Nov. 26, 2011
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GEORGIA TECH HEAD COACH Paul Johnson
Opening Statement
“Anytime you lose it is certainly disappointing. I give Georgia a lot of credit, they have a good football team and they showed up and played very well. For us the margin of error was small and we didn’t take advantage of a couple of opportunities that we had early. When we did that we got behind and we could never claw ourselves back into the game. We had a hard time of that. Third quarter we kind of self-destructed offensively the way we were turning the ball over. Like I said, I give them credit. They came in here and did what they had to do and played hard.”
On Georgia’s play vs. Tech’s
“I think they did a nice job protecting the quarterback; we didn’t get to him too much. Any time guys get that open, at times we turned a couple of guys loose in coverage especially crossers, a couple times they just beat us. You have to give them credit for that. The bottom line is they made plays when they had to.”
On possibly putting Synjyn Days into the game earlier
“Tevin Washinton has been our quarterback all year. I am excited about Synjyn [Days], I think he can bring some things to the offense, but it is not fair to judge him on the two series’ that he played this game.”
On the first play of the game
“It is a play that we have worked on all year. It went about as planned, except we didn’t complete it. They had some guys deep but you have to execute those things. It certainly didn’t determine the outcome of the game.”
On the special teams
“Georgia has really good kickers, both of their kickers they rotate, but they both can get it six yards deep into the end zone on kickoffs. Their punter hit some great punts. They didn’t punt in the first half, but in the second half, they pinned us inside the 10 twice. The field position game is not as we would have liked. We actually started the game out pinning them, but they flipped the field on us even with the interception they had.”
On calling a timeout before the missed field goal
“It seems like sometimes that is the way it goes. There is nothing you can do about it, sometimes it just goes that way. I have seen times when you call the timeout, the kicker makes the field goal, they have to kick it again and then they miss. If I had known they would have had a bad snap I wouldn’t have called a time out.”
On David Sims
“I thought David Sims played really hard. He had some very nice runs. He had a nice run on the goal line on the touchdown. He had a nice run on the screen pass. I thought David played hard.”
On allowing the other team to score before halftime
“It’s deflating. I think it deflates the whole team. The other thing that is deflating is giving up a score before halftime after you just scored. I think that has happened three or four times this year. You grind it out, make a fourth down, go down and score, and they come back and score. Even though it was a field goal, it still affects the way things go. We tightened up in the third quarter and played better defensively. The offense went helter-skelter there with turnovers.”
GEORGIA TECH PLAYERS
Roddy Jones #20 AB
On his last game at home for Tech
“We’re definitely disappointed in the way that the game ended. It was a pretty emotional game for us being the last game. I guess it was the main disappointment that that’s the way we’ll leave Bobby Dodd Stadium.”
On the Tech rushing attack
“I think we just shot ourselves in the foot a lot. They switched up some looks and you have to give them credit, they didn’t sit back and stay in one scheme. They brought some blitzes and different things. For most of the game we felt like we could move the ball on them we just would always stalemate. Missed assignments, missed blocks. Those things killed us. We can’t get in second and long, third and long because we’re not built for that. We just didn’t execute enough.”
Steven Sylvester #34 LB
On matching up with Georgia’s size on the line of scrimmage
“I think we did pretty good as far as up front went. We had to get to the quarterback though. That’s the name of the game especially as a defensive front seven, you have to get to the quarterback. If you give a quarterback like Aaron Murray time to throw he’s going to plenty of good receivers over the seams and that was our problem today.”
What makes Georgia’s passing game difficult to defend?
“The amount of weapons they have. To the tight end to the receivers, everybody’s capable of running good routes and catching balls that he throws and Aaron Murray himself makes plays with his feet. He can extend the plays and he can get out of the pocket so kudos to them.”
Louis Young #8 CB
On preparing for the Georgia offense
“I don’t think it was for one particular person. We planned for them to run it and try to power it. Their running back wasn’t in the game and we worked all week that we were going to play a lot of man (coverage) and take away that post route that they’ve beat a lot of teams on so far this season. They hit some good spots and got some touchdowns and like I said it may have been just one missed assignment and you’ve got to pay the price for that.”
Tevin Washington #13 QB
On his first interception
“I was looking for a receiver coming across the middle, because the safeties were looking a the receiver going vertical up the middle of the field. I thought the guy was going to break across his (the Georgia defender) face but he kept going vertical.”
GEORGIA HEAD COACH MARK RICHT
Opening Remarks
“I’m proud of our young men and our coaches, they did a great job today. We played pretty well in all phases – offense, defense, kicking game. It’s very difficult to defend Georgia Tech’s offense. It’s obvious everybody who has to play them has a terrible time. I thought our guys just kept fighting and kept battling. I thought they did a nice job.
“Winning 10 in a row is nice. When we were 0-2, people in the Butts-Mehre building we’re wanting to say, hey, we can go 10 in a row. You can’t go 10 in a row unless you get one in a row. That kind of became our war cry. Let’s win one in a row, once a week. The goal also was to try and improve every singles week. I thought the guys bought into that pretty good.
“I’m pleased with what’s going on right now. We’ve got an unbelievable challenge next week. Anybody who’s watched LSU knows they have one of the most physical teams that there is in college football, if not the most physical. And in all my years of watching football, I don’t know if I’ve seen a team this big and strong and physical. I’ve not studied them yet, I’ve not allowed myself to, but as you play common opponents throughout the year, you get to see enough of them to know that they’re really special. From my observance, I see nothing of any kind of weakness in their game. So hopefully as we study it tonight and tomorrow, we might find a little crease somewhere. They’re a great football team, and it’ll be a great challenge for us.”
On the running back plan for today
“We wanted to be able to run the power. We wanted to be able to run the zone. And, quite frankly, we didn’t run it as good as I’d hoped we would. Toward the end of the game, when we went with two tights and said we we’re gonna run it every down, we actually knocked out a couple of first downs, which was good. Kenny Malcome was really the best guy for that. His running style is a little bit more physical than anybody else we had available.
“Coach Grantham volunteered to free [Branden Smith] up a little bit for as much as the offense wanted to and without disrupting what was going on defensively. He spent the majority of his time practicing and meeting with defense, but because the 20-hour rule wasn’t in effect with vacation time, we got a chance to work with him a little extra throughout the week. We gave him a little bigger package than he’s had. Hopefully it’ll pay dividends down the road. He understood a lot more of what to do in the offense this week.
“When it came to pass protection, we felt like Carlton (Thomas) was probably our best pass protector. He’s only about a hundred, whatever he is, but he’s a tough kid. I was hoping Isaiah would be able to make it early in the week, but it became evident that he wasn’t going to be able to go. He’s made progress, and we hope he’ll be able to practice as early as Monday.”
On the offensive plays that Mike Bobo was calling
“Mike did a great job, and our entire offensive staff did a great job. In that first series, we didn’t protect like we should. We knew we were getting people open. I told the line that, `If you guys protect, I feel like we’re going to have a big day throwing and catching. Mike dialed up some beauties, but when you protect, and you throw the ball accurately, then good things are going to happen. I thought Mike had a really good plan.
“In the second half, Murray cooled off a little bit. If he had hit his targets a little better we might have had at least one more touchdown, and maybe two. Murray played about as good a half as he did against Auburn. When he’s on fire, we’re pretty good.”
GEORGIA PLAYERS
QB Aaron Murray
On Georgia’s offense…
“The offensive line has been great. The progress they have made since game one has been unbelievable. We had some big catches by a lot of guys today: tight ends, receivers, running backs. Everyone was making plays. My job was easy.”
“I think we had a terrible first possession, but really settled down after that. We had a big score to start the second half. Offensively I think we had a really good day today. We just have to keep it going.”
On throwing the ball early…
“We were just going with what was working. We still mixed it up and ran it a little more the second half. Ken Malcome did a good job of pounding it out. We were just going with what was working.”
On Georgia’s touchdown to start the second half…
“The kickoff return was huge to start the half. To score right away and make it a two-possession game with a team like that you really want to make them uncomfortable and make them start passing the ball. We were able to do that today, and our defense came up with two picks. That was really big for us.”
DE Garrison Smith
On playing early in the game after DeAngelo Tyson’s injury…
“Last year I didn’t play at all, so when DeAngelo (Tyson) went down, I knew it was my time to go. It was crazy. I practiced hard all week, and I knew I’d be the first one to go in.”
On facing Georgia Tech’s offense…
“It’s definitely hard. Coach Paul Johnson is such a great coach, and the triple option is a hard offense to stop. The coaches did a good job of preparing us. It was a difficult offense to prepare for.”
On the win…
“It was a very big game. This game means a lot to me. My brother played (at Georgia Tech). There is a lot behind that, and I felt like I had to play well. It was an important game for me and my family.”
