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North Carolina vs. Virginia
October 16, 2010
Virginia Head Coach Mike London

Opening Statement:
“I am very disappointed for our players, our fans, everyone who supports us. We got beat on the field in a manner that I thought that we wouldn’t. North Carolina brought it to us. We have to play much better. Opportunities that slipped away were evident tonight but we’re not going to tuck our heads. That’s my team and I need to coach them up. There is nobody else to go to. We need to do better in all aspects of the game. Again, I apologize to our fans and the people who come and support us. We didn’t put on a very good showing and that rests with me. I need to better prepare the team to play and be representative of a team I think we can be. We just pick up and move on from there. Tomorrow is another day and we look forward to getting ready to play another home game.”

On the effect of UNC’s touchdown on the first play of the game:
“It takes the wind out of your sails. Things happen in the game like that. Your ability to respond back to that is something where you find out what your team is made of. I thought that we had an opportunity to respond and later on their No. 1 receiver ran a vertical route on the coverage that we practice all the time and for whatever reason, we didn’t play it correctly so he got another big throw. You can point fingers here and there, but it’s my responsibility to make sure these guys do what they’re supposed to do and execute. It’s a hurting locker room in there, and it should be. We got beat by a good team. We have to be able to respond back … we can’t go to the red zone and not score touchdowns. We can’t throw five interceptions. If I had a chance to go for the fourth downs again, I would, because I want to send a message to this team. We are only going to be as good as we raise the level of competition and play with the sense of urgency that good teams do. We aren’t there yet, but we’ll get there.”

On the performance of Marc Verica:
“I’m disappointed in the fact that there are three interceptions and downs in the red zone, there are two opportunities to score touchdowns. You never want to go down there and come away empty-handed like that. You at least have to get three points. Your quarterback has to do better. We have to do a lot of things better. I’m sure he’s not satisfied with his performance. We have to do a better job of doing things to make Marc successful and efficient.”

On Ras-I Dowling:
“Ras-I dinged his knee up a little but in Tuesday’s practice and wasn’t feeling 100 percent. We’ll see what his situation is like. This game is a physical game and you lose players with injuries and situations over the course of the season. We’ll see how he responds and what happens here in the next couple days.”

On staying on the field post-game:
“I wanted them to feel what it feels like to get beat like we did on your homecoming with the other team’s fans cheering them on and never forget that feeling, the feeling when somebody comes into your house and hands it to you like they did. We are going to win around here and I told them we are going to win around here. The attitude of what may have been – that was then and this is now. It’s a learning process for us, but a team that I’m going to coach isn’t going to forget it. We are going to use it as a learning experience to get better. I have to coach better; players have to play better. I don’t want them to forget feelings like that. Just wanted to make a point in that regard.”

On keeping a positive attitude in the locker room:
“I’m going to remain positive. I’m a positive guy. That’s my team that’s in the locker room. You don’t do things to try to replace them. You try to coach them up to believe in themselves and do things to help them win. That’s my job. That’s what I have to do and I have to do a better job. My vision of this program is to have guys that believe in themselves and can play, play after play. When bad things happen, that happens. It’s how you respond to those things that matters. We need to respond better. Adversity is going to happen in a lot of things. It happens in life. It’s how you respond to those things that makes a difference.”

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