Coach Clawson Postgame Press Conference vs. NC A&T (Aug. 29, 2024)

excitement all right well first off uh thanks to our our students and our fans who came out uh you know again it's it's always good when you get a win um and these are the games that you're expected to win we we got off to a little bit of a slow start I thought uh offensively we left some explosive plays on the field I think we dropped like three or four post routes in the first half uh but then in the second half we got in a uh you know a bit of a rhythm you know and our our our best offensive players made plays so you know deont Clayborn uh had a big game for us uh Taylor Moren had a really big game for us and the punt return really kind of broke the game open I thought that was a huge you know momentum changing play it was great to see Donovan Green get a touchdown and then the big catch he made down the sidelines uh on defense you know we gave up a lot of rushing yard I thought we lost missed a lot of tackles which sometimes happens game one that's something we got to get cleaned up but the ball didn't get over our head you know the positive is we didn't turn it over on offense the negative is we didn't get it turned it up on get it turned over on defense uh so it's like a lot of game ones there's a lot to clean up a lot of things we got to get better at and really with this football team our commitment to get better I think will really determine what type of year we have uh you know I I I think North Carolina & is a very improved team that team they put out there was a lot better than the team we saw in film last year and I think Coach Brown and his staff are uh are on the right track but uh again I wish we' have started faster but I don't think it's necessarily A Bad Thing to to face a little adversity like that and and bounce back from it fire away to see I mean yeah I mean in some ways I I don't know if it was fair to Michael that some of those balls got dropped on them right if we catch so the the plan was that we were going to give Michael the first two to three series and then give Hank the next two to three and then what happened was they drained so much time and you know the last two drives of the half Hank led us on a touchdown and a field goal drive and uh you know so we thought we should give him the start in the second half and then every drive we scored and then we wanted to get Michael in there with about you know eight or seven minutes left and then we just drained so much clock so we wanted to get Michael back in in the second half and and give him playing time and you know if you look at the game I mean they had the ball for 36 minutes so um you know and to me the good thing is we didn't give up you know the balls over our head but we gave up a lot of yards yardage and missed a lot of tackles and you know when when you're a an FCS team playing up you know that's that's what they do you know Norfolk did that a a few years ago against us and and they did a good job playing keep away um but again in the second half we we were a lot more efficient on offense does that mean it's still an open well I mean Tony come on you think I'm going to come into a press conference after a game and announce what we're going to do yeah it's there a lot of things I try that don't work so I knew you'd ask the question though get back out there yeah it's just great to see him I mean the he's a Difference Maker when he's healthy and even the the screen he ran for the touchdown like the cool thing now is we have those iPads so we can watch the video he broke three tackles he's a he's a grown strong fast man and when he's out there and he healthy he's one of our difference makers and you know if we're going to have a good season this year you know deont Clayborn is going to have to have 100 yard rushing games and Taylor Marin and Donovan Green are going to have to have 100 yard receiving games and uh you know we were only allowed to play Donovan um you know about 20 we were only allowed to play him 20 plays today and see how he did and he came out of it healthy and so hopefully next week you know we'll get him for more of the game but but you know Dean ran for 135 and Taylor had 100 yards receiving and if Donovan gets a full game you know he had 72 yards and a limited action um the other guy I was really impressed with today was Deuce you know when he gets out there the moment's not too big for him he really does and some of those other receivers got out there and it's the first time they played um and they struggled a little bit you know I think Michael will be better next week because of this week it was good to see Walker respond you know he dropped the one but then he came back and had a few nice catches that one on the sidelines was a beautiful catch uh it was good to see Horatio make the play on the slant get up the field so again I mean you play these games and you're expected to win them and you're expected to win them by a lot and sometimes you come out of it and you never feel as good as you'd like to but they have good players too and their guys are on scholarship and we uh you know responded well in the second half uh you know it was an uneasy feeling halfway through the second quarter but that's kind of every game clearly have the season you you're going to need to build some dep across the field seemed like in the second half your CH on the defensive line you know really struggled kind of stop in that run game you had to bring your ones back in to hopefully get the Stop and avoid more points getting on the board I mean we we were committed to playing a lot of players to today like we went into this game saying if we're going to have a good year we're going to have to build depth so we were committed to playing five or six defensive ends and five tackles and and a bunch of corners and a bunch of receivers and two different tight ends and if we had Michael frog would' play a third and so I just think we went into this game saying regardless of the score that we have to play a bunch of people so that they get game action and so we're not sticking them out there for the first time in the third quarter against Virginia Old Miss and and we just have to we had to live with their mistakes and they made mistakes you know Micah May a few times you know ran the wrong route and didn't go the right way and and he'll he'll be better next week because of it you know I always remember 2016 when we played Tain you know those receivers were a mess and they turned out to be pretty good players and the first time guys get in games they're going to have a little anxiety and butterflies and it's different than practice and uh again hopefully we'll they'll be better for it and hopefully we'll be better for it but it gets cranked up here pretty quickly so the value is given that experience now sh the tape but learning from it yeah and it's only valuable if they actually learn from it I mean that's again I I've said to you what I've told the team right I mean I've had teams that the year start and you know it's going to be a long year and I've had teams if I could just get them the dress and the bus to show up we were probably going to win nine games and then there's a lot of teams that are in between this team's in between um this team if they stick together and work hard and improve and play clean football and do little things right I think we have a chance to have a good season and if we don't do those things and we don't take those things to Heart uh it's going to it can to be a hard year and uh time will tell so we we'll have a really really good test a week from Saturday when Virginia comes in here five penties one of line feel little like de last yeah bothers me I mean last year we had 23 FAL starts on offense and one of our goals was to not have any today so and um I always do two Eric um every time I sneeze Eric goes and whatever it is I always sneeze twice um yeah that bothers me and that's cost one of us cost you know Hanks cost us a touchdown um and then you know the other one really put us in a third and long um and we had I knew we had three I I guess we had four so yeah that's I one of our goals was to play clean and we we can't have that and you know when you play Virginia and Old Miss and some of the other people on our schedule third and Eight's going to be a tough down he just he played clean he got out there and when he he moved the team and again I fairness to Michael I think if that one post ball gets caught there's probably a whole different feeling about it but you know we we told them that they would play equal time in the first half and then again I just thought that Hank moved the team at the end of the first half led us to a touchdown we had a good two-minute drive and I gave him the start in the second half and just the the Reps and the rotation got a little out of whack because of the punt return and you know we didn't stop through they made a lot of they made a lot of first downs um how many did they make 22 they held the ball for 36 minutes so I'm sure there's a lot of guys on offense that wish they had got more time and more carries but that that happens you have games like that guys talking that being running a couple really ni runs how do you feel like he played obviously being I mean he's he's a when he's healthy he's a stud he's really he's he's a Difference Maker he's an impact player and I mean it's uh he he's got to be every if we're going to win this year he's got to rack up a lot of H 100 yard games and make a lot of big plays and uh you know that's just again the nature of college football is we had two good backs last year and we kind of committed to demand as being the starter and so the other guy kind of decided that he was going to leave and fortunately um you know we have Tate Carney and Ty Clark I think is going to be a good player I wish we could have played him a little bit more it would have been nice to get him a little bit more game action but uh you know when we put our second defense out there they just kind of March down the field and and uh they didn't score but it just they took up a lot of time I mean when we scored the the last touchdown with 522 back I was hoping we could get the ball back with like three minutes and let some of those guys play but um you know it's you your your best players got to play well to beat good teams and so when I look at the stat line today I'm saying if if we're going to win against good competition you know daman's going to have to have games like that Taylor Donnie Deuce you know our Playmakers are going to have to make plays good all right all right thank go ahead anything else all right thanks for being here