QB Ross Bowers Breaks Down Key Plays from Saturday's Scrimmage
Quarterback Ross Bowers put forward a very good case for himself to be named the starter for the opener in Chapel Hill, with a very solid performance Saturday, going 8-12 for 162 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT on a tip, along with running in a TD on a read play, taking a big shot at then end of the play.
Bowers, who was Davis Webb's backup a year ago, spoke to the media after his performance Saturday, detailing his thoughts on his scoring plays and the scrimmage as a whole.
How do you like staying at a hotel, taking the bus over here, and making this a game atmosphere?
I thought it was great, it’s honestly a blessing because this is a team that’s gonna have a lot of guys in that first game at UNC, be their first game playing, and just to get that type of ‘ok this is how it’s gonna be,’ like a little dress rehearsal before the actual thing, I thought it was great. As you guys saw, the offense came out flat in the first couple possessions, so that’s something, we’ve got to figure out a way to build our energy when we’re out here, and stuff like that, coming up from the hotel. I thought it was a really good learning experience and really fortunate to have that, for sure.
Seemed like you as an offense got a few drives together at the end, could you feel that rhythm there?
Yeah, I think it just took us a minute to wake up. I thought everybody’s looking around at each other, who’s gonna make the play, who’s gonna make the play and get us started, and we finally started getting some good drives together and started building confidence and just trusting everything we do in practice. You guys saw at the end we finished strong and all that stuff, so it was good, it was a positive day I thought.
What was the impact of the play by Kanawai?
You love having guys that can make you look good for sure when it's not the best throw in the world, he made a heck of an adjustment on that play, OL held their blocks really nicely on that play too, I know I held it a little long. That definitely sparked, if it wasn't the offense, maybe myself to kinda 'hey, let's get going here, let's start building on this type of stuff,' especially when you see something positive like that. I thought that was pretty big for us as an offense.
What’d you see on the 75 yarder to D-Rob?
I thought it was funny, I saw safety, I saw that they were in deep half (cover 2), so I didn’t think that we’re going to get it, but the safety’s flat-footed and he’s looking at D-Rob running by him and you know, that’s the end of the story. You know, D-Rob, just give him a chance, that was my only thing, just don’t underthrow him and it’s hard to overthrow him, so same thing.
How much of an asset is it to have D-Rob out there, to know you can’t really overthrow him?
It’s one thing, I always like to think of myself having a pretty good arm and stuff like that, and being with that guy, that humbles you real quick. He’s definitely a guy that you love having obviously, not just being able to take the top off the defense, but just his work ethic and what he brings to the team as an off-the-field guy and practice guy. He brings it, he really sets the tone I think for the group, and he’s getting close. Obviously he’s doing great things, but I think he can go to another level and he’s getting there, so it’s gonna be fun to hopefully help him along to that level.
On running a TD in not too long after and how that felt?
Hey, when slow guys get touchdowns, it’s always a good day, that doesn’t happen every day. I was just going through my reads, my read told me to pull and luckily we had a chance to score, and we did. It was kinda one of those things with getting fired up, it felt like we were still in that little rut. No guys were talking on the sideline being excited to play it felt like, in at least my gut, so I took that as an opportunity, let’s get these guys going and kinda get this tempo up so.
And this was one of the first times this fall that you’ve taken a hit this fall, did that help a little bit?
Nah, I don’t, I felt awake since the first snap, it was more just getting the other ten guys when I’m in to get going and everybody on the sideline to get going. I thought we did well really bouncing back from how poor we started with execution to really focusing in and just doing our job. So it was fun, and then taking the shot was, when you score you don’t feel it, so it wasn’t too bad.