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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 25, 2017

Paul Johnson

Greensboro, North Carolina

PAUL JOHNSON: Good morning. I was proud of the way our team played against Wake Forest Saturday, especially in the second half. I'm not sure we played particularly well in the first half. I think you have to give Wake Forest credit. I think they're a good football team. They've got some good players, they're well-coached, play well together. To come out and play the way we did in the second half, I was proud of that effort.

Huge challenge this week. Night game in Death Valley against a team that's got really good athletes and a team we've struggled with here the last couple years. It's a challenge for us, but it's an opportunity, and we're looking forward to going up and playing.

Q. I'm working on a story of coaches that are having growing pains in year three. At Georgia Tech, you took a step back in year three, then took a big jump forward the year after that. What do you remember about that year, maybe some of the challenges that you went through at the time? Was it related to youth and inexperience, having to try to rebuild the roster a little bit after the first two years?
PAUL JOHNSON: Well, what happened to us after year two, we had four juniors come out early in the draft, then our starting quarterback got hurt, broke his arm in the fourth game, game at Virginia Tech. So I think really some of the seniors, because we thought we were going to have almost the whole team back from the conference championship team in '09. When the four guys came out early, I think some of the guys who stayed kind of resented that. It was a little bit of that.

But we were going along okay, and I think we were up 14-0 at Blacksburg when our quarterback through a pick and broke his arm on a tackle. That was a struggle. We had to replace him with a guy that didn't play. I can't even remember what our record was. I think a little over .500. That's the thing I remember, is we lost those four guys.

We thought we were going to lose one, possibly two, but we didn't think we were going to lose four.

Q. When you have a big season like that, then the very next season is a little bit of a struggle, how do you keep the guys up and convinced that you're going in the right direction, just having sort of the year three blues?
PAUL JOHNSON: I don't think we even talked about it. I think you kind of approach each season the same. You set the expectation and you leave it at what it is, go about your task.

I don't ever try to compare years. I think every team's different. We just talk about the goals for that year and try to reach those. Don't lower the standard. Doesn't matter what happens, doesn't matter who gets hurt, what happens, you got to keep the same expectation level.

Q. What qualities or what attributes do you look for in a B back? How does KirVonte Benson fit in that role for you?
PAUL JOHNSON: Like everybody else, we're just looking for a guy who is a good runningback. If they're a little bigger, you probably don't want a guy in there that's under 200 pounds. We've had them, did well.

KirVonte has done a good job. He's got a strong lower body, good speed. His vision is getting better all the time I think the more he plays. He has had a good year up to this point.

Q. When you recruit for that position, are you looking for specific types of guys, or just a good all around runningback?
PAUL JOHNSON: Yeah, just good players. Like I said, we probably wouldn't recruit a 170-pound guy to play in there, a 180-pound guy. Just guys who are good runningbacks, that's what we're looking for. No different than anybody else.

Q. Clemson was able to hold you under a hundred rushing net yards the past two years. Why in your mind do you think Clemson was able to accomplish that?
PAUL JOHNSON: Negative plays. A lot of sacks, a lot of lost yardage plays.

Q. What are you seeing from Clemson, mainly their defensive front this year, and how do you plan to attack that?
PAUL JOHNSON: They're good. They've been good for a few years. They've got a lot of guys and they roll them. They're big, fast and strong. We plan to do what we do every year. That's what we do. We're not going to change what we do. We just got to play a lot better than we've played against them, really last year especially. I think the year before we were somewhat limited when we played them. Last year we played a horrendous first half. Played a little better in the second half, but we were so far behind it really didn't matter.

Of course, they did that to a lot of people. They're pretty good.

Q. Shamire Devine was one of the guys nominated for offensive lineman of the week this past week. Talk a little bit about his development for you this year.
PAUL JOHNSON: Shamire has played a lot of football. He's I think our only senior up there on the offensive line. He fought his weight the whole time he's been here, when he stayed healthy and played. He's a big guy, about 6'6", 380. He has good feet. He does a nice job at the point of attack, is a pretty good pass protector inside.

He's playing well. He played the whole game the other night, which I'm proud of him because that's been his challenge playing. He's done that a couple of times. He also played 77 plays against Tennessee.

He's had his best season, I think, this year so far.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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