John Bunting Quotes (61 Quotes)

There are things we can build on and have a really good football team, ... The kids coming back on the plane last night - there were no heads down. I think they were proud of their effort. They knew they were in the ballgame until the very end, that they had a chance to win. I think they'll be an easy group to rally to get ready to play an unbelievably good Wisconsin team.

Then Frank becomes the coordinator at Fresno, and I watch what's going on up there. I see points on the board. I see things in his offense I want.

I thought at one point maybe they'd run out of fireworks, ... That's a big number and basically, I'm just numb.

There's no doubt Bobby Bowden brought it to the league. He brought it to the entire country.

If I seem a little goofier to you next year, you'll understand why.

a giant M.O. -- missed opportunity.

We have put an awful lot of emphasis on kickoff coverage and we are not satisfied with that right now. We have to continue to work on that part of our game because we were the worst in the country last year.

There is a buzz about our program right now. A lot of good things have happened during the spring, and now what has to happen is our guys need to take charge and make things happen.

What you don't want is somebody running up the back of an offensive lineman. We had that happen a couple of times.

I think it's also important for our offensive line to finish blocks. We're still searching for consistency. We've got to finish blocks better and that includes wide receivers that are involved in the run game. And our runners have to continue to get better in terms of their vision in seeing things.

That team absolutely took us apart in the second half, ... We'll be playing against a team that is very, very capable of blowing anybody out.

That was one grand M.O. -- missed opportunity. We have to do a much better job of finishing the job.

It's a giant concern, ... He has not gone through a training camp. It's not just a concern for his shoulder it's overall. We can't simulate that in practice. If we put him in there as a scout back, we could hit him and simulate it, but I'm not going to do that to him. We'll save that for the game.

They won the job, earned the position through their play in training camp.

I want to build upon the recruiting success we had last year, and Dave Brock is the best person to lead our staff. His style and work ethic made quite an impression during his first season and he brings fresh ideas that will only improve our recruiting efforts both locally in North Carolina and nationally.

I really don't know (what happened). I was not down there. So I can't give you any specifics. I'll say this No games are won or lost in pre-game.

We got to continue to teach them to not use their head as a battering ram.

That's the lowest rushing total we've allowed in a long, long time, ... We had more tackles-for-loss on first and second down than we've had in a long, long time. We did a good job disrupting the run and blowing up some plays.

I got turned down once, and I decided I'd wait a couple of weeks and ask him again and got turned down a second time, ... It reminds me of my girlfriends I used to have.

We wasted a pretty good defensive performance best one we've had around here in a long time.

Coach John Bunting estimated one or two players lined up out of position on about half the Tar Heels' defensive snaps in Saturday's 69-14 loss. They took advantage of a lot of mistakes we made on defense, ... They made some big plays, and obviously we made some turnovers, too.

Nobody's taking him out, so I don't expect to take him out, either. You hope to slow him down. People will devise different ways to try to slow him down, either by getting up and pressing him, bumping him or double-teaming him or this, that and the other.

That's a big number. I'm basically just numb.

After meeting with him, there was no question in my mind. I thought that was the direction I wanted to go. That was sometime right before Christmas, and then it was just a matter of working out some details.

As I said to the team, that's one giant M.O. -missed opportunity,

Other than Dick Vermeil and my family, no one has been a bigger influence on my life than Bill Dooley. I am hopeful that his toughness and the love pouring in from all those he touched will pull him through. I was with him on Monday when this first occurred, and I have stayed in touch with the family throughout the week. Coach Dooley has done so much for college football, and I ask everyone to keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

They just started blitzing the crap out of us, ... That's to their credit. They were willing to take that chance.

We are aware of the situation. We will continue to monitor the situation and make any judgments about disciplinary matters when we are comfortable that we know all of the facts involved.

I meet with them every single day, ... So if I seem a little goofier next year, you'll understand why.

I'll never forget the fact that he was in our locker room after that game, ... Never. That's a highlight of my life. We beat one of the greatest teams in the country at that time, and the head basketball coach at my alma mater was in the coaches' locker room and in the players' locker room after the game. It doesn't get any better than that for me.

These quarterbacks that are going to be competing throughout summer camp and there's no way to know how it will work out. It's fun to see that competition and see them both getting better. Both guys can operate in the pocket and outside the pocket. The only difference is that Joe has been under center 11 times before (at Nebraska).

What people have done is try to be patient, and then they try to go after it and then they get burned, particularly when there's no safety in the middle of the field. People that have blitzed with six- and seven-man pressures have gotten in trouble by being overly aggressive.

Obviously when you get into the season, the fans are taking it one game at a time, too. But all of a sudden, here it is. Here it is.

For the first game out as a starter, I like what I saw. You see what kind of arm he had, and you see how he can fit balls in there. He had three interceptions that will drag his passing efficiency down, but I like the guts of the kid. I think he can play. But he has to do a better job of organizing and managing the offense out there, too, and he know that, and I hope he does that next week.

We've got a schedule that makes sense. We have marquee teams on the schedule. It's one I think is very workable and one our players will enjoy, our fans will enjoy. It allows us to compete in the ACC and have a chance to win some non-conference games, but at the same time challenge our program and go to some places with great football tradition.

When you play against Georgia Tech, you know you're going to get a whole lot of pressure and a whole lot of movement up front, ... And you've got to do a good job. It's hard to simulate that in practice. What you've got to do is hurt them. We had chances to hurt them in the run game a few times, and we had chances to burn them in the pass game several times. Many times we capitalized sometimes we didn't.

That game was fierce, ... The most noteworthy thing in my book was how incredibly hard Georgia Tech played in every aspect of the game. We've got to take care of our business and try to play a little bit like the way they played force the issue, make some plays and don't turn the ball over.

Frank has a proven record as one of the top offensive minds in the country and is the absolute best fit for the North Carolina football program.

To me playing the game is what's most important. We don't have the luxury of playing four preseason games. We don't have the luxury of playing 16 games. We've got 11 games to get it done. Right now my focus, obviously, is that this is game week, and we're all excited about that.

We've seen some strange things happen at the end. This time around doesn't guarantee anything in the future, but this time around we didn't have any strange things happen.

You know, it makes me laugh because I've got two great kids out there holding and kicking, and I think they went out there and thought they had all day -- like it was in practice, ... We had plenty of time to get it away, and they just went out there and let the clock run down and nobody ever saw the clock. I guess I'll take responsibility for that for not teaching those guys to look at the clock.

We had two runners out there that hadn't played football at the (NCAA) Division I level in a long time, ... One never and the other one hadn't played in two years. So that's probably going to take some live action to get into the flow of things.

You can't have one, two or three of those a year and expect to have a successful season, ... so if we have an opportunity like that again, we have got to do a much better job finishing the job.

There's no way of telling how it will all work out, but it's just fun to see that competition and see them both getting better.

I thought the first half was rather exciting. I saw some great things out there with our running game, which is what I wanted to see.

You get an opportunity defensively at third-and-long, third-and-5, second-and-20, and you let them stay on the field ... You're not going to win many ballgames that way. We've got to get a heck of a lot better at that.

I thought at one point maybe they would run out of fireworks.

I watched what's going on (at Fresno State). I see points on the board. ... The energy and enthusiasm and passion for the game that he as is similar to mine.

The only thing that was really disappointing to me was the penalties, after watching the tape again. I was really disappointed about that coming off the field and still am angry about that. But other than that, I thought we got a lot done.

There's no doubt in my mind that we can get that done. We've got good enough players to get that done.