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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 2, 2013Al GoldenCOACH GOLDEN: We're facing a Georgia Tech team who's played three conference games on Saturday in our conference opener. It's a great challenge in all three phases. We've completed three practices. We're having a good week. We just got to continue to stay focused and get ready to play the first game of the ACC tournament against one of the two teams that have represented the coastal side in the championship game or have won a championship. We have to get geared up and ready to go. Questions. Q. Coach, can you talk a little bit about Malcolm Lewis, how emotional this game may be for him considering last year he had that devastating injury in Atlanta. COACH GOLDEN: Yeah, I don't think he's thinking about that at all. He's healed. He looks like Malcolm right now the last week or so. Certainly the last couple days, he's starting to play fast again. I think that's in the past. I think he's already slayed that demon in terms of going out and doing those things. I don't think it has any bearing on it. I think he's ready to go. Q. Could you talk about what Tyler Murphy's recruitment was like when you were at Temple? COACH GOLDEN: Tremendous young man. Great family. We thought we were getting a steal at Temple. As so often happens, because of where we were in the pecking order, we got cherry picked down the stretch by Florida. Again, it was a tremendous opportunity for the young man. I was happy for him at the time. Disappointed for us. But I understood the opportunity that he had. I want to say, if I'm correct, Florida was coming off a national championship year. Again, good for him. I'm not at all surprised that he dug in. It's in the character of him and his family. I'm not surprised at all that he dug in and fought through adversity and stayed there for all the right reasons. Now because of it he's having success. I'm happy for Tyler and his family. Q. I think you said earlier in the week the goal was to try to get Stephen as close to 100% as possible. Just wondering where he is. Any concern that your starters haven't really played a full game in a couple weeks now? COACH GOLDEN: No, only because we've been working them so hard in practice. Two weeks ago we were hoping that things would go well. We worked really hard on our conditioning in the bye week. Leaving up to Savannah State, we worked hard in terms of our conditioning. I don't think there's an issue at all. We're going to play a number of guys no matter what. As it relates to Stephen, he had a great day today. I would say he's really close now. Q. You've already faced a really good defense this year in Florida. How does the Georgia Tech defense look to you on film? COACH GOLDEN: They're really good. It's different. It's a different group. Ted Roof has done a great job. They're equally as experienced. They're top 25 in red zone defense, scoring defense, total defense, rushing defense, third down defense, pass defense, efficiency. They've only given up 10 points in the second half. This is a really, really good defense led by Jeremiah Attaochu, one of the premiere players in the country with over 20 career sacks. It's a great challenge because of how they run their offense, you don't get as many opportunities. Again, it's going to be a great challenge for us to run the ball. It's going to be a great challenge for us against this pass defense to be effective in the passing game. Certainly one of the challenges since the first two weeks of the season has been to improve our third‑down percentage. That's going to be a big part of this game, as well. Q. Talk about your two‑quarterback system. What is it like having two good quarterbacks in your system? COACH GOLDEN: Well, I think Ryan has really matured. Ryan Williams has really matured. I don't think there's one person in our organization that misses a beat when Ryan is in there. His teammates have complete confidence in him, support him. More importantly, Ryan has confidence in himself now. He's comfortable in his own skin. He knows he's different than Stephen. He's utilizing his skills and his ability in getting the most out of what he does well. That's a big difference right now at the quarterback position, is that we have two that we believe we can win with. If Ryan is needed again here in the near future, certainly we will not hesitate to go to Ryan and rally behind him. Q. Seems like your defense is in a swagger formation after the Florida game. Do you think that's because everybody is working hard during practice? COACH GOLDEN: Our defense is what? Q. Has a swagger, they have a good sense of being on the field, you're not going to score on us at all. COACH GOLDEN: Well, I don't know about that. This challenge coming up this week, and I said it yesterday, this is a great challenge for us. It's a great challenge for a number of reasons. Number one, when we went up there last year, they rushed for 4.9 yards a carry, had 287 yards. They were 4‑5 in the red zone. They had explosive runs of 21, 37, 35, I think 17, then two pass plays of over 50. That's a great challenge. There's no question that we're more mature on defense, that we're playing with more confidence. But it's all relative because this is a great challenge and one of the best challenges that we've faced all year in terms of trying to defend the option, being poised and precise every play. Q. Can you talk about the adjustment Duke Johnson has made from being the guy you moved around, used a lot of places last year, to being your prime runningback? COACH GOLDEN: Yeah, I think he prepared very hard to be the lead dog, if you will. He's prepared very hard for that. He gained weight in the off‑season. He's in the best condition of his life. He has studied the game. Randy, people will say he fumbled last week, but what they don't see is, man, there are three or four times he had incredible blitz pickup. He's so unselfish. Before he went to his check‑down, he was blocking defensive tackles on the way out, the big defensive tackles that USF had. Everybody on the team sees that. It's not like he's a ball‑carrying specialist. This guy, whatever we ask him to do, he does it. I'm real proud of him. We've been able to keep his play count down, so he's way more healthy than he was this time a year ago. I know he's excited about the opportunity and the challenge that Georgia Tech presents this weekend. Q. I know he's returned some kicks this year, but do you hesitate to use him in that role or other roles to keep him healthy? COACH GOLDEN: No. He's a football player. He's an explosive player. That's just another play. It's another play from scrimmage, another opportunity for him to get a touch. Again, I think he's good at it. He wants to do it, which is awesome. He knows he can break a big one. He knows if everybody does their job he has a chance. I think it's just a situation where that's part of who Randy Johnson is. If he wasn't that, then he wouldn't be Duke. At the end of the day, those are the things that make him different and special, and he's got to keep going. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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