Georgia Tech Head Coach Geoff Collins
Opening Statement
“I thought the guys went out there and played really, really hard like they always do. They fought, they competed, we’ve just got to play much better situational football. I think you could feel it during the game, defensively we were playing really well on first and second down, creating tackles for loss, creating negative plays. But just the conversions on third down hurt us. They extended drives. And then conversely, not being able to continue drives [on offense].”
“The hallmark of our defense for the last six to eight years has been creating turnovers. For two straight weeks, we’ve only gotten one. So, we’ve got to emphasize creating turnovers, getting the ball and doing those kinds of things. Playing the kind of defense that we’re accustomed to and creating negative plays and turnovers.”
“In the second half offensively, [we had] 220 yards of offense and 22 points. We started to find a little bit of rhythm and had some explosive plays. The guys kept battling and cut it down in the fourth quarter and made it a really good game. The environment out there was really good; we were really happy our fans were engaged. Obviously, the guys on our sideline did a really good job staying positive, staying engaged and supporting each other. But just that drive at the end where I think they probably had two or three third-and-long conversions, we’ve just got to address that. We’ve got to fix it.”
On James Graham’s growth
“There is still a lot that he is going to clean up. It was his first game getting significant amounts of time and you could even see him grow and develop throughout the game. He’s got a live arm. A couple of them we had some things wired and just determining if the middle of the field was open or closed, where to go with the football. He had one down the sideline to Malachi [Carter] wired and just drifted a little bit out of bounds. So, just those kind of things, the growing pains for all of us with this transformation that we’re all going through. But I can’t discount how hard these guys are working, how dialed in they are as we’re building this thing. It hurts, but I think the attitude and the desire to improve is there. So, we’ll keep working and keep getting better.”
On building off of the success in the second half
“If you watch the entire game, the defense kept battling, and they were in some situations that weren’t ideal, but they just kept battling, they kept playing and they kept competing. As the entire development of this program goes forward, all of those signs of significant, marked improvement. I think they made everybody feel excited and energized about the future. But we’re worried about the present. We’ve got a game in seven days. So, just those incremental jumps, we want to make sure that we’re doing those at a high level.”