Cavalier coach looks at his team's match-up with North Carolina

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Sept. 11, 2007

Highlights from Al Groh's Weekly Press Conference on Sept. 11, 2007

Q: Looking at North Carolina and it looks like they have thrown 8-10 passes of at least 30 yards with deeper drops and not giving up a lot of sacks. Have you seen their protection step up?
A: This is definitely the most explosive North Carolina team that we've been challenged by probably since the '01 season when they had Ronald Curry, and Julius Peppers and (Ryan) Sims on the defensive line, David Thornton and that group (of players).

They are very explosive offensively. The three receivers--(Brooks) Foster, (Hakeem) Nicks and (Brandon) Tate--are very explosive. They've had seven or eight plays this year over 50 yards already. A lot of it is off of some very intricate schemes and a lot of play action to try to minimize the rush on the quarterback.

The quarterback has been excellent. He's very accurate; I mean his quarterback rating I think is 196 and that's an unreal number for any college quarterback to have.

They have been very, very effective in taking full advantage of what obviously is a very strong position on their team and I think their average yardage per catch is 16 yards per catch for the season, which is unbelievable.

It's very challenging, they have a very talented group there they have done a very good job of putting together a plan that enables them to really feature those players.

Q: Is North Carolina's offense derived from what Butch Davis did at Miami, or is it some Bears or Browns stuff?
A: It certainly seems to have its basis in what John Shoop was utilizing in Chicago.

Q: How do you watch film? Do you go back to Butch Davis' NFL days?
A: We have been waiting for these two games to take a look at; we'd like to have a little bit more book on them. Obviously they have six years worth of games to look at on us. We have two games to look at on them. The advantage in terms of research clearly falls in their court, so we have tried to offset that by going back into the archives as much as we can. Of course we're in a somewhat different set of circumstances. We try not to draw too many highly definitive conclusions from that, but we have to form some basis and use it as a point of comparison.

Q: Jameel Sewell's role has changed since the start of the season at quarterback. How has he reacted to his circumstance?
A: He's been great, everybody's been great about it. I think everybody understands that this has been a `we focused' and an `us focused' team from the start. (It's) a team that has understood that we all have our roles to play and they are all important roles towards winning. It's in our unity and our focus that we have our best chances and we are going to maintain that here throughout.

Q: With your defensive background and your perspective as a defensive coach, how hard is it to prepare for two styles of quarterbacks, one right handed, the other left handed?
A: A prime thing that we start with on both sides of the ball, but since you're asking from a defensive prospective, is we ask the question, `how many things does this team make us think about ?' Clearly the more things you can make the opponent think about and issues to deal with and decisions to make, then the more burdensome it becomes for the opponent. As as you pointed out (one of our quarterbacks is) right handed and one's left handed, one has shown his adeptness and has two touchdown runs of over 40 yards and one is beginning to show some skill in the pocket. It probably adds to the number of issues that have to be dealt with. I know it certainly would if we were confronting that situation.

Q: Nose tackle is not a position like quarterback because you can't see how it all plays out. How is Allen Billyk looked to you the past two games?
A: He's done a very nice job. We've spoken about Allen here on other occasions. (He was) really hindered throughout the year last year in performing as certainly he would have liked to been able to perform. (He performed) courageously but not production wise. He's done a very good job with it here this year and has continued to be in real positive condition and hasn't had any issues whatsoever since we started spring practice. That would be very important to us if that continued to be the case because he is playing the position very nicely now.

Q: With different coaches, different schemes come into play. It looks they have 16 different players that have played who didn't play a year ago. How does the change in personnel also make it difficult to prepare when you are looking at potentially 16 of 22 different players that you are going to face that maybe you didn't face a year ago?
A: Most of the offensive players are players that we saw last year and that we are familiar with. The most significant change is the quarterback and he is a lot better that what they played with last year, so that's a big upgrade at that particular position. There looks to be a significant upgrade in talent defensively and that's been quite noticeable and certainly they look to be a lot sounder and more physical on defense.

Q: Has Butch Davis been able to make a pretty big difference in what you've seen in the North Carolina team as compared to last year? Have you been able to see his fingerprint on this team?
A: We're impressed with the team, but I am not in the comparison business. We're impressed with what we have seen. (They are) very diverse and intricate on offense. We can certainly see the background of the scheme, where it comes from. (They are) doing some very creative things and raise a lot of issues to deal with.

From a defensive staff (standpoint), many of those guys--headed by Butch--have a long history of being very sound and very productive on defense. So we're impressed with that too.

I think it's the most explosive offensive team and overall the most challenging team that we've played from North Carolina in the last five or six years.

Q: You've talked about the explosiveness of the North Carolina offense. What do you think are some of the keys to the game on Saturday?
A: Clearly we have to start out with the mentality that we can't afford to give up one-play touchdowns. They've got one guy who's been responsible for that in dual ways. Tate's got three of them as a receiver and one of them as a kick returner.

(It's) difficult to determine which one is more challenging to control them in. Special teams is such a scrambled situation that you can practice, practice, practice and a lot just depends on what happens after the ball is in the air.

(With) receivers a lot of it is match up. You can get paired up in a situation that with his speed, if a quarterback is allowed to throw the ball on his terms, he is a difficult match-up. One of the primary things is not to be vulnerable to the one-play touchdowns that North Carolina has been so successful at. A large part of it is for us to make significant progress on our list of things that we think need fixing and improving in our performance.