PAUL JOHNSON GEORGIA TECH
COACH JOHNSON: I think we are excited to have an opportunity to play another really good football team this week at home. Certainly to this point, we really haven't played up to expectations in any of the three phases, either defense, special teams, and on offense, certainly not what we are accustomed to doing. Gives us another chance to go play and see if we can get better against another really good team. We've had the opportunity to play some good teams so far this year and certainly Pitt is another one who is really playing well. Another Top-10 team in defense. So it will be a huge challenge.
Q. I have a little bit of a different question this morning -- UCF, currently 0-6, coached by George O'Leary. My question is, I just want to get some general insight on what does a team have to struggle midseason when it's struggling ways it did not envision?
COACH JOHNSON: I don't know about redrafting. I think you've just got to stay firm with your beliefs and what you think you can do and what you believe in, and you've got to keep working and try to get better. I think every team is different and every team has been in different situations. I don't know at all what's happened to central Florida. I know we've had a ton of people injured and we've played a pretty good schedule. We let a couple games get away ourselves that we felt like we should have won but didn't. So when you're not up to speed or not where you're usually at or expect to be, just got to keep working. There's no magic wand and there's no waiver wire. You're not going to pick anybody up, so you've got to play with who you've got.
Q. How challenging is it to keep the spirits of the players up? Because obviously when you're losing like that, kids get down on themselves and you want to keep them competitive.
COACH JOHNSON: I'm sure it's a challenge. Everything is different. You just have to try to find ways to motivate the team. I think most kids who play today are competitive. They want to play well. I don't know their situation. I think our guys are still playing hard. We don't have that issue with playing hard. We just have to play better.
Q. Where does the improvement have to come from to get this defense better?
COACH JOHNSON: It's got to be all over. We just haven't -- it's been really disappointing. We had a lot of guys coming back, and we knew we were going to be young offensively and then we got a lot of guys hurt. So we've just given up way too many big plays, way too many. The last two games, eight in one game over 20 yards, and seven in the next game. When you do that, it's hard to play good defense, and especially if the offense and special teams are not supporting you at all. So it's something that we've got some experienced guys over there. We've just got to play better. Just got to coach better and play better.
Q. To look at the play of Justin Thomas, your quarterback, obviously there's been struggle this season which you've talked about already, but just what you can say about where he's at and if you're seeing leadership from him on and off the field, kind of how he's handling everything?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, I thought he had his best practice of the year yesterday, and he's working hard. He has not probably truthfully played as well as he did a year ago, but a year ago he was surrounded by a lot of older guys, and all the skill positions of guys who have played. I looked out on the field Saturday at Clemson, at one point, we had five freshmen on the offense and that's guys who came in August, not guys who were early enrollees or whatever. So he's just got to focus on doing thinks job and depend on those other guys to get their part right eventually and I think they will. They want to. It's just the lack of experience. And also, we played some really good teams. So it's kind of been a combination of both. It's a thin margin for error when you play really good teams and the fact that we have been abysmal and basically took ourselves out of any chance in the first conference game with special teams. And then in the last -- well, Clemson beat us. They beat us soundly. They are a good football team. We didn't play well and they are a good team. The Carolina game, we had every chance to win the game and we don't make enough plays. You have to give them credit. They made plays and they have got a good team. They are very good offensively. And they did a nice job defensively not giving up big plays. But we have got to make the plays at the end and just continue to play and I think he'll continue to do that.
Q. As far as the slew of players that you have running the ball, has anybody stepped up to you? I know obviously you're going to have a lot of different guys back there, but has anyone kind of stepped up or a couple guys kind of stepped up that you can lean on a little bit more at this point?
COACH JOHNSON: Yeah, I think a couple of our freshmen are starting to play well. I think Mikell Lands-Davis, we didn't play him until about the fifth game, but he's coming on. He's going to help us as a true freshman. TaQuon Marshall has been hurt a lot as a freshman. I think he can do some things. Marcus Marshall is a freshman, a b back who’s got some ability. Got to get them healthy and keep them out there for a little bit so they can get better.
Q. Can you evaluate the triple option and how it's performed as far as executing the plays and as far as doing what it's supposed to do during the four-game losing streak?
COACH JOHNSON: Depends on the game. We've had games where we executed better than others. We're certainly not up to our standard offensively here, what we've been in the past. But I think if you look at the four losses, if I'm not mistaken, I think that we probably scored the most points that Duke's given up. I think we scored the most points that North Carolina has given up. I think we scored the most points that Clemson's given up -- well, maybe Notre Dame might have got two more against them. But we're just not the same as a year ago. A year ago we could win shootout games, we could match, but what we've got to do is be much better on defense and special teams if we're going to have a chance. Because offensively, we don't have the experience that we had a year ago. We knew that going in. And we've lost a total of seven running backs. So it was pretty hard to -- we are pretty much all freshmen there now.
Q. Seven running backs from injuries?
COACH JOHNSON: That's correct.
COACH JOHNSON: I think we are excited to have an opportunity to play another really good football team this week at home. Certainly to this point, we really haven't played up to expectations in any of the three phases, either defense, special teams, and on offense, certainly not what we are accustomed to doing. Gives us another chance to go play and see if we can get better against another really good team. We've had the opportunity to play some good teams so far this year and certainly Pitt is another one who is really playing well. Another Top-10 team in defense. So it will be a huge challenge.
Q. I have a little bit of a different question this morning -- UCF, currently 0-6, coached by George O'Leary. My question is, I just want to get some general insight on what does a team have to struggle midseason when it's struggling ways it did not envision?
COACH JOHNSON: I don't know about redrafting. I think you've just got to stay firm with your beliefs and what you think you can do and what you believe in, and you've got to keep working and try to get better. I think every team is different and every team has been in different situations. I don't know at all what's happened to central Florida. I know we've had a ton of people injured and we've played a pretty good schedule. We let a couple games get away ourselves that we felt like we should have won but didn't. So when you're not up to speed or not where you're usually at or expect to be, just got to keep working. There's no magic wand and there's no waiver wire. You're not going to pick anybody up, so you've got to play with who you've got.
Q. How challenging is it to keep the spirits of the players up? Because obviously when you're losing like that, kids get down on themselves and you want to keep them competitive.
COACH JOHNSON: I'm sure it's a challenge. Everything is different. You just have to try to find ways to motivate the team. I think most kids who play today are competitive. They want to play well. I don't know their situation. I think our guys are still playing hard. We don't have that issue with playing hard. We just have to play better.
Q. Where does the improvement have to come from to get this defense better?
COACH JOHNSON: It's got to be all over. We just haven't -- it's been really disappointing. We had a lot of guys coming back, and we knew we were going to be young offensively and then we got a lot of guys hurt. So we've just given up way too many big plays, way too many. The last two games, eight in one game over 20 yards, and seven in the next game. When you do that, it's hard to play good defense, and especially if the offense and special teams are not supporting you at all. So it's something that we've got some experienced guys over there. We've just got to play better. Just got to coach better and play better.
Q. To look at the play of Justin Thomas, your quarterback, obviously there's been struggle this season which you've talked about already, but just what you can say about where he's at and if you're seeing leadership from him on and off the field, kind of how he's handling everything?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, I thought he had his best practice of the year yesterday, and he's working hard. He has not probably truthfully played as well as he did a year ago, but a year ago he was surrounded by a lot of older guys, and all the skill positions of guys who have played. I looked out on the field Saturday at Clemson, at one point, we had five freshmen on the offense and that's guys who came in August, not guys who were early enrollees or whatever. So he's just got to focus on doing thinks job and depend on those other guys to get their part right eventually and I think they will. They want to. It's just the lack of experience. And also, we played some really good teams. So it's kind of been a combination of both. It's a thin margin for error when you play really good teams and the fact that we have been abysmal and basically took ourselves out of any chance in the first conference game with special teams. And then in the last -- well, Clemson beat us. They beat us soundly. They are a good football team. We didn't play well and they are a good team. The Carolina game, we had every chance to win the game and we don't make enough plays. You have to give them credit. They made plays and they have got a good team. They are very good offensively. And they did a nice job defensively not giving up big plays. But we have got to make the plays at the end and just continue to play and I think he'll continue to do that.
Q. As far as the slew of players that you have running the ball, has anybody stepped up to you? I know obviously you're going to have a lot of different guys back there, but has anyone kind of stepped up or a couple guys kind of stepped up that you can lean on a little bit more at this point?
COACH JOHNSON: Yeah, I think a couple of our freshmen are starting to play well. I think Mikell Lands-Davis, we didn't play him until about the fifth game, but he's coming on. He's going to help us as a true freshman. TaQuon Marshall has been hurt a lot as a freshman. I think he can do some things. Marcus Marshall is a freshman, a b back who’s got some ability. Got to get them healthy and keep them out there for a little bit so they can get better.
Q. Can you evaluate the triple option and how it's performed as far as executing the plays and as far as doing what it's supposed to do during the four-game losing streak?
COACH JOHNSON: Depends on the game. We've had games where we executed better than others. We're certainly not up to our standard offensively here, what we've been in the past. But I think if you look at the four losses, if I'm not mistaken, I think that we probably scored the most points that Duke's given up. I think we scored the most points that North Carolina has given up. I think we scored the most points that Clemson's given up -- well, maybe Notre Dame might have got two more against them. But we're just not the same as a year ago. A year ago we could win shootout games, we could match, but what we've got to do is be much better on defense and special teams if we're going to have a chance. Because offensively, we don't have the experience that we had a year ago. We knew that going in. And we've lost a total of seven running backs. So it was pretty hard to -- we are pretty much all freshmen there now.
Q. Seven running backs from injuries?
COACH JOHNSON: That's correct.
