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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL KICKOFFJuly 18, 2018Larry FedoraAaron CrawfordAnthony Ratliff-WilliamsCharlotte, North Carolina Q. Anthony, you lost four starters in the offensive line, which has the impact of -- will the quarterback have enough time to get you the ball? Obviously a point of great interest for you. How is that coming along, the rebuild of the line? Are you going to be able to have enough time to get open deep? ANTHONY RATLIFF-WILLIAMS: Yeah, I think that over this time in the summer off-season that we've taken the time to make sure that everybody is getting healthy, getting their bodies back together to where they were last year. That's kind of been the key, to make sure they're mentally and physically ready to compete. That's what we've been doing since the summer began. Q. Anthony, just what can you say about your expanded role as far as special teams and then being a receiver out there, just how you see your role evolving and being a big part of the offense this year? ANTHONY RATLIFF-WILLIAMS: I've let that lie with the coaching staff and just me knowing what I have to do with my role as a player and a teammate to my guys in the locker room. I'm going to do whatever it takes to get wins, and if that means me returning a kickoff for a touchdown, catching a kickoff, it doesn't matter, it's just -- or catching a touchdown. It's just whatever my team needs to me, so I don't mind doing it. Q. I know you're a former quarterback; there's a lot of questions about who your quarterback will be this year. Talk about what Chaz and Nathan bring to the table. ANTHONY RATLIFF-WILLIAMS: Right. I feel that both quarterbacks bring their owness to the game, whereas Nate is a more vocal guy, more of a leader, laid-back, cool and collected in any situation. And I don't really prefer either one. I just let those guys play their game and do what they do. They give me the ball, give anybody the ball when needed. I feel like they're taking the time in the summer to compete and show which one is a better guy. We're going to win with either one. Q. I wanted to ask you as a return specialist about this new kickoff rule, your thoughts about it and how you think it'll impact the season. ANTHONY RATLIFF-WILLIAMS: It's very interesting. I think it's a very interesting rule to implement. You have to make a lot of smart decisions, I feel like. It doesn't take away from me being aggressive in the kickoff return game, but you definitely have to be smarter with catching the ball on the 25 yard line and being able to play the ball on the 25 yard line. I feel like the rule may not have been necessary, but it is being implemented, so just being smart and taking time. Q. There is a debate between safety versus excitement. Do you think it might take some excitement away from the game? ANTHONY RATLIFF-WILLIAMS: I think that depends on the players, the guys back there returning, those guys. Definitely when I get the opportunity to return it, I'm definitely trying to go for six. I feel like any returner in the country would do the same. Q. How does it feel to be back at home in Charlotte for this event? ANTHONY RATLIFF-WILLIAMS: Great. I love the city of Charlotte. Q. You are two years into an adjustment now having played quarterback in high school and now obviously wide receiver here. Two years is a long time. How has that adjustment been for you? Are you getting to a point where you're comfortable? ANTHONY RATLIFF-WILLIAMS: Definitely getting to a point where I'm comfortable. It was a mental strain coming from the position of quarterback to now playing receiver, understanding what it takes to do so, especially also being a kick returner, taking the time to learn from the guys that came before you. With that being said, the guys who were before me, it wasn't a bad group to learn from at all. You take those things in stride and you implement those things into your game, so that's what I've been doing. Q. It's not as simple as saying nobody saw you coming last year, but now everybody will see you coming this year, so what have you done to make sure that you're still the weapon you were last season? ANTHONY RATLIFF-WILLIAMS: Right. All summer I've just been working on my game in every aspect, catching the ball, getting out of bounds, getting out of breaks, and just being not only a better student but football player in every aspect of film study and working hard and making sure the guys around me are doing the right thing so they're not on the radar, as well. Q. How important do you think it'll be to have one stable QB in there to help you this year? ANTHONY RATLIFF-WILLIAMS: I think it'll be very important for the team aspect and being able to have that one quarterback in, have that guy that guys can turn to when things aren't going the way they want them to go. We're currently working on that now and inputting that work to show who is the better quarterback and who is the better -- the guy that we need on the team. We're just taking our time and kind of sitting back and letting them do what they do and just catching the ball really. Q. Aaron, just to speak on the defensive line in and of itself as a whole, what you can say you've done to evolve as a player and what you can say about the line going into this season? AARON CRAWFORD: As a player, every year I really want to focus on my pass rush, improving that, trying to make sure we're getting to the quarterback on 3rd down. As a D-line as a whole, I feel like we have some of the best depth in the country. We have eight guys that can rotate through and really get out there with minimal dropoff. So with that being said, I'm excited to see how these guys prepare for the season and looking forward to getting after it. Q. Aaron, Coach mentioned you by name at the Pigskin Preview as somebody to watch for this year. What is your communication with him as to what his expectations are? AARON CRAWFORD: I mean, Coach Fedora expects the best out of me whenever I touch the field. As far as his communicating expectations, we haven't talked much about it, but I feel I can speak for him when I say he expects me to go out there and dominate, lead the young guys, lead the rest of the D-line and make sure everybody is on the same page. Q. Who gave you the nickname Bam Bam, and when did that happen? AARON CRAWFORD: Coach Trey Scott my first year. We were going through our first training camp, and I don't know, he said it during film review, and it kind of just stuck for the rest of that year. Q. You're okay with it? AARON CRAWFORD: You get what you get (laughter.) Q. You only lost five starters from defense, seven back. Yet there was a lot of leadership in the folks that graduated. Who will be the leaders this year? AARON CRAWFORD: I think myself, Malik Carney are the two safeties, Cole Holcomb, Allen Artis, even Jalen Dalton, even though he missed a few games last year with injury. All these guys coming back. Like you said, we only lost five guys, and while those guys included M.J. Stewart and Donnie Miles, we lost a lot of -- Andre Smith, the leadership that we lost with them, it was great, but they kind of set the standard for how we need to lead the team from this point forward. Q. Last year North Carolina gave up 31 points on average per ballgame. What's the conversation been like during the off-season to get those numbers as low as they possibly can be? AARON CRAWFORD: First and foremost, stop the run. That's something we emphasize in practice every day. Definitely cutting down on the critical plays, the critical errors that happen late in the game especially. We've gotten to a point where the explosive plays that we've set up throughout the year have gotten lower and lower, but those critical plays that kind of explode and swing the momentum of the game, those are things that we need to stop going forward. Q. What have you guys done as a group and maybe as individuals to kind of repair yourselves from going through a 3-9 season? AARON CRAWFORD: I mean, I think guys are definitely paying more attention to taking care of their bodies. The coaching staff and the strength training staff has definitely been working with us to try to put us in the best position for us to be healthy going into the season and maintaining that health throughout the season. As far as that goes, we lost the majority of our games in the fourth quarter. We entered the game with however big of a lead, and throughout the course of the game, throughout the course of the fourth quarter, we let it slip away. So focusing on the little things at the critical times, two-minute situations, things like that, we're just kind of honing in on those. Q. You are a little bit older and you talked about some of the guys that had been lost. Given your age and your experience, what are you teaching the younger kids coming through? AARON CRAWFORD: Paying attention to detail. We have captain-run practices that we do throughout the week, and we're really trying to focus on the young guys that come in, take the right steps, have your hands in the right place, have your eyes in the right place, and if they don't get it down we'll come in on Saturdays, go through the whole progression, taking the step out of your stance, things like that. Q. Obviously one of the stats that we look at is returning starters, returning career starts. Those are not great numbers for North Carolina. Of course you believe as a coach there are many other factors other than returning starts and starters. What are some of the factors that determine whether a season is a good one? LARRY FEDORA: Yeah, I'm looking more at the culture of our team, the chemistry of our football team. We had a lot of young guys get reps last year, so they got experience, whether they were starters or not. They're back. So I would say probably the majority of our team played, even though they shouldn't have played last year. So we're going to take that and we're going to build off of it, so I don't think that we're going to have as many people out there on the field this year that are going to be wide eyed in their first game that have never stepped on a college football field. Whether or not we've got a lot of returning starters, we've got some experience. Q. With the season approaching, what traits are you looking for in your starting quarterback, and what do they need to win the job? LARRY FEDORA: Well, we're looking for separation. That's the No. 1 thing, somebody that takes over the team, and then the team becomes theirs. They've got to be able to do it not only on the field but off the field. We obviously -- they've got to be able to run the plays, run the offense, take command of the offense, have a presence out there that all the guys relate to. They have to be an influencer. They've got to be able to influence the guys around them. They've got to be able to raise the level of the players around them. They do that, then they've got to do the same things off the field. And when somebody separates themselves from the others, then we'll make a call. Q. The addition of Robert Gillespie, what he's done with working with guys like Alvin Camarra at Tennessee, what he brings to the table and what he brings to the running back room for you. LARRY FEDORA: Well, Robert is kind of a no-nonsense kind of a guy. He's a lot like I am. He brings a lot of energy. He's very passionate about coaching the running backs. He really is. He has a very high expectation level for those guys, and he plans on holding them to it, and he did a great job for us in the spring. It's been really nice to have him in that room. Q. Last year you had three starting quarterbacks, this year you've got two candidates. Would you prefer to have one emerge or do you look at a season where you may have another situation where more than one guy starts? LARRY FEDORA: Yeah, I think ideally you'd like to have one guy separate himself, but if it doesn't happen, then we'll work on it from there. But I think ideally you'd like to have a returning guy that's probably been starting for three years in your program coming back, but that's just not the case, doesn't happen like that every year. Q. You heard Anthony talk a little bit about the new kickoff rules and how that's not going to change how aggressive he is attacking the ball on kickoffs. What do you tell him differently with this new rule and what are you expecting from him in that regard this season? LARRY FEDORA: Well, there's so much that goes into it. It's not just get back there and run when you catch the ball. He's got to know where his alignment is, when the ball is in the air, how much he's drifted. He's got to be aware of all those things because there are points on the field where we told him he can bring it out, points on the field where he can't. He's got to be right on that. He's got to know what the wind is doing, he's got to know what the kicker is doing, what the approach is. He's got to be able to catch the ball moving forward and not be stagnant when he catches it so he can be running a flying 40 when he hits it, and then we give him one cut and he's got to go full speed. First of all, just being able to know that 11 guys are running down the field at you full speed and you're going to run at them full speed, that takes something, it takes a little bit of grit right there. I don't want to take away Anthony's aggressiveness. If I didn't have a guy like Anthony, we would probably be fair catching a lot, and I would imagine there would be a lot of teams that do that. I think that the new rule there's going to be more squib kicks, more bouncing kicks. I think there will be a wider variety of type of kicks that you see in college football now. You know, so the jury is out still a little bit on how we're going to approach it, but it is nice to know that we've got a guy that when he does get it in his hands, he can go the distance. Q. In more seasons than not, it seems you've had to work through who will be your starting quarterback. In what ways has your evaluation process developed as a coach with the number of times you've done this? LARRY FEDORA: Yeah, I'd say since I became a coordinator back in about '98 or '99 and started coaching quarterback, I've pretty much done it the same way the whole way through, and you can either look at it -- there's two ways to look at it. You can look at it, you know, you haven't announced a quarterback so that's a bad thing, or you can look at it as, hey, you've got some good competition there and you want those guys to compete all the way through, and it's a good thing. So we always try to turn it into a positive. Just because one guy hasn't separated himself from the process right now doesn't mean that we're not going to be good at that position. I've been doing it for a long time. I've used this same strategy all the way through since I've been doing it. It's been good to me, and I will continue to do it until there's a reason not to. Q. The last four or five seasons you've had the luxury of having most of your offensive line returning. This year only one starter back. What's the rebuilding, the makeup of your offensive line coming along like? LARRY FEDORA: Yeah, you would love to have all those guys back, but it's just not the way it is this year. But I will say every one of those guys except possibly one that's going to play this year, they've all played. They've all got experience. They weren't necessarily the starter last year, but they all played. And so it does -- I feel a little bit more comfortable knowing that these guys have been out there. They've been in the heat of the battle, so they're not going to be shocked. They know what it takes. Because we lost a couple guys to injuries last year, some other guys were forced into action and they got a lot of playing time. We may not have the starter, but we do have some experience there. And you know, that position, those five guys, until they gel together as a unit, I mean, you're not going to be as effective. The sooner they gel, the more effective you're going to be. Q. Aaron mentioned starting strong and falling apart late in games. What have you done to kind of negate the strong start followed by a kind of rough third quarter? LARRY FEDORA: Yeah, so I think those nine games, we were ahead in the second half, and I think in seven of them we were ahead in the fourth quarter, and we ran out. We ran out of personnel. We ran out of energy because of that, all those things. And so it's more about a mindset, you know, that when you get into those situations in the game, you've got to finish. The drills don't change. You're finishing everything that you do in the off-season. It's a point of emphasis when you're talking about it to your team. But it's just a mindset. When you get into that situation, you've got to put your foot on somebody's neck and you've got to stomp down and you've got to finish them off. Q. Curious if there's been any notable position changes during the off-season. LARRY FEDORA: Let me think now. You kind of caught me here. I don't -- there's not anybody that comes to mind. I apologize, but I don't have that -- if there is, I'm not hiding it from you, I just can't think of it. Q. How do the two primary players in the quarterback competition kind of compare to previous quarterbacks that have experienced success during your tenure at UNC? LARRY FEDORA: That's good. So if I'm trying to compare those guys, I have a quarterback at Southern Miss, Austin Davis, who's playing for Seattle now, and he's going into his seventh year. I think Nathan is very comparable to him, his demeanor, his leadership ability, the way he throws the ball, all those things. I had a guy at Oklahoma State by the name of Zach Robinson who Chaz is a lot like. And as Chaz grows and matures in the offense, he's going to be a lot like him. Zach also went on and played in the league and had a lot of success. Q. The first game of the season you have to travel across the country -- LARRY FEDORA: Five and a half hours. Q. -- to play against California. How do you prepare your team? LARRY FEDORA: Well, I mean, it's another game. It's our first game. This is the only game we have on our schedule right now. That's the most important thing we do. The logistics of it is not something -- we'll talk about some of the things that we do going into that game as far as travel-wise. Most of our guys will have traveled. But five and a half hours that way, five and a half hours going back. From my understanding and all the research I've done, going to the West Coast is not as tough on you as coming east, so I'm really a little bit more concerned about the travel part of it and what it's going to do to their bodies the next week than I am the week we go out. Q. Obviously the changes in the kickoff rules is kind of a part of the -- I guess the concussion research. How has football changed for you, to teach it, the drills you do and protocol you use as it relates to those injuries since you've been in coaching? LARRY FEDORA: Yeah, well, when I started playing the game, it was all about the head. You were going to stick your head into everything. And as we've learned and we understand the dangers of what's going on in the game of football, you've taken -- you slowly have taken the head out of the game. And so all the drills that you teach, all the tackling, all the things you do, you do it with the head out of the game, to keep the head away from the impacts. Also, back when I played, you were three practices a day during fall camp. I mean, so all of those changes -- you had one cup of water at practice. We've learned and evolved so much about hydration and you don't need to take salt tablets and all those different things that you did in the past. I'm going to tell you, the game right now, the game is safer than it's ever been in the history of the game. It is. I mean, it really is. Are there still injuries? Yeah. It's a violent sport. You've got big, fast, strong guys running into each other. Something is going to give. But there are risks involved in the game, and everybody that plays the game understands those risks. It's not like they're going into it not knowing that something could happen. And so they have to -- personally have to weigh those risks versus the rewards. But I believe, there's no doubt in my mind, the changes that we're making year to year for the health and safety of our players, the game is safer than it's ever been in the history of the game. Q. One of the places where a player could get hurt is when a quarterback runs the ball, and yet eight of the nine top rushing teams in the ACC have quarterbacks who run the ball really well. Your quarterbacks through the years have run the ball really well. What are your rules, thoughts about when the quarterback should run the ball and when not? LARRY FEDORA: Yeah, I think years ago when everybody was in the pro-style offense, quarterbacks got hurt. They got hurt because they got sacked. They weren't used to getting hit, all these things. And now as you've recruited more -- I'm not going to say everybody, but us, we recruit more of a dual threat athlete, a guy that can run the football. That means that guy has run the football in high school, and he's taken hits, he's delivered blows. He's not afraid of the contact. Does that mean he won't get hurt? No. I mean, that's the nature of the beast. That's part of the game. But recruiting a -- and I would say a lot -- you've got a lot of better athletes out there than there were 10 years ago, 20 years ago that are playing the position. So I think for us, it's take advantage of what that guy can do. If that guy can run, then take advantage of it. If he can throw, take advantage of the throwing. If he can do both, take advantage of both. Now you've got 12 on 11. Q. With Coach Brewer departing for Philadelphia and a relatively younger receiving corps, what's your expectation this year for your receivers? LARRY FEDORA: Yeah, first of all, Gunner Brewer leaving, he was part of my family. We had been together for a long, long time. We were together at Oklahoma State before we were together here. I hated losing him, but at the same time was as excited for the opportunity for him. It was a dream of his, and it kind of came up out of the blue, and so I was excited for him. Hate losing him, but I'm happy for him. I was very fortunate to be able to bring Luke Paschall in. Luke had GA'd under Gunner in our offense, and so it was an easy transition for him. He was able to come in, talk the same kind of language. He knew the offense, so the transition for the players was really smooth. Now, Luke's teaching methods are not the same as Gunner's, so there are changes. He's a little bit different. But the guys have adjusted well, and I think that room, getting the guys back healthy that we had and plus the freshmen that we've added to this group, I think this group has a chance to be really special. Q. You spoke about having a dual-threat quarterback, but what you can say about the evolution of your backfield from last season to this season? I know you were looking for some guys to kind of show themselves out last year. What are you seeing going into the fall? LARRY FEDORA: Well, Michael Carter came in as a true freshman and really did some great things for us in that role at running back. Jordon Brown did some really good things, so they split the time back there. I anticipate that we brought in a young man by the name of Antonio Williams that I think is definitely going to help our football team. There at running back, I think we're going to be really solid. Whether we're going to be a one-back running back or running back by committee, that's still to be seen. Whoever has got the hot hand is going to be the guy that's playing. They know it's about production. That's the way it is on our football team. Same thing at quarterback, same thing at wide receiver, same thing at any position. Q. You mentioned traveling across the country to go to Cal this year. What are your thoughts on home and home against neutral site openers in general? LARRY FEDORA: I like home and home series. They're hard to find. I mean, probably in scheduling is one of the toughest things that our administration has to do, to be able to find the people that are willing to do it. But I do like the neutral site games, also. I think it brings a lot of excitement because a lot of times it's maybe a regional rival or another well-known team. So I think that's good for your fans, also. You know, I think as long as people want to watch you play, it doesn't matter who you play. I think it's probably a good thing. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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