PI AUDIO: SCOTTIE MONTGOMERY UNC WEEK PRESS CONFERENCE

(Press conference quotes courtesy of ECU Media Relations)

GREENVILLE, N.C. – Third-year ECU Head Football Coach Scottie Montgomery addressed members of the media on Monday prior to the North Carolina game. The following are selected comments:

Opening Statement

“Very unfortunate start to the season. It comes directly back to me and everything we did not get done. I thought the difference in the football game where the two turnovers in the red zone and the two critical third downs that we gave up (3rd and 13, 3rd and 18) from our defense. I thought our defense played much better than they played last year.

“There were some bright spots on offense. I thought when we got to the red zone, we did what we couldn’t do which was turn the football over. You can’t turn the football over in the red zone. That was our biggest critical error of the game. I’ve got to get our team to understand how to win football games. We were in situations to where I thought we executed at a high level on certain drives. I thought our quarterback played at a certain level on certain drives and then when in critical time when we needed to make plays in the red zone, we did not make them. Meaning I didn’t put them in a position to make them. Defensively, I didn’t put our defense in good situations at times to give them a better opportunity to make plays.

“At the end of the day, it comes directly back to me, the way that we performed. We will get better. We have a big week ahead of us and that’s where we’re going. As tough as it was for us to lose that football game, we lost the football game together. I thought that we were 100-percent ready to play, there’s no question about it. We had a great week of preparation. Nothing that happened on Saturday night changed anything to moving it to Sunday. It was just we did not go out and execute the way we needed to execute to win the game.”

On North Carolina:

“Moving forward, I thought the North Carolina-Cal game was pretty similar to some of the things that we went through. They (UNC) were in situations where they could have won that football game a lot of different ways. Turnovers hurt them. I thought they really outplayed Cal and they outgained them offensively. They did a really good job in their secondary, both teams but mainly North Carolina. This is going to be a tough opponent for us and we’re looking forward to the challenge because they are the Tar Heels. We need to come out and play a lot better than we’ve played in recent history. With the man coverage they put on Cal, they put a lot of stress and pressure on the quarterback position. The flipside of it is, UNC has really great backs. I thought the receiver, No. 17 (Anthony Ratliff-Williams) is a really tough cover. All in all, it was a very tough game for them to lose, as it was for us. I’m sure that they will grow between game one and game two, as we will. We will see a lot of differences from both teams moving forward.”

On This Week’s Schedule:

“We have to stay on the schedule through NCAA rules to make sure guys get a day off. So, our guys will have today off. We need that day so that we can prepare as much as we can. We will get back on the normal week schedule tomorrow morning.”

On Quarterback Needing To Rush And Carry Out Fakes:

“Those are the things we need to correct. I’ll correct that with Reid (Herring). Apparently, we didn’t do a good enough job going into the game, of making him understand the need of using his legs. That’s something we need to do. I think that’s all on coaching.”

On This Game Being The Most Important Of His Coaching Career:

“Yes, there’s no question about it. We’re not going to run from it. What we did was lose to a team that was a good football team. I’ll give North Carolina A&T all the credit in the world. They’ve won a lot of football games in a row, they have a quarterback that has won a lot of football games in a row, coaches that have been around a lot of winning. They know how to win. Right now, we’re both in a similar situation, both us and UNC. Everybody is going to direct their attention to this football game and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. Every single coach that you ask, the game that they’re coaching is the most critical one of their careers. But this one, for all of the reasons that are connected to it, is very critical for our career.”

On The Critical Plays In Saturday’s Loss:

“The most critical play of the game was us not having Reid ready to make the play where Blake Proehl was open in the flat. We never pass up open flats here. We just don’t do that. It worked out the way that it was drawn up, but I didn’t have him ready. I didn’t have him ready to create that play down there by the end zone. That was the most critical play. There were some plays here and there, the 3rd and 13 and 3rd and 18, by our defense. We just had to keep an edge on defense. All in all, our defense played much better, much hard, much more physical. On our defensive front, Nate Harvey played an exceptional game. We’re playing better on defense. Now the critical errors of us getting certain people prepared and ready to play games better. We can’t have eight, nine or 10 guys be right, 11 guys need to be right. I have to do a better job of that.”

On Reid Herring’s Status:

“We got him hit too many times in that game. We need to strain a little bit more on the offensive line. It wasn’t sacks, it was late hits. It wasn’t illegal late hits, it was just late hits that leaked on him. He should be fine. I saw him this morning and he was in good spirits. Hopefully we will be able to get a chance to see where he’s at. You never know how banged up they are until we get to the practice week. So, we’ll revaluate him in practice week. He finished the game, but he got hit way too many times, which probably had an effect on him mentally, on running the football.”

On Changes In Practice Preparation:

“The first thing we’ll do in practice, is we have to get to a point where we give them more winning and losing critical situations in games. We do two-minute drills every week, but we have to put our team in situations where we see good-on-good offense and defense. We’ll see much more of that this week along with 3rd and 15’s, 4th and goal to win. More situations than you would normally have to give a team, but that’s where we are right now. We’re going to have to play less football out in the field and more critical situations. As far as the game is concerned, I trust our coaches and our coaching staffs more than anything. I have complete trust in David Blackwell, Kirk Doll and Tony Peterson to get it done. The preparation happens during the week. What happened during the game is more connected to what we did or didn’t do to prepare. That’s on me. I put together the game plan, I put together the practice plan. So, the one thing that I know that we have to do now is put our guys in a ton of game-winning situations. With three day work weeks in college football becomes hard, but that’s what we have to do. We’re going to have to play a lot more football in critical situations.”

On Shorter Leash At The Quarterback Position:

“We haven’t gotten to a point where we’re talking about shorter leashes. A lot of the things that happened to Reid during the game had a lot to do with a lot of people, on the sideline and on the field. Before we start shortening the leash on our quarterback, I think we need to direct some of the attention to the people who were responsible for putting him out there, for protecting him, catching some balls and running the ball. I really think we need to do a good job of that. We can’t fret. Coming out of training camp, one of the things we saw was that there was a remarkable difference between Reid Herring and our other two quarterbacks. We can’t think that just because we’re going to put a new person in there, everything is going to change. We need to base it off production. Right now, Reid has produced more in practice, more in scrimmages and more over the last eight to nine months than the other two. We will use some different things to get better in the run game. I was very disappointed I had to go for it on fourth down as much as I did. You just don’t want to do it as a head coach, you don’t want to do it to your defense. I would have also liked to have converted some of those third and shorts. If we had converted some of those, we would have a really good percentage in third downs. We have to do a better job of that.”

On Players Trying To Do Too Much To Win:

“Last week, I think that’s what you saw. It was a lot of tightness as we continued to go throughout the game. These kids love this staff, these kids love me and I love these kids. They felt the pressure of needing to perform. I think it was good that we understand, all that pressure that mounts and becoming tight, it does nothing. It does nothing at all. What we’re going to do, is preach going out and executing the game plan and do what you can do to make sure we’re successful. Don’t worry about the other things that come with being in some of those situations. We had some young guys in critical situations that didn’t play like it was their first time. We had some young guys that played extremely well. We’ve got to get everybody to do that.”

On Preventing Players From Tightening Up In Big Moments:

“The first thing I’m going to do tomorrow morning, is go in here and accept responsibility for what happened. As soon as they understand that I’m accepting responsibility, it will give them a pathway and a light to accept some responsibility. We don’t point fingers. It’s part of who we are as Pirates, we’re not going to point the blame. I’ll take it. Because that’s where it belongs. Our kids will feel much better when they go in because I’m not going to allow our coaching staff to walk in and place the blame. Everything that happened out there is directly connected to me.”

On Status Of Darius Pinnix:

“I would like to see him in the backfield more and see him carry the football a little bit more (on Sunday). I would have liked to have seen rotation a little bit more in our backfield. At the end of the game, it was not where it should have been. So, you can look to see Darius Pinnix a little bit more.”

On The Rivalry With North Carolina From Your Perspective:

“It’s the same word. There is no difference. I want to win this football game the same way I’ve always wanted to win when I’ve gone against them. Every time the word is brought up, it’s the same deal.”

On The Way The Offensive Line Performed:

“We didn’t do well with twist. We didn’t do well with smaller, quicker people on the twist coming from a long distance away. I thought the guy that played the best up front was John Spellacy. I’ll talk about the guys that played the best.”