Mike Elko Press Conference Quotes: North Carolina

DURHAM – Duke football head coach Mike Elko met with members of the media on Monday afternoon for his weekly press conference.

The Blue Devils welcome North Carolina for an ACC matchup on Saturday night at 8 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ACC Network with Wes Durham, Roddy Jones and Taylor Davis on the call. The game can also be heard on the Blue Devil Sports Network from LEARFIELD through the Varsity app or goduke.com

Mike Elko Duke Football Head Coach
(Ref.: Opening Statement)
"Recapping the game on Saturday, it was a disappointing result. I thought for three out of the four quarters we certainly didn't play our best football. Credit to Georgia Tech they earned the win, but I just felt like we consistently shot ourselves in the foot on both sides of the ball. We talked to our team about that, just an overall lack of execution in the first three quarters. We have to be better as coaches and be better as players. We have to put ourselves in better positions going into the fourth quarter. Obviously, extremely proud of our fight in the fourth quarter. For us to play the way we played and be down the way we were and then respond. We get the huge punt return from Sahmir [Hagans] and then defensively, on a day that we didn't play great, we were able to go out there and get a bunch of fourth quarter stops to give us our shot. We felt like getting into overtime was our best chance to win. We really felt like we had all the momentum and, in a position, to be successful and then unfortunately we weren't able to finish that last drive and really put Charlie [Ham] in a bad spot. We forced him to go out there and kick a 52-yard field goal into the wind. We didn't have much choice at that point down and distance wise, but probably should have managed that last drive a little bit better and so I take the onus for that on me and I shared that with him.

"So, that's last week. It's disappointing, but its football. We have to recover and bounce back this week. We have to be better, and we've got a big opponent coming up. I think everyone is aware of the magnitude of this game and the magnitude of this rivalry. I've got a lot of respect for what they are doing over there in Chapel Hill. Offensively they are one of the most potent offenses in the country. Drake Maye is throwing the ball all over the place and having a lot of success. They have a lot of weapons outside at the wide receiver position. They have a lot of running backs that have broken explosive plays and are doing a really good job. Up front I think they are growing into themselves as the year goes on. Defensively, they are a much-improved defense over the last two weeks. We have focused a lot of our attention on what they've become the last two weeks. I think they've become a lot more physical, and they are getting a lot more comfortable in their scheme with Coach [Gene] Chizik. I think he is starting to impose his philosophy on that group, and you have seen a team in the last two weeks in ACC play that has shown a markedly different style of defense from an execution standpoint, not necessarily a schematic standpoint. We are going to have our hands full with them. They are extremely athletic and talented. We are going to have to go out Saturday night and play our best brand of football to give ourselves the best chance to win."

Ref.: On how to prepare for a game where anything can happen between two great quarterbacks
"We've got to find a way to get stops. That is going to involve containing him [Drake Maye] and not allowing him to get outside the pocket and create plays with his feet. I think he can do both. When he gets outside the pocket it is not necessarily just the run. I think the first thing is to try to find someone and hit a big pass play and then if that breaks down he is able to get out and run the football. We have to find a good plan to contain him and limit his explosives. Obviously, Riley [Leonard] is going to have to be extremely efficient. We've been through this before with two really good quarterbacks in a game, where Riley is going to have a little bit of onus on him to kind of match and he is going to have to do that Saturday and have to play a really good football game for us to have success."

Ref.: On how the offensive line handled Maurice McIntyre going down and adjusting on the fly
"We have been rotating all year and part of that rotation has been Mo out of the game, so we've been preparing for possible injuries and keeping everybody as fresh as we could. I think it's the next man up mentality. You will see a lot more of Jack Burns and Chance Lytle. I think a kid like Justin Pickett becomes a lot more involved in what we are doing."

Ref.: On his thoughts about the offensive pass interference call in overtime
"I will say this, obviously no game gets decided by the officials and we should never have put ourselves in that position. In 23 years of coaching, it's the first time I have ever seen an OPI on that play."

Ref.: On his philosophy on going into a big rivalry game
"I think we have to make sure we handle our emotions. Our kids don't need to be reminded who we are playing. They certainly understand the significance of this game and the significance of this game to our fan base, our community, our alumni, to themselves, so I don't know that you necessarily ratchet it up. We talked a lot about what the energy and emotion is going to be like Saturday night and making sure we handle that the right way, so we can go out and execute the thing we need to execute to win the football game."

Ref.: On how important it is to jump on the opponent early this week
"I think it is critical when you are playing an explosive offense, and they certainly are one, that you don't lose touch. We are going to have to go out and get out on a good foot. We are going to have to make sure we stay within arm's length and hopefully build a lead to give ourselves a chance to sustain what they are going to bring on offense. They are going to be really explosive and certainly are going to be a challenge for us. For us to have success we are going to have to make sure we start quick on offense ourselves."

Ref.: On accessing Riley's performance Saturday
"He was okay. I thought he managed the game decent. I thought early in the game he was in a decent rhythm. We took some shot plays and they just bailed out in coverage, so you saw a lot of checkdowns to the backs and we were able to get some 8-to-10-yard gains to the backs. I thought as the game went on, I thought the pressure on him started to increase and we didn't do a good job picking blitzes up. We had hats on hats, but we just didn't sustain blocks particularly well. I think that got him a little bit antsy and got him out of rhythm. He missed some throws that he usually doesn't miss and missed a couple reads that he usually doesn't miss. We have to look at what we are asking him to do and make sure he is comfortable with where he needs to go with the football all the time. We will clean that up and get a little bit better with our execution this week."

Ref.: On rebounding after a tough loss with a rivalry game like this
"This team is beyond worrying about getting up for the next game. We come back to the same thing, but we have invested so much into this season. We asked the question after Kansas, and we came back against Virginia and proved that we could bounce back. I have no doubt that we'll go out and play better football. That is the reality of it. To do that we have to have a great week of practice, we have to execute better in practice and carry that over to the game field on Saturday. We need to get out to a fast start and execute at a higher level to have success."

Ref.: On the concern of not forcing a turnover last week and being able to win without forcing one this week
"We always want to force turnovers. I don't know if I would use the word concerned. It is a piece of what we have to do to be successful. So, we lost the turnover battle 1-0 and certainly when you lose a game by three points in overtime you certainly would point to that and say if we would have caused a couple more we would give ourselves a better chance to win. Can we beat Carolina without winning the turnover battle? We certainly are going to have to if we lose it. We certainly are not going to just rely on that, but we have talked all year about the emphasis of winning the turnover battle week in and week out and we've got to do that to be successful."

Ref.: On the one interception thrown this week
"I don't know if it is always exactly what you see. So I think a wide out cut in one direction and then stopped and then Riley [Leonard] threw the ball in the direction he was cutting and so it looks really bad. It wasn't the best decision by Riley. I would have liked to see him throw the ball to the outside and not back inside to the middle, but I don't think when you watch the tape, he just threw the ball into the chest of the defender. I think he thought something else would happen for him and it didn't."

Ref.: On the teachable moment from the Shaka Heyward targeting call
"He has reacted exactly how you would expect him to. Obviously, he can't do that and we have made that very clear and have addressed that situation. I think he understands that and he always did, but just the technical piece of how to not get himself in that position. He basically committed to the tackle at the same time the slide happened and then he didn't pull off and you have to pull off. That is college football nowadays you have to pull off. He knew that and certainly understands that situation now and what he needs to do better in it. We have got to do a better job of coaching that up across the board, but he'll respond exactly how you would expect him to."

Ref.: On if a top-25 ranking and top of the Coastal standings means anything this early on in the season
"No. I think it just creates more games and more opportunities that are meaningful. We have to go out and win every week. We focus on what we can do now to get better and that's our focus every week. I know it sounds like coach speak and you want me to deliver these big messages, but that is what it is. You have a 12-game season, and you know that. Every game has its own meaning and its own magnitude. We have to play well enough in these 12 games to earn opportunities to play more. That's all we get and when the season ends it's back to the 350-day preparation to get ready for the next one, so you take advantage of every chance you get to go out and play the game you love and we expect our kids to do that all year."

Ref.: On what it means to have less than a thousand tickets remaining for the game this weekend
"We need Duke fans to turn out. We need Durham to turn out for us. We need our students to turn out in a really big way this week and fill the student section and be loud and vocal. We need our fans that turn out to wear our shade of blue and make sure this place is filled the right way. That is what builds the energy and excitement that adds to the environment and adds to our ability to perform and execute. It always does. The kids love playing in front of a packed house and this weekend will be no different."

Ref.: On what it means to have the demand from the students for the jerseys
"It has been great. We are trying to make a big effort to get our student body behind this football program and we know that's something that is going to take time. We have got to build trust with the product that we are going to put out there, but there has certainly been a tremendous effort on our part. Certainly, thanks to Chris Alston for everything that he and his staff has done to put a lot of this stuff together. The more football jerseys that we get out and around campus the more kids that are excited to come to our games the better it is. That makes it good for everybody on campus and it's good for our program, it's good for recruiting and its good in every way possible."

Ref.: On if North Carolina is worthy of being a top-25 team
"They are certainly really talented that is for sure. I don't know who decides who is a top-25 team at this point in the year. There is still so much left to uncover about quality wins and which are good wins, and which are bad wins and all of those things, but they are certainly an extremely talented team They are one of the most talented teams we have seen to this point and will be one of the most talented teams we will see all year. I would certainly anticipate if they win enough games that they'll be in the top-25."

Ref.: On the 8 p.m. kickoff and how to manage it throughout the day
"We've had three late starts this year and we've been up 21-0 at the end of the first quarter or before the other team scored in all three of them, so hopefully we start that way and not the way we've started in some of our other games where that was not the case. Your routine and rhythm that you do is the same and you just have different ways to get them ready. You are a little bit more relaxed a little bit longer with a later kick. As coaches you have to be more cognoscente of how you are feeding them and how your nutrition works over the last 48 hours. You have to make sure they are fueled and ready to go by the time kickoff happens. You have to make sure that you don't ratchet it up too early. I think sometimes on Friday night you become this intense team and that doesn't last so you drain out by midday Saturday. So, you have to make sure you are doing that the right way. It has just been a part of our schedule and the way it's built in so far, so thankfully it's been working."

Ref.: On how to approach a difficult loss while turning your attention to the next opponent
"You approach it the same way. The preparation is what allowed us to get the game into overtime and that there is still confidence in the training. There is still confidence that there are things happening on the football field that aren't physical that are costing us the ability in the early parts of that game to get in the lead and get ahead. The reason why some of our first half drives ended wasn't because of mismatches physically, we shot ourselves in the foot. The reason that some of their drives got started by their offense isn't because we missed tackles or we couldn't cover them, it was because we shot ourselves in the foot. That is not to take anything away from Georgia Tech, they executed and played better than us, but we just focus on those parts of it and where we can clean up our execution. The kids see that, and they certainly felt it on Saturday because when we were able to clean up and execute the way we were capable of, we were able to get ourselves right back into the game."

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Mike Elko Press Conference Quotes: North Carolina

Players Mentioned

Jack Burns

Shaka Heyward

Chance Lytle

Maurice McIntyre

Justin Pickett

Duke information

Mike Elko Press Conference Quotes: North Carolina

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Players Mentioned

Jack Burns

Shaka Heyward

Chance Lytle

Maurice McIntyre

Justin Pickett

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