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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: GEORGIA TECH v FLORIDA STATEDecember 1, 2014Synjyn DaysCHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA Q. How do you and Zach kind of complement each other at the B back position? And with everything that happened in the off‑season, the players leaving, other incidents, are you surprised how quickly the team came together and the success you've had this year? SYNJYN DAYS: To answer your first question, me and Zach have a great chemistry on and off the field. He's honestly one of my best friends. We're always encouraging each other on and off the field. Little tidbits, little things we might see on the sideline, when the other person comes to the sideline, we ask them what they saw. We're able to get on the same page. There's no drop‑off when the other one is in the game. To the second question, no, I'm not surprised at all with the success that we've had this year. We put in a lot of hard work in the off‑season doing seven‑on‑sevens, getting meshed with Justin, with the offensive line, the defense doing what they have to do. I'm definitely not surprised. None of us are really surprised. We're definitely excited for the opportunity that we have ahead of ourselves for the remainder of the season. But to answer your question, no, we're not surprised. Q. Regarding Zach, why do you think you were able to transition into that B back spot so effectively? What is it about the two of you guys that makes you so good at that position? SYNJYN DAYS: I mean, Coach Johnson, he I guess saw in me I'm a bigger body guy, he knows I'm pretty hard to take down in the open field or in the hole. I'm going to fall for at least two or three yards even if there's nothing there. Me and Zach, we definitely have similar running styles. We're always falling forward, we're always going to keep our feet moving to try to get the extra yards. We're definitely hard workers on and off the field, trying to be leaders. Being seniors, me and him, we wanted to go out there our last go‑around, leave everything out on the field, to have no regrets. Q. You mentioned being seniors. You have a bunch of seniors who played in the championship game against Florida State a couple years ago. What do you remember from that game? How much does the experience help you going into Saturday? SYNJYN DAYS: I remember the first half. Really didn't do so well as a team. The second half, I think we held them to maybe a touchdown or something like that. Being able to play in that game is definitely a memory I can tell my kids later on in life. But we've played in a lot of big games while we've been here, the Georgia game, the Clemson game, numerous other games in my career that we've been in. I feel like as a team we're well‑prepared to be on that big stage in front of the whole nation really. Q. How much confidence do you have going into this game because of the fact of just knocking off Georgia last weekend? SYNJYN DAYS: Our confidence has remained the same pretty much all year. Even when we had back‑to‑back losses, our faith in ourselves didn't waver at all. We went back to the drawing board, making sure we do the little things right. We've ended up correcting those things. We reeled off I don't know how many consecutive wins. I think it's like five consecutive wins, yeah. Q. Florida State has had a lot of close shaves this year. Do you watch the team and think they're ready for a loss, they're ripe for a loss? Do you feel this is a vulnerable Florida State team and you are a good matchup to beat them? SYNJYN DAYS: I mean, it's going to be a great game. They won, what, 20 plus consecutive games. Obviously they have something good going on there. But we feel as a team with the things we can do offensively and our defense, we feel we can be a pretty good matchup against them. I'm excited to go up against them on Saturday. Q. Georgia Tech leads the ACC in scoring offense, total offense and rushing offense. Obviously people are familiar with the runningbacks, quarterbacks, wide receivers they have. Talk a little bit about the play of the offensive line for the Yellow Jackets this year. SYNJYN DAYS: The offensive line, they've been spectacular. Honestly, it's probably one of the best offensive lines that I've had a chance to run behind. I've seen the offensive lines come and go. We've had some good offensive lines. I can definitely say this is the best offensive line we've had in my tenure at Tech, Errin Joe, Bryan Chamberlain, Freddie Burden, Shaq Mason, Trey Braun, some of those guys have had a lot of playing time while they've been at Tech. Coach Sewak, he's done a good job with them. Us B backs communicating with them about things we might see on and off the field, communication is one of the big factors dealing with our offensive line and the B backs and the quarterback. Q. Do you and Jabari speak about what's going on this year after he was forced to miss this season? Why do you think Tech until really this Georgia game has not used more than one B back heavily in a game? SYNJYN DAYS: To answer your first question, me and Jabari, we speak on the season. We're on good terms and everything. But most of our conversations are really about football, getting back on a good basis and everything. To answer your second question, B backs, we take a lot of hits. Even when we're not getting the ball, we're getting hit. Me and Zach have a pretty good chemistry, knowing when the other one needs a breather, if they can stay in and finish the drive off. I think that goes to the great chemistry that we have overall as a team. Q. Obviously with the big win you had at Georgia, all the games you've won, the fans who want to beat the Bulldogs, they're happy with how the season has gone no matter how the rest goes. What about you on the team? What's the motivation, the mood of the team going into this game? Are guys still excited to play Florida State this week? SYNJYN DAYS: We're definitely excited. As somebody said earlier, we have a lot of seniors on our team. One of the goals on our goal board was to win the ACC championship. That's something none of us on this team has had. We played Florida State a couple years ago. We lost. But we feel this year it's a different team. It's a different type of Georgia Tech. That kind of goes out to the fans supporting us all the time, even when a lot of sportswriters wrote us off, said we were going to finish fifth in our league. We just want to go out there and prove everybody wrong, play our best game. Q. You said you weren't surprised. Why not? What did you know when other people didn't think you were going to have this kind of year? SYNJYN DAYS: The hard work we put in in the off‑season, even going back to spring ball, workouts in January. Everybody is making sure they don't want to be that one guy that messes up a great season that we all envisioned. That goes back to Coach Johnson instilling the discipline in us, the commitment that he has for the team, for his players. Yeah, we're just going out there and try to accomplish everything that we wanted to accomplish. Q. Coming off two pretty big wins, beating Clemson the way you did, the great game against Georgia, what does that do for you confidence‑wise, preparing you for Florida State? SYNJYN DAYS: We had the confidence there from the beginning of the season. But, yeah, definitely beating Clemson and beating UGA back‑to‑back weeks, whether people are going to say it or not, definitely gives you a lot more confidence. Those are two pretty big‑name schools. We haven't normally beaten those schools in my tenure at Georgia Tech. Coming into this week, having Florida State on our minds, we definitely want to go out there and show the nation that Georgia Tech is back. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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