Upcoming Event: Baseball at East Carolina on April 7, 2026 at 6 p.m.
Baseball
at East Carolina
Quotes: North Carolina 66, Duke 31
Duke Head Coach David Cutcliffe
Opening Statement
“Well, congratulations to North Carolina, they played extremely well. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen as many explosive plays executed as their offense did. I thought their Quarterback played exceptionally well, they didn’t turn the ball over, we turned the ball over 3 times. You give up explosives and a game can get away from you and that’s exactly what happened. I told our team after the game, it’s useless to put all of the theories into play of what could happen. People are going to ask you, ‘Well were you all this…were you all that…were you still thinking about….’ All of that is a useless conversation at this point. We have to look at tape, we have to look at tackling better, recovering better, throwing it better, catching it better, we have to look at alignments, we have to look at every detail of the football end of things because you can’t just magically get better. You have to focus on the things that you can control. My job will be to look at a lot of things surrounding our team to make sure that as we move forward, our emotions, and our energy are in tact to prepare against Pittsburgh. So I do have to deal with that, but again, to sit and tread…we just got whipped, badly, in every aspect. So we will study it like we always do, we’ll have our Sunday like we always do, and I expect our team to respond. It’s as simple as that, we have a very proud program, and I expect us to respond in a big way.”
On team leadership
“This is when you’re tested and I addressed that in there (locker room). The best part of us is that we have each other. There are a lot of things that you can through in life that are tougher than setbacks in football games. Sometimes they are thrown on us individually in life, they’ll find that out. Thank goodness you’re part of a great team and in this regard we have each other. We can certainly lift each other as we move forward.
On the pass rush
“I think that’s part of it. They do a good job with their pass protection system. The other part of it is, when we get back there some we couldn’t get him (Marquise Williams) on the ground. He is a big, physical, athletic guy and he out performed us. All day long, I thought he made great decisions within their offense and got the ball were it needed to be. There wasn’t anything to, ‘dial-up’ is kind of what you’re referring to and you just have to cont
inue to try to play more soundly when you get in that mode.”
North Carolina Head Coach Larry Fedora
Opening Statement
“I am really proud of our football team today. We came into the Tar Pit and played a really good Duke football team and our guys did well. We can be better, I can assure you. We didn’t play a complete game in all three phases and our guys in that locker room they know that. They are excited we are 8 -1 but they also know we can be better then we were so we are still striving to do that and hopefully we will show that next week.”
First Play of the Game – Flea-Flicker To Ryan Swizter
“We saw what we wanted in the secondary and we thought we had that play against them and when we looked down and saw that it was there we just went with it. The guys executed it flawlessly. Great throw, a lot of moving parts to that play and the guys executed and I am proud of them.”
On Elijah Hood
“Elijah runs the play hard, guys love blocking for him, and he’s a great kid.”
On Marquise Williams
“He was great today. It started with his leadership throughout the game. He just knew that if we took care of the football that we would win the football game and he was talking about that throughout the game. He did a great job of leading and his passing was pinpoint. He spun it really well.”
On teamwork
“It’s all about taking care of each other. It doesn’t matter how we do it, we are 8-1. Now the key is getting to be 9-1.”
On peaking throughout the week and the season
“You want to be playing your best ball in November. You hope your team is better the last game than you were the first game. Our team is continuing to grow. There are going to be some down ticks but you gotta make sure you bounce back and this team has done that. A word that we use is there is a lot of grit in this team. We like that, we think that is one of the key predictors of success. This team has grit.
On scoring 66 on a great defense
“I have pretty high expectations for our offense that is why I am never happy but I mean we left some out there today. We have the potential to be really good.”
Opening Statement
“Well, congratulations to North Carolina, they played extremely well. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen as many explosive plays executed as their offense did. I thought their Quarterback played exceptionally well, they didn’t turn the ball over, we turned the ball over 3 times. You give up explosives and a game can get away from you and that’s exactly what happened. I told our team after the game, it’s useless to put all of the theories into play of what could happen. People are going to ask you, ‘Well were you all this…were you all that…were you still thinking about….’ All of that is a useless conversation at this point. We have to look at tape, we have to look at tackling better, recovering better, throwing it better, catching it better, we have to look at alignments, we have to look at every detail of the football end of things because you can’t just magically get better. You have to focus on the things that you can control. My job will be to look at a lot of things surrounding our team to make sure that as we move forward, our emotions, and our energy are in tact to prepare against Pittsburgh. So I do have to deal with that, but again, to sit and tread…we just got whipped, badly, in every aspect. So we will study it like we always do, we’ll have our Sunday like we always do, and I expect our team to respond. It’s as simple as that, we have a very proud program, and I expect us to respond in a big way.”
On team leadership
“This is when you’re tested and I addressed that in there (locker room). The best part of us is that we have each other. There are a lot of things that you can through in life that are tougher than setbacks in football games. Sometimes they are thrown on us individually in life, they’ll find that out. Thank goodness you’re part of a great team and in this regard we have each other. We can certainly lift each other as we move forward.
On the pass rush
“I think that’s part of it. They do a good job with their pass protection system. The other part of it is, when we get back there some we couldn’t get him (Marquise Williams) on the ground. He is a big, physical, athletic guy and he out performed us. All day long, I thought he made great decisions within their offense and got the ball were it needed to be. There wasn’t anything to, ‘dial-up’ is kind of what you’re referring to and you just have to cont
inue to try to play more soundly when you get in that mode.”
North Carolina Head Coach Larry Fedora
Opening Statement
“I am really proud of our football team today. We came into the Tar Pit and played a really good Duke football team and our guys did well. We can be better, I can assure you. We didn’t play a complete game in all three phases and our guys in that locker room they know that. They are excited we are 8 -1 but they also know we can be better then we were so we are still striving to do that and hopefully we will show that next week.”
First Play of the Game – Flea-Flicker To Ryan Swizter
“We saw what we wanted in the secondary and we thought we had that play against them and when we looked down and saw that it was there we just went with it. The guys executed it flawlessly. Great throw, a lot of moving parts to that play and the guys executed and I am proud of them.”
On Elijah Hood
“Elijah runs the play hard, guys love blocking for him, and he’s a great kid.”
On Marquise Williams
“He was great today. It started with his leadership throughout the game. He just knew that if we took care of the football that we would win the football game and he was talking about that throughout the game. He did a great job of leading and his passing was pinpoint. He spun it really well.”
On teamwork
“It’s all about taking care of each other. It doesn’t matter how we do it, we are 8-1. Now the key is getting to be 9-1.”
On peaking throughout the week and the season
“You want to be playing your best ball in November. You hope your team is better the last game than you were the first game. Our team is continuing to grow. There are going to be some down ticks but you gotta make sure you bounce back and this team has done that. A word that we use is there is a lot of grit in this team. We like that, we think that is one of the key predictors of success. This team has grit.
On scoring 66 on a great defense
“I have pretty high expectations for our offense that is why I am never happy but I mean we left some out there today. We have the potential to be really good.”
