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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 1, 2010

Paul Johnson

THE MODERATOR: We now welcome Georgia Tech football coach, Paul Johnson, ask for a brief opening statement and then go to questions. Coach.
COACH JOHNSON: I think like most people this time of year, we are excited to get closer to teeing the thing up this weekend. I think we have had a productive camp. For the most part, we have managed to come out of it in pretty good shape physically, and looking forward to seeing what we have got this coming here.
Certainly South Carolina State, even though they are coming from a championship subdivision, has a very good football team, has won 20 games the last few years and been impressed watching them on tape. They have their fair share of good players. Just anxious to play and see if we have made some improvement from last year to this year.

Q. Going into the game, just how much of the focus has been more about looking good in the season opener, or how much have you really focused on -- in other words, what has been your biggest concern preparing against a team like South Carolina state.
COACH JOHNSON: Well, we have approached this game the same as we do all of them. You know, we have put together a -- wrote down South Carolina State, put together a game plan, and this game won't be any different for us than when we play in the league or Kansas the next week or anybody else.
So certainly I think South Carolina State is a very good football team and well coached. You don't win 20 games in two years without having some good players and knowing what you're doing.
They have got a good system, and you know, so we are approaching this game just like we would any other game, no different than any game we have ever prepared for.

Q. Last year you saw both Duke and Virginia lose to FCS teams. How much is that maybe also in the back of your mind to make sure something like that doesn't happen to Georgia Tech?
COACH JOHNSON: You know, we haven't seen talk about FCS or FBS or all those numbers. We just talked about South Carolina State, and you know, I don't think -- we won't mention that. We worry about Georgia Tech, and we know that if we don't go out and play well, they are very capable of beating us.
You know, hopefully we'll go out and play our A Game, and that will be good enough. We'll see. That's why you play.

Q. Well, all this week, South Carolina State has used two quarterbacks to try to simulate what Josh Nesbitt does. Do you have any way of trying to simulate what Malcolm Long does and just his capabilities?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, we run the same plays South Carolina State runs. We have Synjyn Days, a young freshman quarterback on scholarship, and he's a guy that plays quarterback for the scout team, and you know, I don't know that we can exactly give them the same look that we can get, but I worry more about the schemes than I do the individual players.
So that's kind of the way we approach it to kind of give them a look at what they are doing and you just go play, so that's the best we can do, that's the best look we can give them.

Q. You have one of your quarterbacks, David Sims, grew up 15 minutes away from South Carolina State. As a red-shirt freshman, how has he progressed?
COACH JOHNSON: David has done well. He's grown up. He's matured a lot. He will be our third quarterback, and we are excited about him. I think he's got a bright future. He's really made a lot of progress from last year to this year, and like I said, I think he'll be a good football player for us here before he leaves.

Q. Question for you regarding Stephen Hill. How have you seen him developing at the wide receiver position, and where do you see him fitting in in terms of becoming that next step of player in the passing game when Georgia Tech does take to the air?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, Stephen has a lot of God-given talent. He's all of 6-4 and he's up to about 210. He's got straight straightaway speed. He was a 24' 9" long jumper in high school and he has all of the tools.
Now we just have to see him do it on the field. I don't think there's any reason he can't do it, but you know, before we say that he's the next Bay-Bay Thomas, he needs to have some catches in the game and make some plays and do those kind of things.
We are hopeful that that's a role that he can fill, but, you know, we'll see. As they say, the proof is in the pudding, so we'll see how it turns out.

Q. What are the ways that you look for Josh Nesbitt to be a better quarterback for you this year?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, we hope that he's going to be a little more consistent, you know, in the passing game. Certainly that's not all on Joshua because his protection, the routes, there's a lot of things that go into it.
I think just having another year in the system; any time a guy has played for a couple of years, they are more comfortable with what they are doing and he has a better understanding of what we are doing in offense and hopefully can get us out of some bad deals and into some better ones and that's kind of things.
I don't think that you would like to hope that he is not going to see anything that he has not seen at some point. I think he's just more confident and more relaxed playing. And he's a good athlete, and he can just let that take over hopefully.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks for being with us. Good luck this weekend and we look forward to talking to you next week.

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