Sept. 20, 2005
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Quotes from Georgia Tech’s Tuesday press conference, featuring head coach Chan Gailey and Tech players Chris Reis and Damarius Bilbo. Below those are an update from Gailey and Tech quarterback Reggie Ball following Tuesday’s practice.
Can you give any updates on Reggie Ball’s condition and how you will approach the week in regards to him?
“Reggie came by my office yesterday afternoon after he got out of the hospital and I was able to talk to him a little bit. He’s obviously doing a lot better since the last time I’d seen him. We’ll work him back slowly and we’re not willing to take any chances. He will be out there today, though.”
Do you have to hold him back a little bit since he’s such a competitor?
“We’ll have to make sure he understands the step process that we need to go through to get him back to full-speed. When you start feeling better, you think you’re back to full-speed right away but we have to help him understand that process. If he can practice, he’ll want to take every snap. That’s just the way he is.”
Do you have an idea of how much he’ll need to practice in order to be able to play?
“I think we need to wait and see how he does on the field and how he feels. We have to see if the symptoms come back when he gets hot and starts to sweat. I think we have some steps to go through before we can see if he’s ready to play or not.”
How honest is he about telling you if he’s not feeling well and whether he can play?
“I don’t know since this is the first time I’ve ever dealt with this type of issue with him.”
What are the steps of the process in terms of the concerns you have regarding his health?
“As the doctors tell me, you have to make sure that the symptoms don’t come back as he continues to exert himself. His body has been through a traumatic ordeal lately and you don’t want to have a repeat of that. We’ll make sure we go slowly and see what he can and cannot handle before we make a decision on whether he’s ready to go out and play an entire game.”
How has the face of the offensive practices changed because of the fact that you might be planning on both Reggie and Taylor Bennett playing?
“We designed our game plan in order to be able to handle both playing and either one playing the whole game. Now we’ve got to practice a lot this week on many different things but we’ll get it done. The face of our team changes because you can’t ask Taylor to do some things that you can ask Reggie to do based on an experience standpoint. Some of the things in our game plan for Taylor are things that we know he’s practiced. We would probably have some new stuff for Reggie since he’s more experienced and can handle more.”
Can you talk about Virginia Tech’s three games against NC State, Ohio , and Duke, their No. 4 ranking, and how solid they’ve looked so far?
“Having watched them on film, they deserve that No.4 ranking. I don’t see a weakness on their team in regards to offense, defense, or special teams. They’re very impressive and it’ll be a great challenge to go into their place and win the game.”
How important is it to make them throw the ball since they rely on their running game so much?
“I think everyone knows they like to run the football. They’ve worked pretty hard on their passing game in the past few games to make that aspect of their game better. They keep pressure on you at all times with their offense, defense, and special teams. You have to be able to handle that pressure for a full 60 minutes because they have good enough wide-outs that they can go by you in a heartbeat if you’re not paying attention. As you look at them, it’s easy to say that you have to sop the run, but you also can’t give them a short field to work with and be solid in every phase of your game. When you play a great football team, the pressure is on during the whole game and whoever flinches first is the team that’s liable to get beat.”
Are they unique in that they have so many weapons and can score in so many ways?
“I don’t think they’re unique in that respect but what is unique is that they do that so much. Any team can score on any play, but they do it more often than anybody else. They keep the pressure on you at all times and in all phases of the game.”
Can you talk about last year’s game and how you were working with the lead and might have relaxed towards the end of the game?
“I’m not saying our guys relaxed, but (Virginia Tech) stays on top of you. That’s why they win 45-0 instead of 28-0 or 28-10.”
Do you put any extra emphasis on Frank Beamer’s special teams and does that take away from focusing on other aspects of your game plan?
“I’m not going to spend more time on special teams. It’s like saying that it’s more important this week than it was last week, and it’s not. The attention to detail by our players needs to be sharpened a little more this week. We have to chance to be good (on special teams), but we just haven’t done that yet. We have to make sure that we pay attention to those things so we can go out there and play at he same level.”
Has anything surprised you about Marcus Vick?
“I knew about his athleticism and the fact that he could run the football, but he’s a better passer than I thought he was going to be.”
Is your defensive this year less vulnerable to the passes that hurt you last year during the game against them?
“If we make the same mistakes we made last year, then no, we won’t be able to stop them. If we play our assignments like we were supposed to do last year, then we wouldn’t have given up those big passes and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
How tough was losing last year’s game and what lessons did you learn from it?
“I think we as coaches and leaders are continually teaching from past experiences. We’ve talked about that game in other situations other than this week. We’ve stressed the need to play 60 minutes and taking advantage of opportunities when we get them. We need to score touchdowns and not settle for field goals in the fourth quarter. That’s the type of things we’ve talked about and that we’ve used from last year’s game and applied to other situations in the past 12 months.”
How do you think Bennett has handled this whole situation along with the media attention and the type of environment he might face at Virginia Tech?
“If worrying about how Taylor Bennett handles these types of situations was my only problem, then I wouldn’t have any problems. He’s an impressive young man and I know he can handle it now and in the future because I think he’s going to be a very good quarterback in the future. He doesn’t have any experience to draw upon from a personal standpoint to be able to handle the type of environment he’ll face in Blacksburg. He has had the chance to be on this football team when it has been in those types of environment before and has come away successful. It’ll be another challenge for us and for him. There will definitely be a lot of firsts for him.”
Can you talk about the recruiting process that took place with him?
“It was an unusual process because he didn’t play until his senior year. Nobody really knew about him until October, and then we started recruiting him in November. We saw potential in his playing ability and in the type of kid that he was. Even though we hadn’t spent a lot of time with him, we could see what type of kid he was and what kind of character he had. I felt his desire to be a great quarterback.”
What do you want him to do better than he did in last week’s game?
“I’d like for him to be more accurate. I thought he rushed a few things but the game will slow down for him the next time he walks out there for a game. He’ll be able to see things better, anticipate them, and just have a much better feel for the game.”
From past game against NC State, Clemson, and Auburn in the past couple of years, it seems like your team is able to handle those types of environments. How much that does factor in to Saturday’s game?
“I think it’s significant. If you’ve never won in a hostile environment, then you don’t think you can. When you’ve done it, all those external factors don’t come into play as much.”
Can you talk about Jimmy Williams, their secondary and the fact that he gets a lot of press?
“He should get a lot of press and he deserves every bit of it.”
What is it about him that makes him such a great player?
“Other than being big, fast, athletic, and very aggressive, he’s just like everybody else.”
How hard is it for Frank Beamer not knowing what quarterback the other team is going to throw at you for your next game?
“Well, I hope it’s very difficult. He doesn’t know what Taylor is all about because it was the first game. Every coach realizes that the jump a player makes from playing his first game to his second is pretty significant. One of the most difficult things will be to get both quarterbacks ready for this game.”
Since Reggie’s status is up in the air, do you also have to prepare for Kyle (Manley) to be more ready to play?
“It’s going to take everything we can do to get Reggie and Taylor ready, and Kyle will have to learn through osmosis like has been the past few weeks.”
Does it make a big difference that Taylor has not worked much with the first team?
“If you think about it, he took very limited practice snaps with the first team. The more practice he can get under his belt, the more his timing and performance will improve.”
Last week, we were talking about how Connecticut had shut out their last two opponents. Now, we’re talking about an even bigger monster in Virginia Tech who has shut out their last two while scoring 90 points. Does that keep you up at night?
“Well, they’re a great football team and have a very effective defense. It’s impressive that they’ve scored that many points and allowed so few.”
Do you hope to have Eric Henderson back for this game?
“I think he’s still questionable at this point. We’ll go out there today, see how well he runs, and try to get him up to speed for practice. I’m really more hopeful for tomorrow than I am for today.”
How much of a boost would it be for you to have a leader and quarterback like Reggie play this weekend?
“You’d like to have him available, especially since he’s been in so many games and played so well this year. You like to have all your weapons when you go into a battle like this and it would certainly be a plus for us to have him on Saturday.”
Has his maturation been the biggest key with the way your offense has played this year?
“I think so. I can’t say it’s been the biggest factor, but it’s been on of the most important keys to us playing well. I told everyone in the off-season that I thought he had made another step in that maturation process and I think he’s starting to understand his role better regarding game management and other aspects of the game.”
Did Tashard (Choice) win some future playing time with the type of game he had last week?
“I had a great deal of confidence in him going into the game and that hasn’t changed at all. The advantage that I think we have is that we have two guys that can go out there and play. We can keep both of them fresh and any time we can run in the fourth quarter like we did against Connecticut, then you have to be happy with that. He ran hard, especially on one of his touchdown runs where he lowered his shoulder and kept his feet moving.” Is it a luxury to have two running backs like P.J. (Daniels) and Tashard?
“Definitely. They can both break the big run but they’re both going to make you work to get them on the ground. That’s a real advantage.”
Did you have any second thoughts about calling a pass during Taylor’s first play?
“Well, the first play was a check so if the pass was there, I expected him to take it, and if the run was there, then that was the option he should take. They gave him the pass, and he took it.”
Is there anyone you’ve played against that compares to Vick, and how do you prepare for him?
“I think he’s very similar to the guy at Virginia and Virginia Tech last year. He’s dangerous football player and you have to prepare for his ability to scramble, run, and throw.”
Updates from after Tuesday’s Practice
“I was going through the motions a little bit, trying to work myself back in, but I got a couple of reps.
“It’s day-by-day. I just got a couple of reps today, and hopefully I’ll get some more tomorrow and some more the next day. It’s up to me, and it’s up to my body. It’s a day-to-day thing.
“I’m not trying to rush anything, and the coaches and the trainers are not trying to rush anything.
“A lot of mental reps, but I just did a couple of reps, physically, just to try to get back into the swing of things. I warmed up at my own pace, and then took some reps with the team. Just really going at my own pace . . . which is kind of a cool thing – I don’t get that option too often.
“I’ve been laying down for three, four straight days. This was my first full day of actually being up and being able to walk around the whole day.
“I’ve just got to take it day-by-day. I really don’t know how good, or how bad, I’m going to feel come Saturday. It’s all basically on me, and my body. This is a very big game, and I want to play in it, but if I’m physically not able to play, then I won’t.”
HEAD COACH Chan Gailey
“Reggie took limited reps today. Just to have him out there was a real positive in my mind. It was so hot today we were not going to take a chance by stressing him at this point. Had it been a cooler day, we might have done a little bit more with him, but not today. If he feels good again tomorrow, then we’ll let him take some more, and then Thursday we’ll let him take some more.
“If I had to guess, after practice today, I would say we might see two quarterbacks in the game Saturday.”
