P.J. Fleck on kicker Dragan Kesich after UNC loss: 'I will always believe in him'

thanks for being here uh I just want to start by just giving our best wishes and uh thoughts and prayers to Max Johnson as he continues to recover from his injury um I know we've reached out to him and and I know he's going through some some hard times right now and and uh so just want to extend our um thoughts and prayers to his family and the Tar Hill family as uh Mass continues to heal so hope for a really speedy recovery for him I know that's really unfortunate for him so um you know disappointing that we lost the game uh simple as that you know it was a really good football game when you look at an opener you took it at two two teams that are pretty equal even when you go to the stat sheet pretty equal in terms of how that game went um and uh somebody had a win somebody had to lose and we had every opportunity to win that football game and we didn't and uh they took advantage and um you know and and we didn't so very simple when you kind of go back and look at it obviously when you go back and look at it you got to dissect it what we have to really get better at where we have to take the next right step uh team was eager to do that which I'm really proud of them for that and U look forward to responding this week so with that open up for questions PJ it look like there was one pass over 20 yards it was the DPI to Daniel Jackson on the fourth on the last Drive of the fourth quarter how did you look at at kind of the D passing game where do you want to take steps in that you got to be able to you got to be able to hold up in protection too I mean you saw I mean Jeff Collins I don't know you studied Jeff Collins at all and Jeff will bring a ton of pressure so by the time you get to your third or fourth step you better get that ball out of your hand and um you know we we called you know there were 30 passes I think that we actually called when you look at the actual total play so technically 50/50 Max had to take off and run with some um you know it's got to be able to set up well got to be able to have the right defense there's times where we do have some people that are running down the field and we just don't hold up in protection or they got one more guy free than we do uh to block so those are those are things you obviously want to do but it's not every time you're just you know this isn't backyard football you're just like throw the bomb you know we got to be able to hold protection you got to be able to have it in the right call you got you know the right defenses and uh you know they did a really good job in a lot of different areas too but um you know we did throw the ball down the field a few times which you know and that I think we only had 55 plays something like that you only had four plays in the third quarter so on that protection how do you evaluate the JB bu Old Line did uh I I we've got a lot of room for improvement I think uh at times were really good I think we were really solid especially with some of the difficulty of the stunts blitzes that Jeff brings some of the things we saw some of the things that were new but I think it's just the consistency level of that it's one guy here or there and we've got you know four guys really helding up Protection One offensive lineman leaning and next thing you know the guy beats him and then creates a rush creates pressure we got to step up and can't let the play develop I thought when we were able to to do that sorry that we're able to do that we were able to to throw it after the first quarter after we settled down I I think we're able to do that really well in the last two drives without show that you talked after the game about uncharacteristic things on offense defense and special teams now that you've had some time to look at the tape why do you think it was that way well I think part of it is just football I really do I mean we don't get called for that many penalties in that crucial of some situations I mean it just it wasn't the penalty it wasn't the crucial piece of what happened with that we recover a fumble inside the 10 we got defensive holding down the field that's a huge flip in the play they score seven points on that probably score a touchdown on that that's a 14-point swing um so those are some of the things that when I said that are uncharacteristic that's what it is you know even in the last uh you know we run the ball to the 18 yard line different field goal at that situation you know at the very end of the game we get a holding call uncharacteristic for our guy to do that uh in that particular situation with that type of Leverage lost so um those are the things I've met PJ uh speaking of the offensive line again is it a matter of them staying at home or better communication is there particular Focus this week oh yeah I we have a whole Focus as an offense we talked about the ball I mean we fumble the football one time but it's a costly fumble you know we don't get on another fumble that they have we fumble a um a ball inside you know our Zone and they recover it um the drop back pass game just in terms of protection everybody's role in that in terms of attention to detail um and then you know being able to score touchdowns inside the green zone period you know I mean that's what we all everybody wants to do that I want to make sure I make that very clear it's it's not like we I enjoy field goals more than touchdowns I mean no nobody does uh but there's games we've won here 12 to 10 and that's what was required to win the football game um you know at you know we're kicking a field goal at the beginning of the game it's z z you got to get some type of points on the board uh and you know we we throw the first half you're going to go go down the first that that first drive we at z00 we score the field goal I mean you got to go in there and do something and we go down there get the ball tipped uh on first down we run the ball for no game you run the ball again to be able to get maybe half that back maybe not even half that back maybe get inside the five and make a fourth down call because if you don't get the fourth down that's fine they got the ball inside the five and the defense is playing really good so you know there's all those different things that come into play but you know obviously touchdowns are the focus but those are the things we talked about on offense that we need to be able to continue to get better at and then the consist consistency of all of it working together let's not forget this is a really good North Carolina team I mean this this team's going to compete for the ACC title I think we're a really good football team and kicking off week one I mean those are the games that you kind of go into and you know you find out a lot about your team in the middle of the game and then when you look after the game because you're playing a really good opponent that's almost like looking in a mirror um and somebody's going to win that that football game going into that I don't get to tell all of you this but in my mind first one to 20 was going to win that game you look at the defenses you look at the familiar the familiarities with each each other playing each other last year a lot of guys returning um you know they like to run the football we like to be able to run the football but I mean we attempted again attempted 30 passes we had 507 plays I mean that's close to 50/50 as you can get you know for us and uh and I thought it was uh we just had some really key mistakes and some and critical situations and I know our guys are eager to get those uh get those changed and with all that you know still got a chance at the very end in the final second to win the game PJ what the film tell you about your uh team's tackling I I thought there was some really good tackles I thought there was some some tackles that were you know not exactly up to expectation so yesterday I practiced went right back to the tackling circuit and I think it's one thing to like okay you can scrimmage and scrim we don't scrimmage all the way up to you go play uh you have a few scrimmages throughout training camp um you do everything you can to you know to keep your guys healthy and keep them up when you're not scrimmaging but I think there's a difference when you go out and play an opponent like North Carolina with one of the best backs in the country uh who's you know kind of reminds me of Muhammad Ibraham maybe a little bit obviously faster and things like that but the way you hit him he continues to go forward and it doesn't matter if Cody lindenberg was hitting him or Aiden guby was hitting him he was moving forward and so we just got to be able to run our feet on contact and I thought we tackled really well uh in some areas and then other areas um we didn't tackle so well but I love the effort of the way we played and the fearlessness we played with the tackling I think that was that was impressive impressive for me is to watch our guys how they flew around I mean that was if you if you were down on that field that was a violent football game on both sides I mean that was a very physical football game and uh you know probably both teams woke up probably feeling that the next morning but that was a very very physical game for week one what did you what did you learn about brosmer in that last Drive specifically and what can he build on from now yeah I mean he's he's he's so talented and I think after he settled down I think everybody kind of saw what he can do uh everybody's got to be able to help him out um you know we all got to be able to help each other out but I thought you know a little inconsistent early about once he settled down and got comfortable I thought he looked like what we've seen all the time in training camp and he's a competitor even when you see him go get those first downs um you know unfortunately you know we had one fumble he'll learn from that but you know he's a competitor so I I I don't I don't know if I necessarily learned a ton except verified exactly what he is and who he is and now we just got to be better PJ you saw Cory what Mark he was able to put on this defense this week obviously a lot of pressure packages a lot of DBS coming how did you feel like things got when you guys brought pressure yeah I think that when we talked you know earlier you kind of asked me what I thought I said the the multitude of what we can actually do uh the variety of that we have uh for everything that we could do on defense um you know I think that's what you saw on on Thursday we we we can do a lot with different people we have a lot of different different packages we played a lot of players when you look from top to bottom you look at the participation report we played more guys in probably a week one than we've played I'm talking we're talking about power four or whatever you want to call it football um you know where it's really close games against really good opponents and we played a ton of guys and I think that gives us the versatility on defense that uh we're looking for um you know as we continue to move forward we're going to continue to be M multiple and even more versatile and and hopefully just keep people guessing as we go forward but I thought they played incredibly hard on the other side Jeff Collins and what he does and the pressure packages he has and he brings and the confusion he can create on defense it was interesting because we knew each other but the defense side of the ball was both new on both sides and I think that's it took some teams or it took our teams a little bit to get used to that and it took either a mistake or here or there to kind of get people going and then everybody got in the flow of the game but uh I like where we are on the defense side of the ball uh with what we're doing and how we're doing it we just again we just have to do it better I mean I thought we played incredibly hard exceptionally well we break contain on one of the quarterbacks runs and they score on that drive um you know we we we drop a coverage we leave one of our receivers and you know they get that huge play going in to to take the lead so I mean there's things you can always do better you know Randy brought up the tackling I mean we can we can tackle better but those are things you find out every single team 67 of the 134 uh are are either really excited today or they're really upset today you and again don't give me WR some played in in in Ireland a week ago I get all that but you know there's 67 fan bases that that are upset right now uh there's there's 67 head coaches that are scratching their head going okay man we got to you're 0 and one and some are one and0 and that that's college football what you have to be able to do is understand that it's a one game season and that's all it was was one game against opponent that was very similar to us um and I thought our guys competed their tail ends off they played so darn hard and it's just you know it's unfortunate how it played out but I told you first one the 20 was going to be able to win that football game you know we miss a really short field goal early we missed one at the end that would ended up being 23 points but you know that's football yeah you just you can analyze it and look back on it and that's what you do we do the same thing all the media does we do it in a very different way uh but we all look back at what we could do differently and how one thing affected another thing and you take it squeeze all the juice from the orange learn and then you move on to the next week anything you can pinpoint on those two misfield goals I thought he hit the first one incredibly clean that thing almost went over the the near upright um we we coach leeski talked a little bit about him just some technique things with his foot things like that but I have 100% confidence in Dr you all know how much confidence I mean three years ago I put him at Iowa with I don't know was a 58 59 yard or something like that at Iowa I've always believed in him and I always will believe in him I think he's one of the best kickers in the country um you know there's not one NFL kicker right well I can't say that um there's not a lot of NFL kickers who go 100% every single year there are Miss field goals unfortunately it came in some really tough times for us in the uh in the game especially the last one but he responded really well he was devastated after the game as you can imagine uh because they put so much into it I mean we're like any other team you put so much into it and um but it wasn't that kick that lost us the game there were so many other things that made us lose that football game from offense defense special teams and we just didn't execute at a high enough level to beat a team like North Carolina if we make that field goal at the End North Carolina is probably saying the same thing I just said we just didn't do enough to win that football game and the margin for air is really small that situation where you can't wait to get him back out there again kind like relever has a bad outing the manag wants that's a I'd love that you brought that up because that was my message to him in the locker room afterwards the whole team the whole team was like let's just ask him if they'll go play one more time let's just see if they'll reset it 60 on the clock we'll count it for another game let's do it again because that's what I wanted that's how I felt after the game I I really like this football team uh I think if you spend time around this football team you know what I'm talking about I love how they compete I love how they play I love how they go about their business I love how connected they are we're really talented in a lot of positions um um but when you're you're walking into that first game as a lot of teams saw this week and you look in a mirror and you see a team very similar to you that's really exciting but at the end of the game you know somebody's got to win somebody's got to lose and you're going to learn from it a lot and I think our guys are going to learn a ton from it but we would have loved to go back out on that field and that's the thing about football you got to wait 10 more days to go back on that field um and they talk about that's the agony of defeat that's what it is because you know you got to wait a whole another week 10 days if you lose your last game you go to wait a whole year to go back on the field um very different than the game of baseball where you can just move on to the next day and get it right the next day where football is a little bit different that way so but I know they're ready they they had you know they they their mindset has been tremendous uh after that and they I know they want to get back on the field I or two more kicker in particular yeah I just talked in the team realm because yeah he fits within the team so I know they all wanted to get back on the field and um I know he would too we came out of practice yesterday and he's the first one out there so that that's what you expect from Jon and he had a great day yesterday and he's always he's had great days I mean you look at him he just it's unfortunate you know but happens and we got to be able to learn from it move on I know he will PG on Thursday you talked about how you don't believe the biggest growth in a team comes between game one and game two why is that part of your philosophy well because if you're always growing right then how is they're the largest growth I've watched teams grow up the most after game six to game seven the light bulb went on and they got it I remember when I was at Western Michigan I think we were one and three or one and four and we're down 20 at halftime against Ball State but the Improvement in that game was very different from the first game to the second game very different I just think that every week gives you different data and gives you more data and it's data not only from that particular week of what you did that week to get better it goes all the way back to the first week so when you're in week n yeah you should be better and work on being better from what the data told you in your last game in week eight to where you want to be in week nine but it's also a culmination of those first seven games before that eighth game was played that's what I've always believed I I believed every week you should be able to change your best I do believe this that in week one you find out a lot about your team more than you knew the whole off season because it's actual proof I mean that's the only data we have in a game is against North Carolina right now that's it so we have to go based on that we can't draw from you know the game in April we we didn't have a game in April we didn't have a game in may you have one game that's what you have to draw from and you have to take that as the concrete data and then move on to game two squeeze all the juice from the orange do everything you can to be better at what you weren't in game one then when you get to game three do the same thing from game one and two and your last game that you really can see is game two so that's what I I've always believe that just even as a player and uh that's what I was taught growing up we'll go ahead and finish with Ryan go ahead if darus Taylor cleared here in the next week or two is there a a decision in your mind to play him versus saving him for Iowa or is that just overthinking it at this point well the good thing about your question is I don't make any of those decisions so I I don't decide whether a player plays and when he comes back and is he 60% in playing I mean our guys get cleared and when they get cleared by the medical staff the training staff then they're ready to play um and then from there you play him as much as you can play them uh but darus is one of our best football players um you know when he's ready and he's healthy he'll be on the football field uh but every game uh we look to be one and0 you know and I think that's what's always been really good about our program is that it doesn't matter who we play uh it's it's about us first of all and then you're looking to be one and0 and that's where your own mindset is and the only mindset you have is it is is on that particular game and we'll do everything we can to get better from this North Carolina game to put our best foot forward against Road Island uh who came off a really good win against Holy Cross uh played really well got a really good quarterback um they're they're a really really good FCS team and I know they'll be hungry to come in here so we've got to make sure that we do what we can to be the best football team we can be we're going to listen to the trainers and the doctors and when they tell us that he's ready then we'll play him all right thank you thank you everyone thanks everybody R the boat Sky Go Go first thanks