After losing to Tennessee in the first game, NC State coach Tom O’Brien says his team is ready to get back on the field against Connecticut.
“It’s a very senior team on defense. They are starting seven seniors, and four or five of them are redshirt seniors,” he said during the weekly media teleconference. “Got a lot of experience on that side of the ball. I think last week they only gave up 53 yards offense, and didn’t allow UMass to cross the 50-yard line. So they playing great defense right now.”
The Connecticut offense has less experience but they are experienced on the line.
Q. Coming off last week, what are the
areas of improvement you’re focusing on
heading into week two here?
COACH O’BRIEN: When you look back,
there are five big plays on defense that counted for
half the yardage, and long passes, long runs.
Those are things that we have to get corrected.
We turned the ball over five times on offense. One
fumble and four interceptions. So those are things
that we spent a lot of time trying to correct.
You can’t take ten plays out of the game,
but those ten plays dictated the final. So we have
to make corrections in those areas and give
ourselves a chance to win here on Saturday.
Q. How much of that loss concerned
you or do you look at it and say I think
Tennessee’s going to be a lot better than
everyone expected this year perhaps?
COACH O’BRIEN: No, every loss
concerns me. You have to be concerned right now
that we had a chance to do something and we
didn’t make it work. I do think that Tennessee,
they feel they’re a heck of a lot better team,
certainly, with that quarterback in there and their
skill level and the change in defense than they
were a year ago. But that’s still no excuse for the
way we played.
Q. Coach, how has the attitude been on
the team since the Tennessee game?
COACH O’BRIEN: I think they’ve been
fine. They were a little bit down on Sundays. We
got them back together and looked at the tape and
made corrections. But they’ve been focused the
last two mornings. We already practiced this
morning. They’ve been focused a little better today
than they were yesterday and they’ll have to be a
lot better tomorrow.
Q. With the start that David Amerson
had last week, is there any concern on your
end about his confidence level or whether it
will make him less effective as the season
goes?
COACH O’BRIEN: That’s a good
question. Hopefully he’s going to answer that here
in the next couple weeks. I think one of the great
things about it is if you are a great player,
especially as a quarterback or if you are as a
corner, you’re going to get beat. But you have to
have amnesia and forget about it and come back
and play from that point on. So it’s a good lesson
for him to learn, and we’ll see how he reacts this
week on Saturday.
Q. I know some coaches prefer to go
on the road because they feel there are less
distractions and people prefer to be at home.
What is your feeling on that? Does the length
of the road trip matter at all? Connecticut’s a
longer flight and a longer trip than a lot of ACC
trips for you guys.
COACH O’BRIEN: No, I’d certainly rather
play at home. We have a great home-field
advantage, we have a great crowd and our fans
are tremendous. I think we have a distinct
advantage playing at home.
Maybe there are more distractions one
way or another. But certainly once the ball is
kicked off, I think home-field advantage is an
absolute, especially as far as we’re concerned
here at state.
Q. Does a longer trip like Connecticut
present any other challenges or problems for
you or does it not really matter?
COACH O’BRIEN: No, I think you know
looking at the trip that Duke has to take, I did that
at Boston College and had to go to Stanford. That
makes a difference when you cross time zones.
The furthest flight — and that was one of
the advantages being at North Carolina and
Boston, we always took three hours or more flights.
When you take a flight and go three time zones, I
think that really affects you playing and certainly
affects you coming back. I’m thinking Boston, after
we played Stanford at 7:30 their time, we got back
9:00 o’clock Sunday morning or something.
Q. Going back to Amerson, especially
the two big plays, was it a matter of him simply
getting beat or was there not help that was
supposed to be there? Was it a secondary
problem as opposed to an Amerson problem?
COACH O’BRIEN: Well, I don’t know if it
was an Amerson problem or the fact that
Tennessee’s pretty dang good. Their skill level is
high. Their play, they’re certainly a different team
with that quarterback in there than they were at the
end of last year. When he was in there, I think
they were averaging 40 points a game the first
couple of games of the year last year. They
averaged ten a game when he was out of there.
So I think he makes a big difference. I think it may
have been more of a skill problem and them
executing than us not executing.
Q. Looked like Quintin Payton really
came through for you in that game. One of
your inexperienced receivers stepping it up.
Did he surprise you had anyway what he did in
that game? Do you think that’s something he
can carry through the season?
COACH O’BRIEN: Well, he had a good
preseason camp. I think that’s one of the things
that Michael (Glennon) is not afraid to throw the
ball, and he does a good job and he did a good job
especially on the first one that he threw to Quintin
of aiding the rush, which he hadn’t done a year
ago. They had left him running wide open down
the boundary. The best catch he made was
Michael threw it backside shoulder on a takeoff
down the boundary, and Quintin went up and used
his height which we’re used to seeing when we
had Jarvis Williams here. So he has to give us
that. I think not only will he now because it’s a
great confidence boost for him, but certainly for
Mike that he knows that he’s got somebody that
will go up and get the football like that.
Q. I’d like to ask you about Mike the
quarterback. The four interceptions are kind of
uncharacteristic for him. What kind looking at
film — was he making bad decisions or was it
the pressure on him that forced those? Can
you give us an explanation?
COACH O’BRIEN: The last one was at
the end of the game, so that’s a throw out. We’ll
take that one out of there. The first one they made
a great play. They baited him into it, and it’s
something he has to learn from and go to
something we can’t do. The second one, I think,
was a bad decision. He didn’t see the whole
coverage and didn’t recognize what was going on.
Then the third one was a great play. He may have
underthrown the corner a little bit. You don’t
underthrow a corner. You don’t underthrow a post.
So we can do better at that.
But I think two of them you have to give
the kids at Tennessee credit too. They made
pretty good plays on the ball.
Q. Are there particular things about
UConn that concern you that seeing on film, if
you had a chance to watch much to this point?
COACH O’BRIEN: Well, as I said before,
they only give out 50-something yards and shut out
a team. Didn’t let them across the 50-yard line on
defense. They have Paul Pasqualoni, who has
been a defensive guy for a long time, coordinated
in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys and the
Dolphins before he came back. I’ve known him
since my days at Syracuse and Boston College.
Don Brown’s coordinating there. Their defense is
very well coached. (They) do not make a mistake.
They have one kid, (number) 48, the
defensive end was a hundred-meter champ when
he was coming out of high school in Connecticut.
He gets a lot of pressure on the quarterbacks.
They’ve got senior quarterbacks that play well.
Then when you play a team and they’re having the
success they had. They had a new quarterback in
there that kind of protected him, the junior college
kids that more conventional. Then they bring in
(number) 11, the wildcat who is a whole new style
of offense when he’s in the game. So they make
you prepare a lot offense.
Those are the things that are a major
concern. To be able to make you move the
football, make first downs and hopefully cross the
50-yard line against that defense.
