Nov. 1, 2003

Recap| Box Score| Notes| Photo Gallery

Maryland Head Coach Ralph Friedgen

Opening Comment:
"I thought our offense played very, very well. I think they went out and played the way they are capable of playing. I want to give special mention to the offensive line, because they had a tough week just like we all did. I think any time you run the ball and throw the ball as well as we did, someone there is doing something that's right. It gives them character. I know it was important for them to do well today. I was worried about this game very, very much. Carolina is a team that play's hard - I thought they played hard today."

On the Terps' offensive attack:
"If you have good coverage, that dictates where the ball is going. Our whole offense is not saying, `We're going to throw the ball to Steve Suter, or we're going to throw the ball to JoJo Walker.' Sometimes you can get them with the first read, but what happens when you take that away? You have to be ready to go somewhere else."

On his outlook for the game:
"I thanked the kids after the game because I was worried I wasn't reaching them. They needed something like this to help them get their confidence. I told them last night that I just wanted them to play with their hearts and pride - pride in themselves, pride in their team, pride in their unit, pride in their condition - and do it for 60 minutes and have fun. I said let's not play the game like we have a 100-pound weight on their shoulders."

On facing upcoming opponent Virginia:
"The thing about the Virginia game - it's now a rivalry. Before we got here it was 10-straight years where we hadn't beaten Virginia. I think it's good for the conference. I'm sure [Virginia] had a big circle on the calendar for us last year. It's going to be a good, hard-hitting football game. The stadium is going to be electric. They are going to be jammed in the seats all over this place. It's what I envision football should be at Byrd Stadium. And I think our kids will be ready to play."

Nick Novak:
"The offence has finally showed some signs of life. Our receivers showed a high level of confidence. Everyone just went out and had fun while playing hard. I think other games some players were real tense. All phases of the game looked sharp because everyone was doing their job."

On the upcoming Virginia game:
"I'm really looking forward to the Virginia game. I really wanted to be perfect today. I have had too many two for three games, I just wanted to give everything I had. I really focused in on my kick-offs, because their returner is dangerous. I just wanted to put it in the end zone. I was pretty happy with my performance."

Domonique Foxworth:
On his key interception:

"It is really nice to feel that I made a pivotal play in this big game and helped turn the game around. I fell really proud about that, but I give credit to the whole defensive line. We were in cover one so it wasn't even my man but Dennard had him pretty well covered and he was pushed outside which allowed me to make that interception.

Scott McBrien
On his career day:
I felt like I didn't have anything to lose. That's how I approached this game today. I felt very comfortable coming into the game. I was very loose, I wasn't uptight and I was just going out there and throwing the ball and I wasn't worried if it was going to be caught, dropped or intercepted. I went out there and winged it. I was comfortable in my reads and I was going to the right receivers and they made great plays for me.

Steve Suter
On the offensive outburst:
This is what we've been shooting for all year and we finally got everything rolling on all cylinders. Everything was clicking and that's what we can do when we play well. The defense was getting turnovers and we were able to capitalize on them. Anytime we come out and put up that much offense, teams are going to have to take notice.

North Carolina Head Coach John Bunting
Opening statement:
"We played a quarter and a half of football. After that it got very ugly. I'm very disappointed for...the Tar Heel faithful. I don't have an explanation, but I take responsibility for not getting the team ready to play."

On the team's overall performance:
"Things went from bad to worse to worst. What's a worse word than worst? How about disaster? It went from bad to worse to disaster. The team unraveled during that four- or five-minute stretch before halftime. Give credit to [Maryland quarterback Scott] McBrien. That kid is a playmaker. We couldn't get the quarterback down. We were close, but we couldn't quite make it [and] we needed to make those plays to stay in the game, but we didn't."

On the state of the North Carolina program:
"It's going to take a while to get the job done. We need to coach better, continue to recruit student-athletes who love football and are academically talented. We need our young players to improve. We have a lot of talent and we have very good kids. It's just going to take time."

North Carolina wide receiver Mike Mason
On the team's overall performance:
"We get more frustrated every week. We practice so hard and we always start out good. We were keeping up with them at first. I thought we could [hang] in there all game and things just went downhill."

On his 96-yard kickoff return:
"It was supposed to be [Michael] Waddell on a fake reverse. But it came to me and I was kind of shocked. I just went ahead and faked the reverse and I guess they fell for it. I saw the kicker and I had to make a move on him."

On the coaches' halftime talk:
"They told us we had to come back out hard and don't give up. Never give up, play hard, [and] go all out. They told us we have to go out and execute all our plays, play like we're supposed to play...with a lot of heart."

Darian Durant
On the team's performance:
"We just have to play both the sides of the ball. The defense has to stop people and the offense has to score. We started off real well in the first quarter, but we just didn't finish the game."

On getting an early lead:
"We saw early that we could make plays against their defense. It was just a matter of us [failing to] execute."