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Paul Johnson Conference Quotes

Opening Statement
This week has kind of flown by. Monday night was a tough, physical game. It was gut-wrenching the way it ended for us. The good news is you get to play again on Saturday. You have to try to put it behind you as quick as you can and move on. Saturday night we’ve got to take a step forward and get better. Every team has some good players and I’m sure Presbyterian does as well, but Saturday night’s about Georgia Tech. It’s about us moving forward and improving in a lot of areas that we need to improve.

On injuries and Orwin Smith
David Sims was not 100%. He was struggling a little bit. We may sit him and see if we can get him healthy. I think the only guy that we’re getting back off injury is Morgan Bailey. He’s cleared to play. Other than that you’ve got some guys who are bumped and bruised. Like I said, it was a really hard fought, physical game. Other than that, we don’t expect anybody out for Saturday’s game. Orwin should be fine to go.

On having a short week of preparation
Well we’ve had a couple like that. It’s really disappointing. You want to play again. Like I’ve said before, the thing about this business is that you don’t enjoy the wins as much as you should and the losses linger longer than the wins do. That’s one that’s going to be hard to kick. We had a great opportunity and didn’t get it done.

Would Morgan Bailey start on Saturday after returning from injury?
Nope. It would not be fair to the guys who play and we don’t have enough practice. We are going to have one day of practice this week. I wouldn’t think there’s anything he’s going to do in that one day in shorts, shoulder pads and helmets to win a starting job. The good thing is that if he can go, he’ll play a lot and have a chance to win a starting job.

On the execution of GT’s offense
I think you have to give Virginia Tech some credit, they’ve got a pretty good defense. We didn’t execute well, especially early. We were better in the second half. We bogged down and had a seven-minute drive and kicked a field goal. We weren’t what we have come to expect and what has been acceptable, but I think it got a little better. The execution wasn’t sharp but then again you have to give them some credit. We had some opportunities. It’s like every game. You look at the game tape and we had opportunities – plenty to hit big plays and get the ball in the end zone. I’m sure they can say the same thing looking at their tape. You’ve just got to get it done and we didn’t get it done.

On the B-Backs
There was a lot I saw that I didn’t like. Not just at that position. There were several positions. We’ve got to do a better job coaching these guys. My take on that is [if] one or two guys are not doing what you’d like, then they’ve got an issue. If it’s more than one or two guys, then we [the coaches] have got an issue. We’ve got to work and make sure that we help those guys play better.

On Tevin Washington’s last play against Virginia Tech
Tevin’s played a lot of football and been in a lot of games and it’s like anything else. When somebody asks what did I say to him after the game, I didn’t say anything to him after the game. The kid is trying to make a play. Was it ill advised? Probably. At the same time if he had thrown it up like that and one of our guys had caught it, everybody would have been screaming about what a great play it was. He certainly made some plays in the fourth quarter to get us down there and take the lead. He made a heckuva play on fourth down and threw it to B.J. [Bostic]. He had a nice run on a quarterback draw. He made some plays. I tell our guys all the time, one play does not win or lose the game usually. There’s a myriad of plays in that game that could have changed the outcome. The biggest issue I would have had with him is clearly you wouldn’t want him to throw the ball. But that’s playing. He’s out there playing and trying to throw the ball away, but just to stay in the pocket a little bit before you bolt. We had a guy coming wide open. A guy was wide open, but we couldn’t see him because we bolted out of the pocket.

On the kicking game
We kicked the ball better for the most part. The opening kickoff wasn’t great. We let him return it to the 35 yard line. We got one punt down on the one, but we didn’t get anything out of it right before the half because we let them make the first down and then the half ended. The rest I would say was OK. I looked at the tape and we were lucky we didn’t get two punts blocked because we turned guys Scott-free. It didn’t happen, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement in that. It’s kind of like what I was saying about the quarterback. If it’s complete he’s a hero, if it’s intercepted he’s a dog. If they don’t block them, special teams is good. But as a coach when I look at the tape, it gives me heartburn to see we turned a guy loose.

On why players who don’t get recruited end up better than people think
You don’t know watching guys play in high school how they are going to grow and how they are going to work. There are so many intangibles that come into it. There are a lot of guys who get overlooked. They come and have ability. They work hard and get better. You watch Presbyterian on tape and they’ve got some good guys who can play probably at some different places. You hope that you have more than they do, but I’m sure they have a lot of kids from Georgia. They are going to come in here and play hard. Don’t underestimate them. We saw Gardner-Webb come in here a few years ago with about 25 kids from Georgia and they played their tail off. We went and showed up, and barely got out of there alive. That’s what happens. Virginia Tech coming off the same kind of deal we have, got whacked by James Madison. It can happen.

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