P.J. Fleck reacts after 19-17 loss to North Carolina: 'This is a team loss'

first and foremost I want to thank all of our fans coming out for the gold out creating an elite environment for our student athletes and what an environment it was you know braving the elements especially push back with the delay so I just want to say thank you to all of our student body welcome all the freshmen um appreciate all the support from all of our fans I mean the gold out look great and you're talking about you know an hour delay and the weather that was going on today so uh just can't thank them enough second you got to give North Carolina a lot of credit those are two really evenly matched teams in my opinion went back and forth back and forth and and uh that's type of game you wish you could play Just 60 more minutes um you know because it's it's such a great game I told our team at the very end this a team loss you know period uh this isn't lost by one person this isn't lost by one play we had a lot of opportunities on offense and defense and special teams uh just like they did uh there's going to be a lot of plays that North Carolina want back we want back um this is where you grow the most and um you know I'm really proud of our team's resolve and their fight and what they were able to do to come back the way they did and especially when I think everybody thought we were kind of down and out and couldn't get anything going and then bang we got things going had a great defensive stop went right down the field unfortunately there were a lot of things that happened tonight um that are uncharacteristic of our football teams uh with some penalties and some crucial situations and uh a lot of them are hustle mistakes um you know the ones that cost us the most and you know I can live with those things but it's the other things um that that really kind of bite you so uh but uh they were untimely for sure uh for us and you know I'm just I I told them I said this is a long season though and uh you know last year we're sitting here same type of yardage and we're one and0 and same type of situation and we're 0 and one um but this is where you grow the most as a football team I don't believe in you grow the most from game one to two I think you grow every game uh but we wanted to be one and0 tonight we weren't we're 0 and one just for tonight and then we'll move on and we'll look to hopefully be one and0 next week and get better and get back to a lot of our basics and um and get our football team better so with that open up questions BJ with there commonalities and some of the miscues and and issues that you had to kind of consistently get going all you're talking about the penalty part or the execution piece both just on offense are you talking about offense offense yeah I think you got to give North Carolina some credit on that um you know they they I think game one you're you're feeling each other out pretty pretty good um you know especially at the beginning you've got new defensive coordinators on both sides and I think that it you got to give both coordinators credit for creating a lot of chaos on both both sides I think we went pretty simple as we got towards that middle of that second quarter and you saw us be able to run a little bit more more of the inside zones and the outside zones and and I think that settled our guys down a little bit if you got right back to like day one install basic and we were able to do some things there which was good um you know I thought that you know we didn't have we couldn't get our defense off in the second half and you know it's hard to be able to get into a rhythm when you're three and out and then you have I know four plays in the third quarter I mean that's what you were usually doing on the other side and but when you feel it on the other side that's what that's what's damaging uh but I'm really proud of the resolve in the last Drive of being able to get that ball down the field the way they did give us an opportunity even after the holding call get us right back in it um and I thought our defense played incredibly hard um the problem was in my opinion is first and second down in the Run game uh we gave too much up and you know four yards five yards and then it was second and manageable second and second and four second and five and next thing you know it's third third one and amarian I mean he just he just Falls forward he's got huge legs and Falls forward for a first down and we just couldn't get off the field and um you know that ultimately cost us multiple field goals got to give their kid a lot of credit made a lot of kicks tonight in a lot of tough situations and and um got to give him credit so again we got a lot to learn uh got to you know grow continue to grow up and continue to get better and we will first half did you feel your offense responded with you the defense was getting off the field then with the interception yeah I I think that you know every play is its own entity and every play is you know it's it's it's its own play in itself and you know we do everything we can not to sit there and say hey we rely on momentum you know me I I I don't believe in that every plays its own play and you get to create whatever you want on that particular play so uh it was just we couldn't get off the field on defense Randy and you know we just weren't executing well enough on on offense whether it was a whether we had a drop or whether we had you know pressure or whether you know we got out of the we fumbled I mean there were some things we were doing that you know that we we can't do to win football games and uh we did those and you touch the stove enough you're going to get burned PJ uh speaking of that defensive coordinator their new one yeah they did stunt a lot was that a surprise at all are you talking about North Carolina yeah they moved a lot I mean they had a lot of people in the Box they were bringing them from everywhere um you know they're really good you you saw them they're big up front they're big they're athletic they got everybody back you all know that I mean I think they had seven of the eight up front guys back and um they're tough to move uh they're really athletic they can not only just muscle you but they can get around blocks really quickly and you start getting them laterally and you start getting them stunting and then you're bringing a safety down in the boxes with it I mean um you know they created some issues for us and I thought we made some really good adjustments uh but it you know we needed to be able to throw the football uh and that last Drive I was really proud that we were able to do that and get the ball down the field and just too many too many things that if you do you're going to get beat and uncharacteristic things that that we did tonight that um allowed us to get beat you've coached a lot of football games where does tonight rank among the ones with the most amount of missed opportunities um I'm not here to compare it to be honest Ryan I'm not here to compare it to other games I mean a game every game's its own entity just like each play uh tonight we didn't do enough to win the football game period you know um close losses are really hard to swallow but I've coached a lot of football too Ryan where blowouts are really hard to swallow too and those are you know when you when you get beat pretty good that's that that that's a tough pill to swallow so any type of loss is really hard on a football team because you put so much into it and we had every opportunity to keep doing it and it it's there it's there it's there and we just didn't take advantage of it enough but you know it's they're they're all painful um but 24 hours you know we're going to make sure that we digest this and uh learn from it and then we will move on and uh we look forward to Rhode Island PJ I want to ask about one play in particular end of the first quarter third and goal at the 10 take Daniel Jackson out run Dem Marcus major walk us through kind of the thought process on that one well defensively in terms of what they were going to do and what you know what package they were going to be in uh we felt like we had a really good opportunity um you know again we're not just going to just because we're at the nine doesn't mean the best runs not the best plays not a run in a certain certain position it's not mean oh we just playing it safe we're not I mean we threw the football a lot we also threw the football and got sacked we threw the football and got a lot of pressure on us there's a lot of times in a close game points matter and I'm I'm going off based on what I feel we can do and what we're not able to do and what's the best situation and what's the best call in that particular situation by what's being shown and that's what we're all doing you know and that's that's coaching I mean you're making the best decision that you can possibly make at that particular time of the game you know you know you're always going to go back as a head coach look at all the calls look at everything offensively defensively special teams of how we as coordinators and head coaches can grow too uh about where we have to grow the most and and how we can make our team better you talked about Amari Hampton on the other side where he's able to make people Miss break tackles his legs kind of not having Darius Taylor today in those sense that he can break those tackles make Jack sh man miss how close is he and is there a specific type of injury that he has and he's close to being oh he's really close uh he was he was really close from being out there um but you know I don't make those decisions I support them 100% I just I just I don't make them we have a whole medical staff that makes all those things I know he was disappointed and he really wants to go and but our medical staff always has our players you know best interest at heart and they're going to make those decisions but he'll be ready very soon um I think there was a combination of am Marian's really good a really good tailback I think when we're go back through the film and we missed a lot of tackles you know we were diving a little bit more than we needed to we were hitting up high when we should have went low uh hitting low when we probably should have went High um there's going to be some things that we see on film with that I thought we could have done a better job of tackling I thought they did a better job of tackling in a lot of areas and we did um so we got to grow DJ when it comes to your Red Zone execution today what what did you not like from what you saw like getting terms of settling field goal attempts and not punching it like what wasn't working in the Red Zone tonight when U just I mean a few things I mean you're going to go I I I I'd have to I'm going to go back and look at the film uh to be really honest with you I that's a hard question for me to answer not seeing the whole thing but you're seeing it on tablets you know um spacing um you know we got some pressure uh what we're seeing you know I'll have to go back and look at it but we didn't execute I do know that but they didn't execute too and they settled for a lot of field goals they just made more than we did one or two more for Coach how do you assess Max's debut um I I thought that you know if I'm being honest I mean uh you know I think it took him a little bit to settle in but once he settled in he looked like the guy that i' i' seen for a long time and um I would have loved for you know everything to go a little bit better for everybody uh but I saw a lot of things that I've seen for a long time and uh he's a really good kid really good quarterback got great character and uh I he showed a lot of moments like that and uh you know so he's got to get better he knows that we got to get him better uh but I loved his leadership you know and he's a competitor he really is and uh but there's some things that we got to get better of course but you know just got to keep getting better mixed in newer Blitz is on third down with Coach hetherman trying to kind of speeding up the new quarterbacks both Harold and Johnson just was that a kind of the game plan going in yeah it was you know it was I mean we felt like we didn't know which one we were going to see we knew we'd see both at some point unfortunately with Max's injury you know hope he's okay and we send our thoughts and prayers to him and um but you know that was the whole thing we wanted to be able to create some chaos and we didn't know which one we were going to be able to see but if we let those two sit back there and just pick defenses apart I mean we weren't going to we were going to give up a lot of points uh but I thought we called a really good game on defense just we we just gave up too many on on the first and second down Run game early uh in the in the in the second half and you know that was unfortunate so we were out there a little bit too long I mean I think the time of possessions equal but felt like we were on the field a lot longer than they were fin one for coach or everyone else what do you think of the way Marcus major ran and I thought he ran really hard I I I think we've got some really good tailbacks here uh I'm really excited about the stable that we have uh including getting Darius back I feel really good about where we're at that position I thought he ran really hard you know I think he's an exceptional back really good person uh great worker and again I mean you know you do a few things right and we have a different you know feel in in in in this press conference you know but you don't and you get to be on the other side of it and those those are the the hard pills to swallow so as a whole again team loss team loss we didn't play well enough to win tonight North Carolina made one more play than we did and and we had our opportunities you know but I do know this character of this football team I do know these young men and uh they're goingon to bounce back I know that all right thank you thanks everybody roll the boat Sky M Go Gophers thank you