Oct. 15, 2011
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GEORGIA TECH COACH Paul Johnson
On Georgia Tech’s penalties (five for 40 yards):
“The penalties killed us offensively in a game where we had a hard time getting them off of the field. We killed ourselves twice in the first half. When we came in for the half, we talked about taking a second half drive. I thought that was a heck of a drive (at the start of the second half). We converted some fourth downs, some big plays. Again things should have been over after the very first play but we got pinned by a penalty to call us back from a long touchdown run so we ended up eating the clock. If you play with fire for long enough, you get burned.”
On Georgia Tech’s defense:
“I’m frustrated – just as frustrated as I am with the offense. We are not good enough to have penalties and kill ourselves and they did exactly what they needed to do. That’s the way everyone is going to play us. They are going to run the ball and hold the ball. They were able to get ahead and in the end it worked. They were able to run the last six minutes off of the clock. It is what it is. You are not going to win too many games when you throw for 24 yards either.”
On tackling:
“They were getting blocks and we missed a lot of tackles. I don’t know if we ever set the edge on outside plays. Give them some credit. They played a good game.”
On Virginia coming off a bye week:
“We talked about it repeatedly. I talked about it today. I said `their backs are against the wall and they’re going to give it everything they have.'”
On whether Georgia Tech bought into their own hype:
“Well, I don’t know. We’ve gotten away with just going through the motions the last few weeks. You can see it in pregames. There’s no intensity. There’s no emotion. It’s hard to play this game without that. We’ve got to fix some things. That’s four weeks in a row that their backs have rushed for 100-plus yards. Offensively, we are less than ideal. We didn’t execute anywhere. We had chances on the perimeter. We got the ball pitched several times where it was two-on-two with blockers and we didn’t get it done. We had a hard time running.”
On the start of the game:
“They couldn’t have scripted a better start – take the ball, run time off the clock. Then we get the ball and get two penalties in the first four plays. We made some bonehead plays.”
On the interception at the end of the first half:
“The interception at the end of the first half was not a very good play. I just didn’t think we could run the ball. When you get the ball deep with two or three minutes to go in the half, you need a play to get it down there. You’re not going to be able to drive it like we did at the beginning of the second half. At least throw an incompletion or something.”
On their last drive:
“We had a chance to win the game because we got the ball back on offense on the 40-yard line and we self-destructed.”
VIRGINIA COACH MIKE LONDON
On defensive play:
“First of all, I give honor and glory to God. This was such a tremendous victory to be a part of. To play a game like this, everything just kind of comes together. Defensively you’re faced against a task where this is the best offense college football has in terms of ground-gaining and points. To come together, to put a game plan together that the players believe in and execute it, for the most part very, very well. There were some big stops there. We went for it on fourth down; we didn’t get it. There were some other issues: having to punt. I think the last two punts came in maybe the last quarter. They just had big stops. As you take care of the dive, then the quarterback starts to do his thing, and as soon as you take the quarterback, then the guys on the perimeter, the pitch guys, start to do their things. I thought Coach Reed and the defensive coaches did a good job of adjusting to the tempo of the game. When you look at our defensive linemen, a lot of them made a lot of plays. I’m recalling the Maryland defensive linemen who made a bunch of tackles in that game in order to be successful. Your guys up front have to be able to get off the blocks because there are so many low scramble blocks. There are so many different kinds of low blocks, that you try to just capture the edge. I’m anxious to see the film and see how they played because I think that those guys up front played well. “
On why “it” came together during this game against one of the few undefeated teams:
“We go to overtime against Idaho. `Well, you guys barely beat Idaho.’ It’s hard to win football games. When you have the opportunity to put all of the aspects together, offense, defense, and specials teams, then you give yourself a chance to win games. The offense was a specialty offense that we had an opportunity to get ready for. I think with the bye week, and all of those things, that it was kind of the perfect time. I just said before that we’ve got guys back: Cam Johnson, Kevin Parks. We’ve got guys back from injury. We’ve got guys focusing on some special teams aspects, making decisions, good decisions. The game just fell in line with the preparation and all of those other entities, getting well and being excited to play. It’s Homecomings. I don’t know what they were ranked, but you have a lot of respect for a team that when you look at all of their games, you’re like `oh my goodness. You’re putting points and yardage on people.’ So, like I said, my hat goes off to the players and coaches that executed this thing. We said at halftime to the coordinators, `just call the game they way you’ve been calling it.’ What happens is that you get a lead, and you think you need to do things differently. We just wanted to call the game the same way, and those guys did an excellent job of doing it.”
On second-half offense:
“We were going to run the offense. I know there were a couple of incompletions, and some pressure. We had to throw the ball out. The good thing is that instead of trying to force a throw that could lead to turnovers, we recognized it’s not there, threw it out of bounds, and lived to see another day. As you say, the running game, particularly the power running game, appeared to be working, and it was a matter of just guys staying in bounds towards the end and utilizing the clock. With that going on, we decided to stay with what’s working. The ground game appeared to be working best.”
On post-game talk with players:
“I told them I was proud of them. I loved the effort. This is one of those wins that can change the perception of what you think about yourself. Last second play against Indiana. Last second play against Idaho. Overtime. This is one of those wins against a good team with a lot of accomplishments that you can try to turn the corner on about how you think about yourself, and how people view your program. There’s a long season yet to play, but it’s a great start to the second half of the season.”
GEORGIA TECH PLAYERS
Quarterback Tevin Washington
On anticipating a loss:
“No, I didn’t see a loss coming. I knew we needed to play better than we have the past three weeks; we needed to execute and do all we needed to do offensively to put ourselves in a position to win. But we showed up to play.”
On the called back touchdown and penalties:
“It took some momentum away from us, but we kept fighting. I think that for the most part everyone’s effort was good, and we tried to do whatever we could to get the win.”
On the pregame preparation:
“Going into the game I don’t think we were as sharp as we needed to be, but for the most part we came out here and wanted to win.”
On the cause of the loss:
“As the offense, I take full responsibility for it. We had the opportunity to come out and win the game with those last two drives, and we sputtered. With passing, I got a little rattled out there a couple times, but it’s a team thing. We have to do a better job as an offense, throwing the ball and catching. We didn’t complete the drives and get the first downs that we needed. We put ourselves in the position to win the game, and we didn’t do it.”
On being outmatched:
“No, I don’t think we were shut down. I think that we just didn’t execute well. We got stopped on drives and I had some misreads and missed checks. For the most part, we killed ourselves. Georgia Tech stopped Georgia Tech today.”
Cornerback Rod Sweeting
On the defense:
“When a team can come out and run the ball like they did, it can be hard for us to win. They executed, they were well prepared, and they ran the ball down our throat all day.”
On Virginia’s performance:
“I wasn’t surprised at all. They came at full speed, and what we saw today is what we had seen on film. We just couldn’t execute.”
On the preparation:
“I felt our preparation was good, but I don’t think we were mentally prepared. I don’t think we were overconfident, we knew that it would be a fight to the end today. In the end, they won the fight today.”
On the loss:
“We are hurting. This loss is a conference loss, so it’s tougher. This week we just have to prepare harder and get ready for Miami.”
