Sept. 4, 2004
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Post Game Quotes, September 4, 2004 Final Score: Georgia Tech 28, Samford 7
Georgia Tech Head Coach Chan Gailey
Comment on what you liked and didn’t like: Opening Statement “I think it was bits and pieces it was nothing overall that was bad and nothing overall that was great. It was kind of, some areas were good and some areas need some work and I think that is how we played. We did some nice things in the passing game made some nice long runs. We gave up a couple of big plays on some little underneath things and then one throw down the seam. Disappointed in some penalties probably today too at the wrong time. Some of that is due to some of the people that were playing not use to being in there some, but overall we need to make sure we clean that up. But, it was a good win and it’s kind of how you like to start. You like to go out there and win, play some people and get ready for the next team.”
Comment on Nate Curry: “He is going to be okay. It a little less serious than we initially thought, he got hit in the head area and it looks like he is going to be okay.”
Comment on dominating the game: “No I did not feel like it was a dominating effort. I thought we played good and hard, but we didn’t dominate. I think at times we did but it was too sporadic, I don’t know if you will dominate all the time, but I think we talked about the first five minutes in each half and I thought we did some good things more on the defensive side of the ball than on the offensive side of the ball.”
Comment on Tech passing game: “We were trying to get the ball deep, of course they played the way defenses play is how you throw the football. IF they play a bunch of people up at the line of scrimmage as this team did, then you try and throw the ball down the field and they tried to put eight or nine in the box to stop the running game, so it gives you more of those types of throws. We had two or three in particular we didn’t hit that we would have like to have hit. I think we are capable of hitting and we will learn from that and hopefully get better next week.”
Comment on 4th down play in the second half: “Well, it was big, I mean I not sure the game turned on that. But it was big; it stopped them from any type of momentum. It allowed us to go punch it in and kind of put it on ice.”
Comment on was PJ Daniels play better now: “I think he is a better open field runner right now because that was his point of emphasis in trying to get better.”
Comment on the play of the defense: “That’s about the only thing you can get the ball down the field on our defense is that you hopefully hit something underneath and you can run with it. We are a pressure defense and I think they realize that. They watched the film and saw we were coming from everywhere and its hard to protect everything we do so the key was to get the ball out, quick hitting runs, throw the ball quick on quick screens, and things like that. They did a nice job. I thought they handled the tempo of the game very well.”
Samford Head Coach Bill Gray
Opening Comment
“I hope that’s what the film shows (playing hard for 60 minutes). They gave great effort. We gave up the score late with the short field, and I’ll put that one on me. There were a lot of if’s during the course of the day, but one thing we know for certain is that they played hard.”
“I told the defense I thought they were doing an outstanding job (at halftime). Offensively, we just weren’t doing anything, really, consistently. That’s an offense that goes out week after week and scores 30 points a game, so I told them at halftime that I still have confidence in them. The defense continued to do what they’re doing, with one exception in the first half, [Tech] had to work for everything they got. I was proud of them. It could have very easily been 21-7 if we make the right throw and have a chance to catch the fade their at the end of the first half.
“I’m proud of our team and the way we represented the university, but if we can’t come out of this a better team, then it’s all for naught.
“They’ve [Tech] got the speed to get to you from a lot of different positions. That was good for us. Even though we’re a quick passing team, they we’re getting back pretty quickly on Ray. When we dropped back, we were OK, but anytime we went to our short stuff, they brought more heat than we were ready for. At the same time, I thought we threw and caught the ball a little bit in the first half, but we just couldn’t get any consistency.
“It all goes back to what you can do in the secondary. When you’ve got guys who can cover, they could afford to bring some pressure. I think if you look at the film, you’ll see they were covering us pretty well. We finally found some things that were working in the second half and put together a good drive. I still think we’ve got one or two who can play with anyone in the country.
Comment on what the experience will do for the team:
“I’ll let you know in about seven days. I think it’s a great experience for them, playing in that kind of environment. All of a sudden we have to worry about hearing our cadence and all the things that go into playing in front of a big crowd, which we don’t see week after week. We’ll find out how we’ve improved as a football team when we go play Furman next week. Even though it was 28-7 on the scoreboard, I think this helped their confidence today.
“We got rid of that 170-0 goose egg. It wasn’t going to be a shutout. We got excited about that.”
Georgia Tech Player Quotes
Reggie Ball, QB On having a tall receiver like Calvin Johnson “It always helps to have a guy that’s 6-4, 6-5, and can go up and make a play now and then. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to make a play today, but made plays elsewhere.”
On P.J. Daniels “Yes, P.J. is doing P.J. I told him that he had to do better than last year, because everybody’s expecting more out of him. So far he’s getting it done and we have to carry it over to next week.”
On Clemson next week “Every week is a playoff week. You have to go out there and win every week, not like baseball or basketball, you can’t lose and come back for a national bid. You have to win each week.”
Chris Reis, LB On playing the new position “Today really helped me out a lot. I felt like I could move well, it was a great adjustment and I was happy with it.”
On playing every play out there today “At first it was a little tiring, especially when they came out in a no huddle offense, but it was a good adjustment. About the middle of the first quarter, I felt like I was getting into a little bit of a rhythm.”
On making sure tackles after a catch “I don’t think we ever want them to catch the ball, but we definitely knew they were going to catch some balls. The coaches said that we need to rally to the ball and no yards after a catch.”
On facing Clemson “We have a little rivalry with them. Last year they beat us pretty bad, so this year we need a little payback, retribution. We’re just going to focus this week and we’re going to be ready.”
Gerris Wilkinson, LB On the performance today “I think we did pretty well for our first game. We had some people out of position and it took a little time to make adjustments, but I feel like we did a good job today. With Eric [Henderson] being out today, we were missing some valuable pieces but I feel like we can build off this and have chance to be as good than we were last year.”
On what they need to improve on “We just have to learn from our mistakes. We did a good job communicating out there on the field, but we have to improve on basic things like tackling and adjusting to the offense. We have to use this to build for next week.”
