Oct. 16, 2004
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery
– GEORGIA TECH HEAD COACH Chan Gailey
Comment on play of Chris Reis:
“He is an amazing football player. To me you have to give Coach Tenuta and his staff a great deal of credit because they put him in position to make plays, they don’t ask him to do something that he can’t do. He doesn’t have the big bulk to go inside to play stack linebacker, they put him on the edge and let him do what he does best. Chris played the game the way it was suppose to be played.”
Comment on comment on the entire defensive play of the team:
“Tremendous. Our defense just played outstanding again. I think our defense walks out there every week thinking they can shut the opponents out.
Comment on the play of the offense:
“Our offense played sporadically, sometimes we looked great and sometimes we didn’t. We had opportunities to score points, but we dropped some passes. If you don’t drop passes then all the sudden the game is way out of hand and not even an issue. We can look very good and we can look average.”
Comments on possible big let down this week after a big win the previous week:
“I think every team is different. If everybody compares to year-to-year or say cycles or trend or whatever, every team is different, every teams approach mentally, every team’s make-up is different. I don’t think this group didn’t think about it a lot. It was in the back of their mind because everyone in here talked about it so much. But, I don’t think we dwelled on it, I didn’t dwell on it. I don’t care what uniform we are wearing, we have to go play our game.”
Comment on defense stopping the run and not have same thing happen this year as last year:
“Yes I do. I think when they ran the football on us up there last year, I think they didn’t want them to run the football a lick this year.”
General comment on the look of the team today:
“I think it depends on who you have in there playing. I think the level of experience you have on each side of the ball dictates a lot of how fast you can do things and how polished you look.”
Comment on special teams:
“It was feast or famine there. Kind of like our running game. It was big runs or minus three. There was no in between hardly in the running game or the kicking.”
Comment on PJ Daniels at quarterback:
“He’s one for one his stats have got to be outstanding. One for one, for a 29-yard touchdown or something. What was it? 13 yards. Thirteen, twenty-nine.”
Comment on this week’s practice the Daniels QB play:
“We practiced it all week. We put in this week, actually I don’t think we put it in Tuesday, I think we put it in Wednesday and practiced it Wednesday and Thursday. He did a great job and took it all the way out to the edge and threw it. Calvin did a nice job holding and holding and then slipped inside of the guy.”
Comment on defense controlling the line of scrimmage:
“The thing that is happening with our defensive front is that we are getting to play a lot of people now. We are getting some depth. We have a six-man rotation that plays through there that is pretty good right now. That is helping us out tremendously. When you can do that, you can keep people fresh and we can keep our quickness up to par and close out those gaps.
Comment on was the offense acceptable:
“If you win by one every week it is acceptable.”
Comment on the Duke touchdown at the end of the half:
“Only the replay can tell.”
Comment on unsportsman like penalty that could have forced Duke to punt at their own one:
“It was verbal. That is what I understood from the officials.”
Comment on Reggie Ball’s interception in the second half:
“We had the go call. We were trying to draw them off sides with a hard count. If that didn’t work we were going to drop the fade on them and they started to pick it up and go one on one and what happened was the guy just took off and ran. It’s a one step throw and if you don’t adjust, it’s hard. That was probably more my mistake than his, I should have maybe called something else in that situation.”
Comment on play by team today compared to against Miami:
“I think we haven’t played very good two weeks in a row. That gets the attention of your competitor. I also think we are getting a little better we are getting people better. Offensively, were not Andy was still in and out, we are still bringing in left guards, but we are working on getting some continuity up there. PJ was out for a while he’s getting back into the groove a little bit more.”
DUKE HEAD COACH Ted Roof
What do you make of this one? It seemed like [Tech] took control of the line of scrimmage on both sides.
“Defensively I thought we competed well. They threw the big ball to Calvin Johnson on the one play, and that was a heck of a catch. Those things happen in the football game. But I was proud of the way they came back and competed. We defended the same route, and defended the same guy, and we got a takeaway towards the end.
“The blocked punt was big. The penalty on the kickoff return was big. That was a huge play in the game, all of a sudden, it’s a 17 to 14 game, but instead we’re backed up again.
“There were some bright spots, and I thought our tackling was much better. But we’ve got to find a way to move the football, eliminate the blocked punt, and then the halfback pass. They did a great job with that. But there were a lot of positive things to build off of, but we’ve got to eliminate those mistakes to beat an ACC football team.”
After the way [Tech’s defense] played against Maryland, with the blitzes they do, what did you expect from them today?
“I expected them to do what they did. About 80 percent of our reps in practice were against pressure. We didn’t execute, and they did. We have protections that account for those things (sending more rushers than blockers), but we had some miscommunications and missed assignments that enabled guys to come off. The whole operation has to improve.”
It seemed like Schneider was able to hit his receivers when he had time.
“That’s true in college football anywhere. When you protect the quarterback, it’s tough for people to cover a real long time. One of the big keys for us going into the football game was protecting the quarterback. We’ve got to get better in that area.”
What did you think of Cedric’s (Dargan) return?
“He was rusty. I think he’ll get better with time. He needs to be better this week.”
You seemed to have trouble when you overloaded one side of the line, Daniels would make gains cutting back.
“Some of them were missed tackles, and a couple of them were guys not fitting where they belonged. You’ve got to give credit to him, he’s a good back.”
Did you have any moments today when you were able to reflect back on being at Georgia Tech?
“The only thing I was concerned about was trying to win a football game.”
Did you see what happened on the kickoff return?
“Yes, I did. It was a good call.”
What did you think of Justin Boyle’s running today?
“The thing you can count on with Justin Boyle is that he’s going to run hard. He’s going to get behind his pads. He’s going to get as many downhill yards as he can get. That’s what I love about that kid. He’s got a very bright future. I’m very proud of him and the way he competes.
GEORGIA TECH PLAYER QUOTES
On feelings the team felt after last year’s loss to Duke — “It felt bad. Anytime you lose it’s going to feel bad, but when you lose a game like that last year, it maximizes it even more.”
On the defense being able to stop the run — “We just honed in on the things they were able to do against us last year. We knew that they were going to try and do the same things they did last year and we were ready for it.”
On the defense over the last two weeks — “Everybody is communicating better and we’re hitting on all cylinders. We’re preparing well for different teams and going out there and having fun, just playing the game of football.”
On the touchdown pass — “The line did a great job of blocking and coach told me to sell the fake, so I sold the fake. When they came into the huddle and called the play, ‘halfback pass’, I said ‘what’ and then when I got the pitch I realized that I was supposed to throw the ball and Calvin [Johnson] got open.”
On not having a let down — “Well Eric [Henderson] was out for the first three weeks and when he came back, I was out. So the last two weeks we are starting to get everyone back together. The defense has been great and we’re just treating each game like a playoff game.”
Reggie Ball On the offense’s point production the last two games — “No, it’s not satisfactory. We should have had at least two more touchdowns. Unfortunately, Nate [Curry] stepped out of bounds and we had a couple of dropped passes, but we’re going to work hard to correct those things. But we’re never satisfied.”
On the team’s progression — “We came out with another victory. When you keep winning, or win back-to-back games, you have to progress in order to do that.”
On the offense’s sporadic performance today — “We have to keep working. Keep demanding perfection on and off the field, in practice and make that transition from practice to game day.”s
On not having a let down –“Today we didn’t take step down after a big win and I think today was a big step for us. Today we showed that we could beat the big teams and defeat the teams that we’re picked to beat. So this was a big stepping stone today.”
