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#UNC interim coach Freddie Kitchens, Amare Campbell, John Copenhaver, Alijah Huzzie & J.J. Jones
Dec 27, 2024
Carolina at press conference ahead of Saturday's Fenway Bowl against UConn.
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sit or stand whatever you
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want first I'd like to thank um you know
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the Wasabi finway Bowl uh for extending
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the invitation to us uh the opportunity
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to come compete in such an amazing City
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and and iconic venue uh speaks for
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itself uh you know the hospitality we've
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receiv received since we've got here uh
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the events that has been associated with
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the bowl game preparation
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uh everything has been first class and I
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commend these guys totally for that uh
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we're really just looking forward to
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we're really excited about um being able
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to go out and compete tomorrow um you
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know one last time in this 2024 year so
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thank
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you anyone has any questions please
0:52
raise your hand we'll walk around the
1:05
yeah um I'll direct this one to you know
1:07
pretty much anybody who wants to kind of
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answer obviously what has the the last
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kind of month of practice been like you
1:12
know shifting gears from the regular
1:15
season then you know getting some extra
1:17
practice time and then when the Yukon
1:19
prep began I guess from your guys
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perspective just what is that stretch of
1:23
practices kind
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of yeah yes I I can take that um you
1:30
know having coach kitens at a tight end
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Coach you know for two years now um some
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change it's been you know great and
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wonderful and you know know knowledge on
1:38
both sides of the ball um and then you
1:40
know when end of the season came
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everyone was a little you know down
1:43
after the H State game but KN that we
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got another opportunity to play was you
1:47
know great for us and uh coach kitchen
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you know stepping into uh to that head
1:51
coach role everyone's pretty excited but
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um he's always instilled into us the
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tight ends you know uh toughness of the
1:58
game um and you know if you can bring
2:00
toughness to the game then you know
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other things will follow so the last
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couple of weeks have you know just been
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being built on on toughness and um
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really just just hammering that into us
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and I think it's think it's been been
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paying off pretty well but um everyone's
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pretty pumped for uh for this game to
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come and we've all been pretty excited
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uh for for all of the you know
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competition that we do in practice and
2:21
everything so we're all pretty pumped
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for the
2:26
game hey guys I had a question for JJ
2:30
and Co um y'all were around two years
2:33
ago when you played uh in San Diego at
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the Holiday ball that was Petco Park
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baseball stadium now you playing the
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baseball stadium tomorrow like what are
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the challenges of getting ready to play
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a football game in a baseball Major
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League Baseball Stadium what do you
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remember about San Diego have you been
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able to get out there and test the field
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you know here like just you know that
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whole situation if both of you can
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answer I mean I think it's pretty cool
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just because this is an amazing venue um
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you know I've always been a fan of
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baseball and fway park is such a
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historic place and you know when you
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play on a baseball field is definitely
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different you know they have to
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transform the field but I think like San
3:13
Diego did they did a good job getting
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field ready and we were allowed to come
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out here yesterday and see what the
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field was uh you know feel the ground
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feel around the area I'm excited for the
3:22
game I think this is a great place to
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have a great football game so yeah and
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really just uh I mean it's you know it's
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another football game it's just another
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opportunity and um the background Boston
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it's it's been you know incredible so
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we're we're all pumped to play here you
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know like what JJ was saying it's uh you
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know super historic I think one of the
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oldest baseball stadiums uh so super you
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know we're all we're all super grateful
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for another opportunity and again just
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just to go out there and have some
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fun I'm going to go Elijah Mari on this
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one athletes will go anywhere to find
3:57
fuel you guys were here five weeks ago
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do go very well is one of the worst
4:01
performances in in quite a while that
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you guys have had do you get any feel
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from that or did you just forget that
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detach it has no bearing on this at
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all could you repeat the question you
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guys were five weeks ago against BC and
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417 with like 5 minutes left and can you
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get fuel from that or is that over
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stating because I know a lot of athletes
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will take fuel from anywhere they can
4:27
yeah well I'll speak for me personally
4:28
no uh no we don't really get fuel from
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that game we kind of focus on Yukon and
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been worried about ourselves so me
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personally I don't have any fuel from BC
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but you know always things a little as a
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player and a competitor reminding and
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seeing you know practicing at BC but for
4:43
me personally I don't I don't have any
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fuel from that game we're just focus on
4:46
Yukon and our team I would have to say
4:49
the same like um we not really worried
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about the five weeks ago the L week took
4:54
five weeks ago more so just worried
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about Yukon and the next steps that we
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have to take as a team so I have to say
5:00
that yet if I could expand on that too
5:03
like five weeks ago has nothing to do
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with any anything dealing with tomorrow
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and uh you know these guys have done a
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tremendous job of just trying to get
5:11
better each and every day and and
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they've done that and uh you know
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they're only worried about this press
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conference right now and then after this
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we'll start worrying about meetings
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tonight and uh when we wake up in the
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morning we'll be uh worried about Yukon
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so uh BC and Yukon has nothing to do
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with each other
5:31
this is a question for Coach kitens
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going into this game obviously playing
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on a baseball field the dimensions are a
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little bit weird you're going to be
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having benches on the same side kind of
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running Hockey style line changes how
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does that affect you how how what did
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your preparation look like going into
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this different format of sub subbing on
5:50
and off yeah we we've definitely been uh
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you know practice in that uh during the
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course of these last couple weeks um
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coach Mo and I he's he's never been a
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part of this either so um we kind of
6:02
laughing about it a little bit but I
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never heard it equ equate to the hockey
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style but I kind of like that it's kind
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of fitting right the burs are pretty big
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here and JJ this is the first chance
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we've had to talk to you guys since a
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lot of stuff has happening what have
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sort of the last four weeks been like
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for you with mac and all the changes and
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then getting ready for a ball game like
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sort of like you guys have been through
6:26
enough this season already but
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emotionally what's what's the last four
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weeks and month them like just to go
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through as a as a player and as a
6:32
student yeah it's definitely been
6:34
challenging I think uh this past season
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was probably one of the most mentally
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challenging Seasons I've had since I've
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been here you know we've had a lot of
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things go wrong off the field and on the
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field but you know the past four weeks
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coach kids has really instilled in US be
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where your feet are and I feel like I've
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been able to take that day by day on and
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off the field and at the end of the day
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you know we're here to play one more
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football game I know this is my last
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football game in Tar Hill uniform so I'm
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going to go there and give him all
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justat and I'm just excited to be
7:05
here hi coach will U do you have any
7:08
communication with Bill belich going
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into the game tomorrow back and forth
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anything at all I talk to coach every
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day um but not during the game and stuff
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like that he he understands we have a
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job to do
7:28
here this for the players when coach
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kitens was named interim head coach I'm
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did help that such a familiar voice
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someone who's had some some unique
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experience that he has was going to lead
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you the rest of the way in a football
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sense when so much other stuff was going
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on around that could have been
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distracting and how D he kind of keep
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you guys focused on this task and not
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about everything and kind of keep you
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away from everything
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else yeah I can speak on that um you
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again just with him being you know the
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tight ends coach for so long it's uh
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definitely the tight ends had a better
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perspective about everything you know
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going on so um you know exactly you know
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what coach kitchen said is just being
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where your feet are with um you know
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like with everything with Tyle with
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Coach Brown it's just like know control
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what you can control and um if it's out
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of your control you know you just got to
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be where Fe it are if you're in meetings
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you're in meetings you know if you're in
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you know Boston have a good time you
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know that that's exactly what you're
8:25
doing so you can't really focus on
8:27
what's you know to come in a week or two
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when you got stuff to handle you know
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during that day or that week so um but
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really just honing in on on being where
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your feet are cuz you know they're could
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be a lot of times during the season even
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after the season with you know the head
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coaching change and everything like that
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where everyone could spiral um but you
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know he just you know we had a team
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meeting and you just telling us you got
8:49
to be your fear no matter what so for
8:52
very quickly for Elijah andari he you
8:55
guys are on defense he wasn't obviously
8:56
your position coach how did you guys
8:58
receive it that he was the guy and what
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were some of the early things that he
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did that made you guys Uber focused on
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this task and not worrying about all the
9:08
other stuff that was going
9:10
on I mean um kind of same thing we've
9:14
all said like just being where your feet
9:15
are and U not really focusing on what's
9:19
the outside noise is like how much noise
9:21
is being made on the outside just where
9:23
On and On In to the inside and focus on
9:25
on on us like focusing on your brothers
9:27
your team the next Tas that's to hand
9:29
and uh just what he brought to the table
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just toughness like he continues to talk
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about toughness competing when your
9:36
one-on-one battles and just being where
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your feet are and wor about today wor
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about tomorrow or the next
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day between uh you know going back the
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last four or five weeks and all that's
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gone on
9:55
uh has there been any you know added
9:59
Buzz to the campus at all either you
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know being in the bowl game having
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Freddy take over and also the thought of
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Coach belich come the board if you guys
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get a sense you know of any uh extra
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pump exhilaration anything about the
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program going
10:19
forward uh I mean I'll speak on that
10:23
obviously coming with a great coach like
10:25
uh coach belich himself there's going to
10:27
be Buzz there going to be hype but as a
10:29
team I feel like as a unit behind coach
10:32
Cas we're all focused on this game and
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winning this game so that's kind of
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outside noise I feel like speaking
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personally I feel like speaking for the
10:41
team uh so like outside noise we're just
10:43
folks on
10:45
wining yeah yeah and just you know like
10:48
when we figure out you know like we're
10:49
going to ball we don't know which one
10:50
but coach kit is really saying you know
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just look look the person to your left
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look the person to your right you know
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that's what you got if the coach wants
10:56
to leave you can leave player wants to
10:57
leave you can leave but we know that we
10:59
have job to do and you know that's going
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to be coming uh you know the the fway
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bowl and and that that that's all we
11:04
were focused about was you know
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one-on-one battles competition being
11:07
tough and the person on your right the
11:09
person on your left and that that was
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all it
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so we'll take one more question for UNC
11:16
and then we'll bring Eon out yeah this
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for for anybody um this game sort of
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marks end of an era start a new era so
11:25
uh can you talk about what it means to
11:26
you guys and you know uh do you feel
11:29
like new about to
11:33
start um yeah definitely going to be a
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new era this will um this game will show
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or we can take things from this game
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going forward me being the only person
11:44
returning that's going to be with the
11:45
new staff this game will definitely show
11:48
some of the younger players some of the
11:50
players that we have what they can do
11:52
going into next year but like I said
11:54
again we're all focused on winning this
11:56
game and competing in this game and
11:58
we've been focused on this game the last
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month so that's been a big thing for us
12:03
um yeah I mean yeah I know it's going to
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be somewhat of a new era but at the end
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of the day I don't think any of us would
12:09
be here without Coach Brown uh the
12:11
things he's done for the program uh I
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know he's helped me out a lot personally
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and you know when he took his job his
12:18
his goal was to get UNC back on that
12:20
stage and I think he did his job to
12:21
Perfection um so without him none of us
12:23
would be here so I feel like it's he's
12:27
the reason why we're all here I put that
12:28
out there
12:30
I would second that sentiment that JJ
12:32
said you know Coach Brown did a lot of
12:35
good things for the University of North
12:36
Carolina and and tar Hills uh you know
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all over the country we got thousands
12:41
and thousands but really this bowl game
12:43
is more about you know these guys that
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are never going to wear a Carolina
12:46
uniform again and uh making sure these
12:49
guys go out with the best um you know
12:52
feeling possible about the program they
12:53
left the program in a better spot than
12:55
when they when they first got here so
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these guys have won a lot of football
12:59
games for for Carolina and uh for them
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to have a part in the new beginning I
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think it's special but you know uh again
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we've got a we've got a game tomorrow to
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kind of send these guys out on the on
13:11
the right
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path thank you so much we'll bring outon
13:19
now
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