Highlights from Tommy Bowden Press Conference

by TigerNet Staff - Tue Oct 14 13:25:50 GMT-04:00 2003

Tommy Bowden Press Conference

On a short week of preparation:

"Sunday is already a work day for us, anyway. You have to condense everything from a gameplan standpoint into a few hours. You just have to spend more time up there (in the office), that's probably the biggest adjustment. You spend a lot of time up there anyway. The time we spend up there has to be organized differently. That's the main difference. You ask a lot more out of your players on Sunday, but it's a lot easier to get them into it coming off a win."

On the part revenge will play Thursday night at N.C. State:

"Revenge is not going to have anything to do with this game. To me, if you start talking too much about revenge, you lose concentration on what you've got to execute as far as your offensive and defensive gameplan. Again, I'm not naïve to the fact that are players are 19 to 20 year olds. I haven't read any newspapers, but I imagine last year's game has been mentioned once or twice on TV, radio, or newspaper. Our players read that stuff. But again, I have not discussed the revenge factor with our staff."

On senior leadership this season:

"It's been real good, and that's why we have to lose a guy like J.J. Howard. He's a fifth-year senior and he's done a real good job from a leadership perspective. Most of the infrastructure of a team is

senior leadership. Guys that have been around and through the wars that know how to approach the game are mostly seniors. That's going to be very important this week."

On the pass defense at N.C. State:

"I think they played Western Carolina in the first game this year. When you get behind, like Western Carolina did, all you do is throw the ball. Texas Tech obviously throws the ball. North Carolina got

behind and threw the ball. So the numbers are kind of deceiving. Ohio State didn't pass for much, but Texas Tech did."

On how to stop Philip Rivers:

"I don't think you can play your base defense against him. Like most good quarterbacks, you need to make it a little more difficult with different coverage and pressure. You need to be a little deceptive

in your coverage and need to be able to apply pressure as well. You have to try and confuse guys like him."

On adjusting to N.C. State short passing game:

"Your plan has got to defense what their best things are. At N.C. State, it's a high-percentage passing game. It's similar to what Virginia did, but they (State) just do it from different formations."

QB Charlie Whitehurst

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"It (ankle) is going to be sore for the next couple of weeks. You don't have time to rest it and let it get better but it didn't slow me down much last week. I don't think it will slow me down much this week.....(what %) 80-90% come game time."

LB John Leake

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(Motivated for this game? )"Everybody in the nation will be watching, everybody from my hometown and Washington and anywhere. It won't be hard especially when we are so close. We are on the verge."

DB Justin Miller

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"I think it's a great chance for us to go out there and show we can play. We played well against some great opponents. They were just not televised."