Oct. 9, 2010
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 1 | Photo Gallery 2 | Photo Gallery 3
– GEORGIA TECH HEAD COACH Paul Johnson
Opening Statement
“Excited to get a win back at home again. I thought our guys played hard, but we didn’t always play smart and execute the best, but we did enough to get the job done. I was a little disappointed at the half; I mean we had over 300 yards of offense and 13 points. We were our own worst enemy, fumbling the ball and bogging down in the red zone. We came out in the second half and got a big stop and went up and really never let them get closer than two scores after that. Good win to build on, still got a lot to work on. Halfway through, 4 and 2, 3 and 1 in the league, still control our own fate, so we’ve got to keep working and get better and see what happens.”
On Anthony Allen
“I thought he played really good, he ran through a lot of tackles.”
On the passing game
“Really there was no use to throw it once we saw how they were playing.”
On Jay Finch
“I think he did okay, we will have to watch the tape. It is hard to tell how those guys played until you really watch the tape. We ran the ball pretty good inside so they had to be doing at least a decent job in there.”
On the defense
“They played really well. I thought that other than one play in the first half, the one long run, we played really, really well. You know, they are going to hit some plays. The last drive was disappointing, but it was more of them making plays. The guy just threw it up and the big tall receiver made plays so you have to give him some credit. I think we have played better on defense the last two games for sure.”
On Stephen Hill
“He made a couple of catches early, and hopefully got some confidence.”
On Joshua Nesbitt’s intercepted pitch
“He did a really nice job getting us in the right set plays most of the time, but that is one I’m sure he would like to have back.”
On the offense
“There was some good and some bad. I think the first team offense punted once, and that was after a holding penalty backed us up. They did some good things, but we’ve got to hold onto the ball though.”
On intensity
“I don’t know if we played with any more intensity to be honest with you. I think we just hit some plays, and some individual guys played really well. Anthony Allen ran through a lot of tackles. We hit some plays. Anytime you rush for that much yardage, there is guys blocking downfield. We just played a little better.”
On Al Groh facing former team
“We didn’t talk a lot about it this week. I have never been in that situation. I’m sure he is close to a lot of those kids, but when you actually play the game it really doesn’t come into play. He wasn’t playing, Coach London wasn’t playing, it’s the guys on the field that are playing the game.”
VIRGINIA HEAD COACH MIKE LONDON
Even though the there was a wide disparity in total offense, you seemed to have a lot of opportunities you didn’t take advantage of.
“We talked about having assignment-oriented football, and it will be interesting to see how many big plays they had, plays of 14, 15 yards or more. It seemed like we’d stop them and we’d stop them, then all of a sudden they’d break one. You can’t do that against a team that’s No. 1 in the conference in rushing and sixth in the country. They’re very good at what they do, and we had no margin for error.
On the lack of success on third down the last two weeks.
“We’ve got to protect the quarterback better. That’s the commonality. Teams are going to come at you on third down, and you have to be prepared and ready to block what they throw at you. You’ve got to get it off and run the right routes. We need to make sure we address that once again this week.”
Did the Georgia Tech defense go out of its way to take Kris Burd out of the game?
“I think what they did was bring a safety down and say `you’re not going to run the ball,’ then they roll some coverage and do some things to minimize one of our playmakers. It was a good game plan for then, and again, we’ve got to do a better job on third down, and give ourselves a chance to win against a good team. They’re the reigning ACC champs right now, so you can’t come in and not do those things and think you’re going to play well. We need to go back to the drawing board again.”
On throwing the ball instead of using Keith Payne on a third-and-2 play and on fourth down at the goal line.
“Those were plays we practiced during the week that we thought would work. Obviously, they didn’t work. So we go back and look at what we’re doing. Sometimes they stuffed the box to stop him. When they do that, then you should be able to complete a pass, but you’ve got to be able to protect. Everything needs to be examined to make sure we’re doing the right things and making good use of our playmakers.”
On Tech getting lots of yardage on dive plays.
“They do a nice job of getting big splits between the center and guards. We tried to change some things up, and their tackles veers inside in the A gap. They’re so adept at running their offense. Our linebackers have to step up and make tackles on that. They executed their offense, and we didn’t execute our plan against them defensively, and that’s why they rushed for what they rushed.
GEORGIA TECH ASSISTANT COACHES AND PLAYERS
Defensive Coordinator Al Groh on talking to his former players after the game
“Seeing those players was a very confirming feeling. One of those things that, besides the competition and winning games, one thing that we think that we are able to do [as coaches] is touch lives and do something to make their lives better. For those kids to come over it was very confirming that I have the opportunity to keep them in my life and that they want to keep me in their lives. That plus the many players and coaches that I heard from during the week, that is what you are left with at the end of your career, the relationships. Those rings and watches you can put away, but those relationships never tarnish. There were so many players immediately coming up to me after the game that I was just happy to thank each and everyone of them.”
Groh on what the defense did this game as compared to Wake Forest
“It is two different kinds of games. Different style of offense, different type of team. Every week you have to defend what the other team does and play the game you have to play.
On the secondary
“For a long time we did. We misplayed some balls there at the end that we would have liked to play better but we have six weeks at getting better at those things. It was two conference wins in a row and there are things that we will address and fix and all of us on the sidelines know that we could do them better but right now we are just going to celebrate two conference wins in a row and three conference wins all together.”
On Julian Burnett in his first career start
“He seemed to do very nicely. Frankly, I am not looking at any individual players. I am trying to manage the game and call the game in the responsibility that I have. Immediately after, I am not a good one to ask on how any one particular player did.”
On the distractions leading up to this game
“There really weren’t any distractions for me. During the course of the week, I was looking at what #72 did and what #22 did and what #6 did. After the game, they all became friends of mine again. But in the preparation for the week, just as it is with a team that I don’t know, anybody, I just had to deal with the players in each position.”
Anthony Allen on finishing his runs
“I still didn’t finish as many runs as I wanted to. There were a couple of long runs where I should have just trusted my speed and kept going, but I tried to cut back into a guy. But, for the most part I did pretty well.”
Allen on getting into the endzone
“I didn’t know what to do! That first one I didn’t know I scored a touchdown until I was still up on my feet and everyone was clapping. It was good to get that first touchdown and my second, and my third.”
Mario Butler on playing with a chip on his shoulder
“It was one of those during practice that we tried to do last week and the week before was being competitive. This week in practice we went out and played with a chip on our shoulders and that is what I thought we did today. It shows on the field when you make plays. I think it showed today especially and last week at Wake Forest it showed that we evolved as a team and things are coming together for us.”
Butler on his fumble cause and recovery
“In watching film, we noticed that a couple of their players carry the ball pretty loosely. I saw 81 and all I can remember in film that we watched yesterday that he fumbled the ball so I stuck my hand in there and got it out.”
Butler on holding Marc Verica to 18 pass completions
“I think that is pretty pleasing. You have to have the mentality that you are going to challenge everything, challenge the receiver and challenge the quarterback to make bad throws.”
Butler on trying to win the game for Coach Groh
“I personally wanted to. Coach Groh is the type of person that just kept on coaching like he usually does. There were a couple of us that talked about it a little bit, but we didn’t want to make a big deal because we knew the media was making a big deal about it.”
Allen on falling just five yards short of 200
“I didn’t want to go back in there and get it. I knew that Richard Watson was going to get in there and he hasn’t seen the field since the first game. I just wanted him to stay in, I wasn’t worried about it.”
Allen on the offensive line
“The offensive line played great today, they did a good job of coming off of the ball and blocking some guys downfield that left outlets open for me to find and run through.”
Roddy Jones on cutting back inside
“They were coming over and pursuing on some of our pitch plays and the lanes were back inside so I just was trying to get back inside and to do that you have to stop on a dime and cut back in.”
Jones on starting off well
“We came out with a big play to start off the game, which really helps us a lot. When we do that our offense runs better. Then we just got in a rhythm. Some of the things that we haven’t done in the past couple of games was stay on the field and establish something and I think we established the triple [option] early in the game and it helped us later.”
Jones on playing through the fumbles
“That is something that we still have to work on. We left a lot of points off the board because of the turnovers so the score should have been even higher for us. It gives us something to build on. We scored 33 points and had two or three turnovers, but its something to build on, it’s a good time for us.”
Anthony Igbuniwe on getting his first career sack
“It is a game everytime you have to set them up. You use some moves and if they don’t work, you use another one. You just keep fighting every play. They were big when I knew I was going to get that sack. That was my first one. The play right after [Jeremiah] Attaochu got one. I call him my little brother so I said “brother/brother got a sack today.””
Igbuniwe on the defense coming together
“We are confident as a defense. We have been playing together and communicating a lot better and I think that is where the confidence is coming from. Us coming together as a defense and playing together.”
Jay Finch on the offensive line coming together
“It all starts up front. That was the big thing that we were trying to push. We had to do our job so they could do theirs. There was a sense of urgency. There was a point to make sure that we got it done. It was a conference game at home and we are still in control of our own destiny and we took care of it today.”
Finch on playing the full game in his first career start at guard
“I think I still have game jitters. I feel great right now, but I know that I will wake up tomorrow and everything will be stiff. It was great to play a full game.”
Sean Bedford on the offensive line
“As poorly as we have played and as blind as we have been this was the game we needed. Not just from a confidence point of view but also to get everything in gear and get moving downhill. I think we did a much better job of opening up pulls today and controlling the line of scrimmage and when we do that we win and that’s the bottom line.”
Bedford on the offensive line’s motivation for this week’s game
“I try not to let the questions get to me too much. I think they are more bulliten board material than anything. Things that you look at to motivate you, although I don’t think I needed them for motivation. Our lack of success is plenty motivating. The coaches did a great job this week of making sure we knew what we were doing. Coach Sewak put a big emphasis this week on making sure that everyone knew their assignments as well as they could. They weren’t trying to be our friends this week, got after us, pushed hard and I think you saw the results this week and I like them.
Joshua Nesbitt on Jonathan Dwyer being on the sidelines
“It was good seeing him but I was trying to focus on what I was doing in my job.”
Nesbitt on the fumble
“I was trying to do too much when I didn’t have to. The defender got up field on me and when I saw come in a try to hit me low so I tried to go over his head but it was a dumb play, I should have never done it.”
