Jan. 1, 2013
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Head Coach Paul Johnson
Opening statement
“We thank the City of El Paso and the Sun Bowl committee for this fabulous week. The second time around was probably better than the first. The hospitality and everything shown to our team, coaching staff and extended family was great. I am really proud of our football team and the way they played today. They played with a lot of heart and I know Southern California has some really good football players. It was a hard fought football game and I am really proud of our team and I thought they played well.”
On what the key was defensively
“Well I think we stayed away from giving up the big play and we did well on third down. We created some turnovers and it was just one of those things where we were able to make some big plays. We played pretty consistently. It became a field position game.”
On the two quarterback situation
“I think both our guys did a good job. In the second half we got more geared into the running game and Tevin has great experience with that.”
On the Georgia Tech defense
“I really think our guys played well the entire game. Other than the one drive we gave up, guys were playing fast and playing hard. They knew where to go and what to do; there wasn’t a lot of thinking going on. There at the end of the game we were able to play prevent, three-deep defense with guys playing loose.”
On the wind and if it affected play calling
“It [the wind] affected it totally. When you were going against the wind we weren’t even going to try to throw the ball. And with the defense playing the way it was, it became a field position game. We had chances to put them in bad spots when we were punting as well. The defense did a good job stopping them.”
Senior QB Tevin Washington
On throwing in windy conditions
“We could have had some bigger plays but we handled it well today.”
On the Georgia Tech defense
“The defense played very well. Coach Kelly has been doing a great job coaching the defense and being out there seeing them make plays was great. The defense has been carrying us on the back of the season, so it was a good feeling.”
On the thoughts of the final interception of the game
“I was like `It’s game over’. I didn’t want to celebrate until there were zeros on the clock but when Quayshawn made that interception I knew we just had to take a knee and end the game.”
Senior CB Rod Sweeting
On his play in today’s game against USC
“This is really exciting. With one of our coordinators getting fired mid-season, coach Kelly did a good job for us. He kept preaching to just finish and the type of performance I had in this game, I am very excited.”
On being the underdog in today’s game
“All season, they never gave us a chance. Coach Kelly and the rest of the coaching staff really did a good job firing us up. The coaches brought a lot of energy to the team and it was great.”
On the wind helping the defense
“If the wind wasn’t blowing, I feel like the result would have been the same. We just went out there, lined up and did our assignments and got the W.”
On covering the USC offense
“The quarterback was staring down a lot of his receivers and Coach Kelly always preached on how to look for that. I just sat down and jumped [the route].We saw on film that the zone caused them a lot of havoc. Jamaal and I were moving around disguising the coverage’s. He was rattled the whole game and we knew we had him. It was a good job by the safeties on disguising the coverage’s.”
Senior AB Orwin Smith
On coming back into the game after getting hurt in the first half
“I just sat in the locker room the whole first half just wondering if this was supposed to happen because I had already missed two big games, and this one was even bigger. I just prayed on it and took the chance of going back out there.”
On scoring a touchdown
“It was a great one-on-one opportunity and you can’t ask for much more.”
On playing in the Sun Bowl and in this environment
“It was great. The crowd was very excited. There weren’t many Georgia Tech fans but we definitely appreciate El Paso and the fans coming out to support us.”