CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina quarterback Nathan Elliott was made available to the media for the only time during spring practice Tuesday and fielded a series of questions about last season, how his game grew, this spring and battling Chazz Surratt for the starting job.
Elliott, a 6-1, 215-pound rising junior from Celina, TX, started the final three games last fall and played the majority of UNC’s ninth contest, a narrow loss at home to Miami.
The Tar Heels were 2-2 in those games, as Elliott completed 75-146 pass attempts for 926 yards, 10 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. More than his numbers, Elliott gave the team some needed life and the players rallied around him and UNC closed the season played improved football over the final month of the season.
Here is what Elliott had to say:
On the difference for him now as opposed to a year ago...
“I would say confidence. Never having that much game experience, this year I have quite a bit of game experience, being in those situations and knowing what it’s like now. You really can’t mimic game reps. So the confidence in that has really helped me this year.”
On how he’s approaching the competition with Surratt…
“It’s just like it was last year, just work and push each other, and ultimately whatever is best for this team and who will win the most games is who it will be.”
On his relationship with Surratt…
“We have a good relationship. I helped him in the season when he was playing, he helped me when I was playing. We’re both going to do what’s best for the team.”
On the game slowing down for him, was it during those four game she played or more something he’s noticed in spring ball…
“I would say really after the Miami game it slowed down a lot for me. It went really fast, so after that one I kind of got acclimated to it and we came out against Pitt and I felt really confident and it was really just playing football at that point.”
On how different spring is with game reps under his belt as opposed to previously when he hadn’t yet played…
“It’s different. It gives you a different sense of confidence coming into spring. You know, obviously, spring ball we’re not really live, so you can’t really gauge some things like the run game, but it gives me a lot of confidence.”
On what it was about the Miami game that made things slow down – them being so talented or something else…
“I would say that they are very talented and that gave me a lot of confidence knowing that defense was a really good defense, athletic and fast and we really should have won that game. And that gave us some confidence as a team that we could really play with anyone. They were ranked 6 or 8, I don’t even know. So that kind of helped us and helped me, too, to have that confidence and knowing that it’s just playing football.”
On explaining to the average person what it mean when the game slows down…
“Whenever you’re out there in the middle of a game in the pocket a lot of things are moving fast. You see defensive linemen moving, DBs moving, linebackers, all of that
An just kind of be a blur. But after you get more reps you settle down and you can actually see what you’re supposed to see and you’re just playing football again like you were when you were a little kid.”
On some of the weapons they have on the team he thinks will stand out…
“Michael Carter, he looks good, man, he looks really good. Dyami Brown looks really good. Really, that whole receiver room this year looks really good. I’m really excited about the guys up front, they’re doing a great job, as well. I’m very excited about this offense and where it’s headed.”
On true freshman WR Dyami Brown…
“He just makes plays. Throw him the ball and he’s going to make a play. He’s still learning some things, he’s new, young, but I can see him really helping us this year.”
On what part of his game physically has grown the most since last season…
“I would say the deep ball, that’s what I’ve been focusing on this offseason is the deep ball, and that’s what I’m going to continue focusing on through the spring and in through the summer.”
