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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 2, 2013Paul JohnsonTHE MODERATOR: We now welcome Georgia Tech Head Coach Paul Johnson, whose Yellow Jackets will travel to Miami, Florida, to face the 14th ranked Miami Hurricanes this Saturday at Sun Life Stadium. The game will have a 3:30 p.m. kickoff and nationally televised by ESPNU. With that, we'll bring on Coach and ask for a brief opening statement. Then go to questions. Coach? COACH JOHNSON: Good morning. We're certainly looking forward to having a chance to play again after our last game on Thursday night.  We've had a couple of good days of practice, worked pretty hard, and we'll have to play a lot better than we played on Thursday because Miami is a very talented team. Al's done a great job down there, and they've kind of got that thing rolling right now. Big challenge for us, but we're looking forward to have the opportunity to go play again. Q. Hey, Coach. When you look at Miami on film, what do you see from their defense? What's the biggest area that you feel they've improved? COACH JOHNSON: I think they've got guys who have played a lot. They returned a lot of guys who played from a year ago. They're playing a lot of people. Certainly, they're running a lot more three‑four than they've ever done before, changing things up. The big thing is they've gotten turnovers. I mean, a couple of games they just overmatched the opponents and just kind of overwhelmed them. But the games that the personnel was closer, they've gotten turnovers and limited big plays. So they've done a great job that way. Q. What kind of is your message, your theme for the offense this week, considering your facing a stingy defense this week just like you did last week? COACH JOHNSON: Well, not self‑destruct. We kind of self‑destructed last week. Turn the ball over and have a penalty on 5 out of 9 drives, do those kinds of things, you're not going to be very successful no matter who you play. Certainly, Virginia Tech is very good defensively. They didn't need our help. We helped them a bunch too. We've got to try to do away with that stuff. Q. Hi, Coach. I wanted to ask you about the possible Army and Air Force and Navy games being shut down. I know with your Academy background, do you remember, you were at Navy in '95? Do you remember this being an issue? I know they played a home game and there was no travel involved, but the Department of Defense says money's not an issue. It's the perception of playing football during the shutdown. COACH JOHNSON: You know, I can't remember hardly yesterday. I don't remember it being a factor when I was there. I don't think we ever had a game cancelled because of that. It's probably a little ridiculous. Q. Could you kind of comment on‑‑ you say it's a little ridiculous. Could you kind of comment on that. COACH JOHNSON: Well, I shouldn't say that. I don't know what the deal is. That's not my cup of tea anymore, and I'm not involved. I'm sure there's a lot of smarter people than I am there in the pentagon and the Department of Defense, and they can figure it out. Q. Hey, Coach Johnson, talk about Miami's offense with Duke Johnson and also Stephen Morris, if he's healthy enough to play on Saturday. Just talk about those two individuals. COACH JOHNSON: I think that Miami has a very prolific offense.  They've always had great athletes. Duke Johnson may be the best running back in the country. If he's not, you could count on one hand the guys that are at his level. The quarterback has played well. They always have fast receivers and a huge offensive line. So they've got a pretty good combination of guys. Clearly, this will be the best offense that we've played. Q. Talk about your offense. I saw you guys last Thursday against Virginia Tech. What do you guys have to work on against that Miami defense? COACH JOHNSON: You weren't impressed off that game? Q. A little bit, I was. COACH JOHNSON: I was joking. I wasn't very impressed off that game. First off, we've got to eliminate the self‑inflicted stuff, the turnovers, the penalties, those kinds of things. We've just got to execute it at a more efficient level, and we've got to do a better job coaching and preparing them. They ran the same blitz seven or eight times, and we prepped for it and thought we had it max protected and thought we did some things. We blocked it wrong five out of the seven times. So when you do that, that's not on the players, that's on us. We didn't do a very good job coaching and teaching for last week. Hopefully, we can do better this week. Q. Coach, I believe this is your fourth straight game against a Coastal Division opponent. You played in the ACC Championship Game last year. Can you talk about the importance of winning this game to getting back there this year. COACH JOHNSON: Yeah, well, they're all important. It's kind of the way the conference unfolds, you never know because it's kind of a crap shoot on who you play on the other side of the division, as far as the teams go. So it makes the division games that much more important because, since I've been here, I know three of the five years, I think‑‑ maybe not three. I know two of the five years, there's been a tie for the Division Championship. I know we were involved in a tie and lost the tiebreaker, and last year there were three teams tied, and it could be more than that. So the division games become more important when you get there and have the tiebreaker, no question about it, because you don't play the same teams on the other side. Q. Coach, I was going to say, you have to play Clemson, which is one of the best teams in the Atlantic. A couple of your other opponents don't have to face Clemson or Florida State. Does that bother you at times that the schedules are unbalanced? COACH JOHNSON: Well, I mean, the schedules are what they are, and there may be a given year when the team they play might be better. Yeah, we know that we've got one of those two every year, and I think my first two years here, we played them both. But it's a cycle, and it cycles out, and who's to say the other teams, cross‑conference teams are going to be better in a given year. That's the way it is. You need to win your division games. That's the bottom line. Q. I'm curious, what have you seen out of Miami's offense this year that is different than last year or more challenging than last year? COACH JOHNSON: Well, I think that they're really very similar. As I said, they've got a lot of weapons. They throw the ball well down the field. They hit a lot of big plays. They're really a big play offense, and they have the people to do that, a lot of explosion plays. I think the quarterback is playing at a high level. Clearly, we talked about Duke Johnson. I think the thing that gets overlooked sometimes is their offensive line. They do a good job protecting the quarterback and allowing them to run some deep routes downfield, which are hard to cover. Q. Knowing that they can score really quickly, does time of possession become more of a factor this week than normal weeks? COACH JOHNSON: I think more so scoring than time of possession. If it takes you longer to score, that wouldn't be bad either. We're going to have to score and put some points up. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for being with us. Good luck this weekend. We'll talk to you next Wednesday. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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