Nov. 17, 2007
Georgia Tech Head Coach Chan Gailey
Q:Travis misses one, you’ve got to send him back out there. Is that a tough call for you?
No, heavens no if that becomes a tough call I need to get out. He’s kicked it too well too long. You miss one, hey. I told him when he came off the field when they called the time out and I said “Hey, not many guys get the opportunity to do it twice, you get the chance, go do it.
Q:Coach, can you talk about putting this game on Tashard’s shoulders especially there at the end.
I’m not sure – you say one guy, but it’s on the Line, on Mike Cox, on everyone up front that blocks. I think we handled the situation very well
Q:Nesbitt’s touchdown throw, was that a play you were going to use today or did you see a situation to try it?
Both. It was a play that we practiced during the week and it was a good time to call it. I thought that John used good judgement after a big run.
Q: You guys were up and you were pinned inside your own 5 and you drop back to pass two in a row. Is he making those calls or are you?
Sometimes it’s a check and sometimes it’s a call. If I had to do it over again, would I? No, I’d run it three times. Sure, hindsight is 20/20. John thought we had a good shot at getting a quick throw out of there and they bumped the receiver and he didn’t get off as clean and Taylor held the ball a half second longer and the rush got there
Q: Was Avery shaken up, is that why you moved him out of the line up?
No , we were just trying to get a new grouping out there on a more consistent basis. Instead of moving one in at a time keeping them at a position for a longer period of time
Q:The pooch kick, have you been working on that for a while?
We have worked on it several times during the course. Obviously you don’t work on every situation that you might get during the game. I don’t know that we worked it from the left hash to make sure that Travis kicked it out there to the right far enough, but he just didn’t get it out there far enough. If it rolls five more yards or he kicks it a little different it ends up working out like you want, obviously it didn’t and it hurt us more than it helped us.
Travis Bell – Place Kicker
On focusing after a missed field goal
“Knowing after you’ve missed one you should’ve made, you’d better not let that happen again. You’ve got to focus that much more.”
On his emotions in the final two minutes of the game
“Honestly after the first one (missed field goal), I thought for the first 30 seconds the game was over. But everyone kept saying `you’re going to get another chance. The defense is going to stop them. That’s when I said hey stop feeling sorry for yourself you’re going to another chance to win this game.”
On pressure kicks this season
“I think I’ve seen it all this season. Different times, downs and distances. So hopefully, that will get me ready for the Georgia game. So if it comes down to one against them, I’ll be ready.”
Gary Guyton – Linebacker
On making big plays
“It’s always great to make big plays that change the momentum of the game. When you do that, in my case, the momentum shifts over to the offense.”
On the goal line stand
“You have a sense of urgency and you hit whatever is moving. That’s what we did today.”
On the play of freshman safety Morgan Burnett
“He was doing his job out there. He might have made a few mistakes, but he’s a great young athlete. He wasn’t picked on and he knew what was going on. He’s been coached very well.”
On playing Georgia next
“It’s good that we won, but the next game is Georgia. Everybody knows that’s the state’s rivalry game and we look forward to it.”
Greg Smith – Wide Receiver
On his play against North Carolina
“For the last couple of weeks, my knee has been hurting. I had a slow first half and I really didn’t play that much, but when I went out in the second half, I gave it all I had.”
On scoring his second touchdown of the game
“You don’t get that many opportunities. So when you get your chance, you’d better take it.”
On his chemistry with quarterback Taylor Bennett
“Taylor and I have always had chemistry. Sometimes things work and sometimes they don’t. Today, things were clicking and we executed and we got the win.”
North Carolina Head Coach Butch Davis
Opening Statement
“Well it was a hard one today. I told the players in the locker room there is a lot of ways to define winning and champions. It is the teams that never give up or surrender. I will tell you, our kids played very hard today, they spilled their guts out there. There was not one kid that played in that ballgame that had anything left in the tank. As a coach, I will tell you that I am very proud the way these kids played today. We have obvious issues and shortcomings but we have never used any of those as excuses. We put ourselves in position to win and were one first down away from maybe pulling off a miracle. Some guys made some plays today. Our defense bailed us out time and time again. Without their performance today, we have no chance to win. I was proud of the team and I know that we will go back and do everything we can do to finish on a positive note and win the next game.”
On taking lead late in the game
“I am a realist. I have been in too many games, I have stood on the sidelines for 30 years. I was on the sideline when (Doug) Flutie threw his pass and when we did it to Jacksonville with one tick on the clock and threw it 60 yards.”
On Greg Little
“We tried giving him (Greg Little) some opportunities a few weeks ago after going with a running back by committee early in the season. We could see what the guys were giving us after 10 games. It is a hard transition to go from wideout to getting the snot knocked out of you 30 times a game. You want to talk about a kid that got a crash-course in learning this week, you can’t say enough at what Little’s did. We can’t give him everything but what we gave him, he did very well.”
