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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 12, 2011

Paul Johnson

COACH JOHNSON: Good morning. I was happy to get the win last week. I thought that was a hard-fought game, and the University of Maryland played very well. I thought they had a good plan, and they executed it well. We were fortunate to get out with a win. Hopefully we can play a little better this week, especially offensively, and we know we'll have to going up to Charlottesville. We didn't particularly play as sharp as we would like. I think you have to give them some credit for that, as well.
But continuing to work, happy to be where we're at. 6 and 0 right now is about as good as we can be for the first half of the season, and now we start the second half this week on the road, so it'll be a big challenge going to Charlottesville.

Q. How much better has Tevin gotten since summer camp when he was getting pushed by Synjyn Days and Vad Lee, and there was pretty good competition going on there?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, I think he played very well to start the season. He would be the first to tell you, he didn't play particularly well Saturday. A lot of it wasn't his own fault, but we missed some reads and left some big plays out on the field that we have to hit. You know, it was kind of a contribution, it wasn't just Tevin. But I think he's gotten better. He's more comfortable with what we're doing, and I think he's motivated to come back this week and bounce back and play one of his better games. We'll need him to.

Q. When I used to talk with Joshua Nesbitt, he told me he took him more than a year to really understand what was being asked of him in that role. With the offense, where do you think Tevin is right now, and just his understanding and execution of it?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, I think Tevin understands what we're trying to do. He's got a good understanding of that. He's been here for four years, you know, so -- or this will be his fourth year. He's been here since we have. He has an understanding of what we're trying to do, and it's just a question of doing it and executing at a higher level.
And like I said, a lot of guys got to play a lot better to give him a chance to execute, too. It's hard to do it when -- we had a myriad of problems last week.

Q. Is he the best passing quarterback that you've had at Georgia Tech?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, we've only had two.

Q. I know, I'm trying to ask it without --
COACH JOHNSON: Joshua Nesbitt was an awfully good player for us, and I'm not going to say anything bad about him. He was a warrior when he played here.

Q. How good of a passer is Tevin?
COACH JOHNSON: I think he's adequate. I mean, he's -- he throws a good ball, and he's been fairly accurate. We had several drops last week, too. Some guys could have helped him out with some throws that while they maybe weren't right on the money, guys have got to make a play for him.

Q. What has been your experience with teams coming off a bye week? Obviously you played last weekend and Virginia didn't. Historically do they throw a lot of new wrinkles at you?
COACH JOHNSON: I don't know that -- there's a lot of talk about it. I don't know that it makes a ton of difference. The only game I think we've played this year was NC State where they played on a Thursday, so they had a couple extra days before we played. But I think you'd have to ask Mike that. Does it help? I think it helps no matter what you do if you've got extra time to prepare. But I don't think they'll change a lot of things and try to add a lot of things just because they had a couple extra days. I'm sure they'll have their game plan and they'll try to go execute it. Now, polishing up that game plan, sure, if you have extra time, it doesn't matter what you do, it should help a little bit.

Q. I know Joe Vellano had somewhere around 20, 22 tackles against you guys this week. How disruptive was he, and how does that rate among opposing defensive tackle performances against your teams?
COACH JOHNSON: He had 22 tackles by our count, and it was the best that I can ever remember against one of my teams at that position. I think that's about as --

Q. What was it? Was it just --
COACH JOHNSON: Well, he had some -- he's a good player. He plays so hard. I mean, he was making plays on guys 20 yards down the field. He tackled the receiver once. He tackled the pitch sometimes. He was tackling the quarterback. He just plays hard. He had some keys on our guys. He knew when they were pulling, and he's a smart football player. He played -- he just played a heck of a game. My hat's off to him. I told him after the game that was as good as anybody has played against one of my teams.

Q. You mentioned him tackling a pass receiver 20 yards down the field. Do you ever use that sort of thing and show it to your own players?
COACH JOHNSON: Yeah, well, I told our guys, the other thing that I thought was really special is the kid played 81 snaps. You know, in today's game everybody thinks that they've got to have rest and they've got to come out and they've got to do those things. He played 81 snaps, and he played the 81st snap just as hard as he played the first one.

Q. If you don't mind looking back last weekend again, how surprised was Andrew Gonnella to see you visit him in the hospital, and have you ever done that before for an opposing player?
COACH JOHNSON: I don't know how surprised he was. Basically I just wanted to go by there. Our athletic director and our trainer went, as well, and we just wanted to go by and make sure that he had what he needed. I left him my cell number. His dad was there. I didn't get to meet his dad, but he was outside on a phone call. You feel for guys when they get hurt any time. He may be the first guy we've had since I've been here that I knew had stayed over in the hospital, but yeah, that's something that you would want to do. I mean, I think that guys would do that for our guys if they were left behind. I'm sure they would.
More than anything - we were there not a long period of time - I just wanted him to know and have my cell number in case he needed something, and we were right here close by that we could help him out with.

Q. I know you talked about Orwin Smith in recent weeks, averaged a little over four carries this year, a little over five carries this year, I believe. What's the max you can use a guy at that position?
COACH JOHNSON: I don't know, it depends on how many times he can get the ball. We don't go in with a set number. He could carry it 30 times, I guess, if the defense dictated that.

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