Tomon Fox on UNC-Duke week
North Carolina faces Duke in the annual rivalry game. Tomon Fox discusses the state of the defense as the Heels prepare for the battle of the blues
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00:00 You know, our guys are very disappointed, especially on the defensive side.
00:03 We're disappointed with the way we played on Saturday.
00:06 But you know, we take one thing one day at a time.
00:09 And at the game, whether we win or lose, we just forget about the next day and
00:12 get focused on our next opponent.
00:14 I think our defense as a whole just have to be more consistent.
00:18 From a week to week basis, we have a good plan.
00:20 We have good enough players, you know, we just have to go out there and execute.
00:23 You know, in order to be a great defense, we have to get better each week.
00:26 We can't have these up and downs like a roller coaster.
00:28 We just gotta keep getting better each week.
00:30 So I think guys have to focus each week as it comes by and
00:33 just make sure they execute.
00:34 I think it's just little things, you know, like back to the fundamentals.
00:38 Make sure you're using your hands, make sure you stay in the right gaps.
00:41 It wasn't big things like busting assignments for the run game, but
00:45 it's just the little things like technique-wise that make a big difference
00:48 in the run game.
00:49 You know, like when a team does start to begin to dry,
00:53 it gets a little emotional out there.
00:54 But you know, you just gotta stop them as fast as you can.
00:56 And that's the thing, you gotta try not to get too emotional.
00:58 You gotta stick to what we know and what we do best.
01:00 And that's how you better stop people.
01:02 Yeah, with these temple teams,
01:03 it just brings out like multiple leaders on the defense.
01:05 You know, like we have one guy who talked to D-line,
01:07 one guy who talked to linebacker, one guy who talked to DBs.
01:10 So this brings out multiple leaders throughout the whole defense,
01:13 and just being one guy trying to talk to everybody.
01:15 Yeah, you know, you wish you could talk to everybody throughout the whole defense
01:19 before a play happens, but sometimes you don't have the opportunity.
01:22 You have to expect other people to step up, you know what I'm saying,
01:25 into a leadership role.
01:27 You know, this is good players.
01:29 We know they're gonna come out hot just because it's a rivalry, you know,
01:33 just like NC State did.
01:35 But we said, like I said, we gotta stay to ourselves,
01:37 stay true to what we do and we'll be okay.
01:39 Yeah, with that, like with a bunch of new people coming in,
01:42 they just have to know that they had to step into a big role and fill in for
01:45 the guy that was in before them.
01:46 But we keep them like throughout the week,
01:48 it's really important throughout the week during practice,
01:51 they just get up to speed, they get to know what we're doing.
01:53 And we just bring them along during the game.
01:55 Like everybody, once they step on the field, they should be ready.
01:56 Like we don't expect nobody to be a step behind when they are on the field.
02:00 No, we're just extremely disappointed when ourself.
02:03 We know that's not us as a defense.
02:05 That's not us as individual players.
02:07 We know that we're a lot better than that.
02:08 We've shown that we're a lot better than that.
02:10 So we just gotta make sure each week we call them, come to play.
02:13 >> Right.
02:15 >> I think it's on the road.
02:16 We just gotta be more focused as a team, as a whole.
02:19 We gotta be able to get ready to go into somebody else's house and
02:22 beat them in their own place.
02:23 So that's all it is.