OPENING STATEMENT:
Lot of time has passed since last Thursday night. Three things we talked about is we are culture built on effort, competition is king and wanted to see them compete and the last thing is stay together and play hard for each other, thought they did all three things.
Lot of talk about me interacting with the guys, it was spontaneous thing, going from 11 years of triple option to a spread against a very good defensive team. We are not satisfied not winning games, but the effort was there.
Only have 11 SRs on the roster and those guys have done a great job buying into the culture and 22 freshmen played in the game and 60 snaps at WR from true freshmen and guys competing.
Players of the week, development squad Jamal Camp, Jeremiah Smith and Wesley walker special teams they will dress. We do not use cards and that is something we’ve done a for a long time.
Guys who stood out, Nate Cottrell on special teams, gunner on punt and enforcer. Nathan had a huge block at RB on Blancato. Minihan on the OL and Tre Swilling on defense it was obvious, thing I want to impress on everyone he was the LT on kickoff return was out battling and competing and a gunner on punt, he takes that role as serious as being an elite CB. Proud of them and how they worked.
Got a good opponent on Saturday, played them last two years. Have nine starters coming back and a powerful strong armed QB. Defensively very multiple, but very sound and same thing on both sides of the ball and have good team speed.
Sad news within the organization, Dr. Aaron King our team dentist passed. 55 years with the GTAA, has made the mouthpieces for the last 55-60 years, first mouthpiece he made was for coach Bill Curry, last one he made had the molds made for our guys for the season. He means a lot to this program and the GTAA, hearts go out to him and he will be greatly missed. In the GT HOF in 2004.
ON BEING RUN HEAVY
Everyday we want to make sure every day we are getting better. Coach Key has done a good job and we will play to our strengths and this is what we do well and what we need to compete at a high-level. That is part of our nature, we felt it was the best thing to move the ball and do some good things.
ON USF AGAINST GT LAST YEAR
Team speed, they started off the season 7-0 and were rolling it is no surprise they are competitive and the two keys were the two big kickoff returns and made an emphasis on KR and I thought we made two nice plays, Kaleb Oliver made two huge tackles inside the 25, that is an emphasis going forward, their team speed and increases and heightens the focus. They have so many good athletes and team speed.
ON USF OFFENSE AND DIFFERENCE THIS YEAR
If you look, kind of like playing a new offense, many studies on Valdosta State tape and a really good OC and play calling. Johnny Ford will be playing again this week, not sure after game one how they will use him and a RB, slot or jetsweep guy. Dynamic offense and incorporating things this week.
ON THE ELIGIBILITY ISSUES
I don’t know, the only I know is our players, really matter to me regardless of how they came here whether previously here or new. Their successes I feel pride, their hurt I feel and their disappointments I feel, young men, their sons, grandsons and some are fathers and have hopes and dreams and their opportunities are denied I think there is a natural reaction.
ON THE TRUE FRESHMEN WHO PLAYED
We don’t have that thought process, later in the year if there are runs where they haven’t played we chart that and we look for guys to compete. Kenan Johnson got reps in the game and we might see him play this week and Demetrius Knight and Chico Bennett are two that pop off and who played. Dylan Leonard, Dylan Deveney and Jamious Griffin, guys competing and we released a repeat of last week’s ATL, we release it on Thursday so we give them whole week. And release it Thursday afternoon or something on how we see it. It will be a weekly discussion and we have our noon time decision and we have a huge meeting on how we play the players what series they’ll go in.
ON QBs
I thought (James) did really good, I thought Tobias ran it really well and I thought James threw it really well, (Tobias) didn't really get some looks in the first half to show wht he can really do and what he had been doing in practice. Lucas had a great two days of practice, I know he played the final two-minute drills and I’ll say it is fair to say all three will play on Saturday and they are highly competitive guys and they understand the multiplicity of playing all three.
ON ATTENTION TO DETAIL FOR USF AFTER LOSS LAST YEAR
That goes back to our evaluation from Thursday, we played really hard and competed, but the attention to detail was lacking at times, nine plays had a huge chunk of their yards. Not keeping the ball on the proper shoulder and that misfit might hurt you for 12 yards against an elite RB it goes for 90. Do your job and trust your teammates to do theirs. Here is why this play happened, nine guys did well and these two didn’t keep the ball on the proper shoulder and it went for 90, don’t focus them. The penalty part of the game, we only had two, we have refs at every practice and that paid off and not lose effort and competitiveness.
ON MASON THE LB
Really good player, their team speed and multiplicity of what they did on defense and the different looks.
ON ATTENTION ON GREETING THE PLAYERS AND ATTENTION ON THE FIELD THIS TIME
When I come on to the field, I’m excited anytime you can be a part of CFB and play at a high-level this stadium is special. I like being with our guys who I’ve grown to know, love and respect. I told Demetra our tradition on Thanksgiving was to watch the GT-UGA JV game and JR and SR in HS coming here unofficial visits to watch games then as a GA, TE coach and DPO it was special. The guys I’ve gotten to be so close to and to represent our program at a high level.
ON SEEING WISCONSIN ON HOW YOU ATTACK
When you scout an opponent and you look at what you do and what they did and what is relative, Wisconsin did a nice job, they have good players and coaches, their scheme isn’t what we run. Third down package wise we can use some stuff.
ON NON-P5 TEAM MORE PRESSURE TO WIN
The pressure we put on ourselves is every single day to get better, there is an internal drive to build this culture and get better every single day, doesn’t change with who you play. We are going to play our very best and learn from any mistakes and compete with unbelievable effort and that is our focus. We have a very good opponent coming to town, but here is how we prepare and what we do and our process to prepare at a high-level, the outside is whatever. We focus on the internal.
ON LOSING TWO IN A ROW AND CULTURE
That is a question for these players and things they’ve done to change the mindset of this program and learn a brand new scheme offensively and defensively, blocking out the outside noise, they do an unbelievable job.
ON LOOKING AT EVERYTHING ON THURSDAY HOW WELL DID YOU PLAY
Lot of things to clean up and a lot to trust communication on both sides of the lines, room for improvement and every day is such a battle and process and everything we do is brand new to them and hats off to the players and coaches.
ON JAYTLIN ASKEW
He played really well. I was also proud of Ajani and Kaleb and we had 28 guys play significant snaps on D and they handled it the right way. We had a sub pattern going and in this day and age of modern offenses and defenses we rolled guys in and not miss a beat is really special. At the nickel both played Ajani and Kaleb was proud of both. Both were in the top 10 in overall output and a lot of that is the output of the nickel position and they were both competing and playing at a high-level and showed in in real-life and there is confidence with in
Lot of time has passed since last Thursday night. Three things we talked about is we are culture built on effort, competition is king and wanted to see them compete and the last thing is stay together and play hard for each other, thought they did all three things.
Lot of talk about me interacting with the guys, it was spontaneous thing, going from 11 years of triple option to a spread against a very good defensive team. We are not satisfied not winning games, but the effort was there.
Only have 11 SRs on the roster and those guys have done a great job buying into the culture and 22 freshmen played in the game and 60 snaps at WR from true freshmen and guys competing.
Players of the week, development squad Jamal Camp, Jeremiah Smith and Wesley walker special teams they will dress. We do not use cards and that is something we’ve done a for a long time.
Guys who stood out, Nate Cottrell on special teams, gunner on punt and enforcer. Nathan had a huge block at RB on Blancato. Minihan on the OL and Tre Swilling on defense it was obvious, thing I want to impress on everyone he was the LT on kickoff return was out battling and competing and a gunner on punt, he takes that role as serious as being an elite CB. Proud of them and how they worked.
Got a good opponent on Saturday, played them last two years. Have nine starters coming back and a powerful strong armed QB. Defensively very multiple, but very sound and same thing on both sides of the ball and have good team speed.
Sad news within the organization, Dr. Aaron King our team dentist passed. 55 years with the GTAA, has made the mouthpieces for the last 55-60 years, first mouthpiece he made was for coach Bill Curry, last one he made had the molds made for our guys for the season. He means a lot to this program and the GTAA, hearts go out to him and he will be greatly missed. In the GT HOF in 2004.
ON BEING RUN HEAVY
Everyday we want to make sure every day we are getting better. Coach Key has done a good job and we will play to our strengths and this is what we do well and what we need to compete at a high-level. That is part of our nature, we felt it was the best thing to move the ball and do some good things.
ON USF AGAINST GT LAST YEAR
Team speed, they started off the season 7-0 and were rolling it is no surprise they are competitive and the two keys were the two big kickoff returns and made an emphasis on KR and I thought we made two nice plays, Kaleb Oliver made two huge tackles inside the 25, that is an emphasis going forward, their team speed and increases and heightens the focus. They have so many good athletes and team speed.
ON USF OFFENSE AND DIFFERENCE THIS YEAR
If you look, kind of like playing a new offense, many studies on Valdosta State tape and a really good OC and play calling. Johnny Ford will be playing again this week, not sure after game one how they will use him and a RB, slot or jetsweep guy. Dynamic offense and incorporating things this week.
ON THE ELIGIBILITY ISSUES
I don’t know, the only I know is our players, really matter to me regardless of how they came here whether previously here or new. Their successes I feel pride, their hurt I feel and their disappointments I feel, young men, their sons, grandsons and some are fathers and have hopes and dreams and their opportunities are denied I think there is a natural reaction.
ON THE TRUE FRESHMEN WHO PLAYED
We don’t have that thought process, later in the year if there are runs where they haven’t played we chart that and we look for guys to compete. Kenan Johnson got reps in the game and we might see him play this week and Demetrius Knight and Chico Bennett are two that pop off and who played. Dylan Leonard, Dylan Deveney and Jamious Griffin, guys competing and we released a repeat of last week’s ATL, we release it on Thursday so we give them whole week. And release it Thursday afternoon or something on how we see it. It will be a weekly discussion and we have our noon time decision and we have a huge meeting on how we play the players what series they’ll go in.
ON QBs
I thought (James) did really good, I thought Tobias ran it really well and I thought James threw it really well, (Tobias) didn't really get some looks in the first half to show wht he can really do and what he had been doing in practice. Lucas had a great two days of practice, I know he played the final two-minute drills and I’ll say it is fair to say all three will play on Saturday and they are highly competitive guys and they understand the multiplicity of playing all three.
ON ATTENTION TO DETAIL FOR USF AFTER LOSS LAST YEAR
That goes back to our evaluation from Thursday, we played really hard and competed, but the attention to detail was lacking at times, nine plays had a huge chunk of their yards. Not keeping the ball on the proper shoulder and that misfit might hurt you for 12 yards against an elite RB it goes for 90. Do your job and trust your teammates to do theirs. Here is why this play happened, nine guys did well and these two didn’t keep the ball on the proper shoulder and it went for 90, don’t focus them. The penalty part of the game, we only had two, we have refs at every practice and that paid off and not lose effort and competitiveness.
ON MASON THE LB
Really good player, their team speed and multiplicity of what they did on defense and the different looks.
ON ATTENTION ON GREETING THE PLAYERS AND ATTENTION ON THE FIELD THIS TIME
When I come on to the field, I’m excited anytime you can be a part of CFB and play at a high-level this stadium is special. I like being with our guys who I’ve grown to know, love and respect. I told Demetra our tradition on Thanksgiving was to watch the GT-UGA JV game and JR and SR in HS coming here unofficial visits to watch games then as a GA, TE coach and DPO it was special. The guys I’ve gotten to be so close to and to represent our program at a high level.
ON SEEING WISCONSIN ON HOW YOU ATTACK
When you scout an opponent and you look at what you do and what they did and what is relative, Wisconsin did a nice job, they have good players and coaches, their scheme isn’t what we run. Third down package wise we can use some stuff.
ON NON-P5 TEAM MORE PRESSURE TO WIN
The pressure we put on ourselves is every single day to get better, there is an internal drive to build this culture and get better every single day, doesn’t change with who you play. We are going to play our very best and learn from any mistakes and compete with unbelievable effort and that is our focus. We have a very good opponent coming to town, but here is how we prepare and what we do and our process to prepare at a high-level, the outside is whatever. We focus on the internal.
ON LOSING TWO IN A ROW AND CULTURE
That is a question for these players and things they’ve done to change the mindset of this program and learn a brand new scheme offensively and defensively, blocking out the outside noise, they do an unbelievable job.
ON LOOKING AT EVERYTHING ON THURSDAY HOW WELL DID YOU PLAY
Lot of things to clean up and a lot to trust communication on both sides of the lines, room for improvement and every day is such a battle and process and everything we do is brand new to them and hats off to the players and coaches.
ON JAYTLIN ASKEW
He played really well. I was also proud of Ajani and Kaleb and we had 28 guys play significant snaps on D and they handled it the right way. We had a sub pattern going and in this day and age of modern offenses and defenses we rolled guys in and not miss a beat is really special. At the nickel both played Ajani and Kaleb was proud of both. Both were in the top 10 in overall output and a lot of that is the output of the nickel position and they were both competing and playing at a high-level and showed in in real-life and there is confidence with in
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