They had all the momentum when they scored and got the two-point conversion. Lamar made a big play for us on the option to cut back and get us down there and we were able to knock it in. I was actually a little disappointed that we got it in on the first play. I was hoping to get it in on the second or third play, but you have to take it when you can get it.
Q. What about the penalties? I saw you run towards the officials after the game. I don't imagine you were telling them "good luck in the future."
A. I was just telling them what a great job I thought they did. We will look at the tape and see, but any time it's that one-sided, I mean I know we've been off three weeks but they were calling motion penalties on our slot backs for changing their stance. They said they were simulating the play, yet their whole left side of the line does a hitch on every play. Holding, tackling guys, I mean I saw the replay on the one they called on Reggie Campbell, holding on the reverse that we ran down to the four, that was ridiculous. Any time we hit a big play it was coming back. Then we score, and Lamar needs to know better than to jump up and down, but who is going to call that in a game with a minute to go and you just scored to win the game. The kid scored the go-ahead touchdown and is excited and jumps up and down and now you're going to give them another chance because you're going to make us kickoff at the 20. Then, on top of that, on the extra-point they have two guys behind the line pushing the down linemen through the block, which everybody knows is against the rules.
Q. Were those ACC officials?
A. What do you think?
Q. I thought the road team was responsible for the officials?
A. We use the ACC
Q. Can you file a complaint?
A. We will send the tape in and Tommy (Hunt, ACC supervisor of officials) can watch it. If he sees anything I'm sure he will fix it. I'm just disappointed it was.....I thought our guys played hard. They fought.
Q. Lots of big plays today.
A. That's kind of the way we've played. We've had a hard time, it's a different team, we've had a hard time of being consistent, but we have hit some big plays. To Duke's credit, they ran us down. We got in the open field a bunch and they ran us down.
Q. They moved the ball pretty well against you at times.
A. Yeah, the first half was really disappointing the way they ran the ball. I thought we did better in the second half against the run. The first half was disappointing.
Q. They controlled the time of possession?
A. I know that. On one drive they ate up the whole second quarter. We had the ball four times in the first half. In the second half we played better defensively. The good thing is in the first half on defense we weren't giving up points. We didn't give up big plays.
Q. Is this one of those games that after being off 21 days and having exam week this week that you are just happy to get out of here with a win?
A. I'll tell you what, this game was so eerie, it reminded me of last year's Tulane game. We had no energy. You try to fight them, you try to challenge them, but you have to give our guys credit. They found a way to summon up enough energy in the second half to win the game. We just looked slow. One time in the first half we caught them in a blitz and hit the screen and there is nobody from Duke on that side of the field and we make eight yards. It just didn't look like we were playing very fast.
Q. Obviously you didn't need to use Hampton. Lamar probably wasn't out there long enough to get cramps.
A. Not today he wasn't.
Q. Obviously you found something there with Karlos as a kick returner.
A. Yeah, Karlos is a really good football player. He's hard to tackle. He really hit it up in there on those kickoff returns. He looked like he was going to break out of there on a couple of those. That's a real positive. We got ourselves good field position several times.
Q. The coverage was good today as well.
A. It was much better. Joey kicked the ball much better. It was huge to cover the last one (kicking from the 20) he kicked the ball down to about the 12 and we tackled them on the 34. That was big. We made them have to go the whole field.
Q. Is that the first time you used Whittaker on kickoff return?
A. He's been working there, but I'm not sure if he had done it in a game before today.
Q. You weren't tempted to take Lamar out at all today were you?
A. No. He was fine. We were going to play it by ear. In the first half we only had the ball four times and ran 25 plays.
Q. Did you think the offensive line did a good job? On those big plays obviously they must have been doing something right?
A. Yeah, when you hit a big play like that I'm sure when you look at the tape that there were some guys that got cut off. On Hall's long run he cut it behind the nose and we got a good block from I think Pritchett. They were running and chasing so hard I thought like I could hit them with a reverse and then we got them with a little counter play twice.
Q. That was a new little wrinkle wasn't it?
A. Yeah, we hadn't run that before.
Q. Coach, was your heart in your throat on that last measurement on Duke's last drive?
A. Two things on the measurement. One, I saw the ball come out when the back jumped. They replayed it on the board and the ball clearly came out so it was a fumble. I think they are supposed to have replay in this league aren't they? Somebody told me that at least. I guess they didn't replay one play. The second thing is when they measured the thing I've never seen an official in 26 years take the stick and push it back towards the ball. I mean he pulled the chain and he couldn't decide if it was a first down or not, because it was really close, and he takes the stick and pushes it back. It was like, "I'm going to pull the chain this way and push the stick back this way so it can touch the ball." It didn't matter. We still won.
