Game Week Player Interviews: Melkart Abou-Jaoude & Daniel King

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — After two weeks of what could be deemed “tune-up” games, North Carolina gets another crack at a power conference opponent this weekend, when the Tar Heels make the trip down to Florida to take on UCF. UNC’s preparation for the Knights kicked off Tuesday afternoon, and redshirt-junior defensive lineman Melkart Abou-Jaoude and redshirt-senior offensive lineman Daniel King spoke to the media ahead of the team’s practice.

Watch those complete interviews below and read some noteworthy excerpts … 

Melkart Abou-Jaoude

“Just having that game film and being able to get those corrections down during practice has really helped us play more disciplined football and make sure that we’re making plays that we’re supposed to be making, and not getting too curious to be our own players…

“I carry that confidence every day. Starting in spring and in camp, I’ve just always been getting back there and always getting pressure on the quarterback. I would say the secondary did a good job covering the receivers and the D line and the front maintained the rush lanes and just gave me an opportunity to get a sack…

“No, we don’t really talk about that (TCU) game. Maybe people talk about that internally to themselves, and that fuels them, but as a collective team, we don’t really talk about that. We’ve moved past it.”

Daniel King

“I think that just comes over time. As a unit, we just slowly learn how to play off each other and build that trust and accountability, and it comes with repetition and from practice to outside of practice, but it’s getting there for sure…

“It starts with communication. Because if the right guard knows something and the left guard doesn’t know what’s going on, you’re not going to have a pretty good play. So I think communication is what it’s really all about. That’s where it starts at because it gets us all going in the right direction…

“I think that we’re going to practice some of that environment in practice, you know, loud music, just to get used to that kind of environment. So we’re going to go out there today and rep it today and be good at it.”