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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 9, 2013Al GoldenCOACH GOLDEN: We're just trying to get better here.  Taking this week, trying to get better. Haven't really turned our attention to NorthCarolina yet. Just been working on our fundamentals, bringing a lot of young kid as long, and just trying to push improvement, our fundamental improvement in all three units. Q. This is obviously a big week for the twos and threes to step up, as you mentioned on Sunday. I'm curious who has stepped up so far? COACH GOLDEN: We're just evaluating the totality of the week, to be honest with you. Just want to see‑‑ we're giving guys a lot of opportunities. We're doing a lot of competitive, good on good, and just trying to see who can rise to the occasion. Certainly there is a lot of competition. I think it's too early to say who, in fact, has stepped up. But, again, we'll evaluate today's practice here this afternoon and see where we're at by tomorrow. Q. Coach, talk about this week. I know it's another bye week before the trip to NorthCarolina, so what is the game plan for you guys to keep loose for this game next week? COACH GOLDEN: Yeah, we're just focused on individual improvement and really just trying to develop a couple different things in each of the units, offense, defense, and special teams, and most importantly just trying to get everybody better. Everybody pick one or two things that we need to focus on as a position, as an individual player and certainly as a unit. That's our focus. It's very much business like right now. We're just trying to get better. We've been out the last two days and just trying to evaluate our practice here today and see which direction we go tomorrow. Q. In the offense, what player has been the surprising player from camp, and from the spring camp till now, that you're very pleased about seeing on the field. COACH GOLDEN: A surprising player? Q. Yeah, a surprising player. COACH GOLDEN: Yeah, I don't know if it's a surprise. But Crawford is clearly pushing Johnson and is making a big contribution to our offense. He's become very valuable to us. He does a lot of different things for us which is great for him. Q. I wanted to ask you about Stephen Morris. He obviously had a big season last year in terms of numbers. But it seems like in the last three games, especially, his numbers have been out of sight. He's been playing very well. Is that correct or are there problems or things you still want to improve? COACH GOLDEN: No, I think he is playing well right now. But there are certain things we need to improve. Our chief concern right now is just getting him healthy. So we've held him out the last few days. We're being more aggressive in the treatment schedule, which we can be because we're not working on NorthCarolina yet. He seems to be doing great, making a lot of progress. I'm not taking Stephen for his word anymore. I'm going to make sure myself that he's okay. Hopefully we'll get him okay here in the next 48 hours or 72 hours and get him ready for game week. There is no question he's been playing good football for us. Q. The ACC has two top 5 teams. You guys are also undefeated and have a pretty impressive win over Florida, the Georgia Tech win was over a very good team. Do you think it's been a little slow the national recognition coming for what you've achieved? COACH GOLDEN: I don't think we've achieved anything yet. You know, we were 4‑0 in the out‑of‑conference. We locked that up, put that in a chest and threw it away. Then obviously in our first ACC contest last week, you know, Georgia Tech played really well. We turned the ball over. Had some penalties that we had to get cleaned up. We were fortunate to win. So we were 1‑0 in the conference and now we're playing NorthCarolina. The rest of it we don't worry about it very much. It all shakes out on the field, and you prove yourself on the field. Hopefully we can continue to keep that bunker mentality and not worry about the external and just stay focused first this week on improving, taking care of our academics and improving in our fundamentals. Trying to get healed up and healthy, and hopefully then turn our focus to NorthCarolina here this weekend. Q. We talked about the offensive line on Sunday. And something that Art Kehoe mentioned is before you got here, he never had the two‑deep offensive line. It was kind of specific, but when did you decide to implement that kind of rotation on the offensive line, the two‑deep? COACH GOLDEN: I don't know. I've always been a proponent of we ask them to play hard. We ask them to beat their man to the ball. We ask them to chase the ball. Again, for me we want to have a team that finishes. It's hard to play 70 plays every play like that. We don't want to compromise our effort or finish, and one of the ways you do that is you play more guys. I think it's great for morale. It obviously keeps the play count lower. Hopefully it makes you healthier, makes you stronger, and he eliminates some of the atrophy. So that's one of my beliefs. I'd like to be playing more guys right now, but we've been unfortunate a little bit there in terms of some injuries with Shane and Irastorza. So hopefully we'll get these guys back one by one and continue to build depth at the O‑line. Q. What have we seen out of Gall and Gadbois and Wells early in this off week? COACH GOLDEN: Well, they're making progress. Alex Gall is making progress every week. Taylor is making progress. I thought Hunter Wells had his best practice yesterday. So, again, I'd like to see us continue to bolster the depth there. But it all comes down to trust. It all comes down to their preparation, their elimination of mental errors and gaining the trust of Coach Coley, Coach Kehoe, and myself. And getting in that rotation, anybody can get in that rotation. They've got to be disciplined. They've got to be smart, and they've got to earn the trust of their teammates and the coaches. Q. (Indiscernible) had a couple of productive practices? COACH GOLDEN: He has. Q. Bryn Renner who had a foot injury did not play against Virginia Tech, the UNC quarterback, and the sophomore Marquise Williams played instead. He threw for 2‑under 77 yards, he also led UNC in rushing with 56 yards. Does that make it a little more complicated when you do start preparing? COACH GOLDEN: Well, I think we'll get ready for both of them. But, again, I would suspect Renner will be back. He's one of the best quarterbacks in the league, and he's had an awesome career. So I'm sure they're happy to get him healthy. But we're going to see both in the game, and we'll have to get ready for both. Either way we'll turn our attention to NorthCarolina after we take care of our team here the next couple of days, and figure out a plan to stop it. But right now, it's been about getting our team better. Q. How is Rashawn Scott doing, and when do you expect him back more fully? COACH GOLDEN: I think he's doing great. He's close. He's running routes full speed and doing all that. Whether he's able to take a hit yet, I don't know, but he's running routes and doing all the non‑contact stuff and looks pretty good. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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