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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: GEORGIA TECH v FLORIDA STATEDecember 1, 2014Terrance SmithCHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA Q. A question about the defense. What has been the problem with the run defense? Is it because people are not tackling? What do you guys do to help fix that? Georgia Tech is going to be an option‑type running scheme Saturday night. TERRANCE SMITH: Yeah, pretty much came down to tackling. We had a couple spurts of poor tackling in some games. That's been our main focus, increasing our habits of tackling, getting people on the ground. Q. I know you're from Georgia. When you were a young kid, did you know everything about Georgia Tech and Georgia? What is it like facing one of the teams you watched when you were a kid? TERRANCE SMITH: I grew up about 15, 20 minutes away from Georgia Tech, but I was more of a Georgia fan growing up. Having a chance to play one of those teams, it's kind of big time. I can go home and talk a little trash after beating Georgia Tech. Q. Briefly what is the difficult part of defending an option offense such as Georgia Tech's? TERRANCE SMITH: I mean, when you face a triple option team, it's just a lot of discipline. You got to have everybody on their man. It's pretty much assignment football. It's not necessarily about where the ball is. If one person is out of place at the wrong time, they could break a big play for long yards. Q. Did the Citadel come as close to running the type of defense Georgia Tech does as any other team you played? TERRANCE SMITH: That's the closest we've come to this type of defense. Citadel ran it pretty good. We had a chance to face it this year. I think we're a little more prepared than other teams are facing it. Q. Coach Kelly has a lot of experience here at Tech, having coached here for a while. Do you think that's going to help you out as far as preparing for this? How jarring is it to prepare for this offense for one week? TERRANCE SMITH: I mean, yeah, Coach Kelly being a coach there previously, it's a good benefit to us. He's a coach that saw their offense day in and day out for a couple years. He knows the ins‑and‑outs of what they're going to try to do and how to stop it. I feel that will help us out. These types of teams that run the triple option, physical type of game, they're going to run a lot of dives. Just got to stop the run, pound it, keep them into throwing the ball, which is something they're not used to doing. Try to make them one‑dimensional. Q. When you are in the third or fourth quarter or it's halftime, you're not playing maybe as well as you hoped you'd play going into the game, down a touchdown, is there confidence that you will pull this out based on how often you've done it throughout the season? TERRANCE SMITH: We never get stressed or anything during games when we're down. We just keep our calm, keep our poise. We know we're going to find a way to make plays when we have to to pull it out. Our team has done that a lot this year. We keep our poise, fight back no matter the circumstances. That's just one thing we do really well. Q. Do you think that was the case all season long? If you think back to September, maybe the NC State game, compared to Florida, that you were calm and collected regardless of the score going into the break? TERRANCE SMITH: I mean, that's one thing at halftime, we go in the locker room, we make our adjustments and things like that. We know when we adjust and correct the mistakes we have in the first half, we can come out, make plays, come back and find a way to win. That's what we've been doing all year, just finding a way to win. Q. You mentioned trying to slow down the run game. I don't know how much film you've watched. Their two B backs are bigger guys. What are some of the challenges of trying to tackle bigger backs like that? TERRANCE SMITH: I mean, we have a pretty big D‑line up front. We're going to need them to perform really well this game, get their people on the ground, keep them from gaining yards. We faced a couple big backs this year, Boston College, to Florida, teams like that. It just comes down to tackling. You're going to have to man up, (indiscernible) them in the mouth, get them on the ground. Q. Are there different challenges to tackling a bigger back? TERRANCE SMITH: I mean, it is a little more difficult than probably tackling a scat back who is trying to make you miss. When you have somebody that's going to try to run you over, that brings a little more difficulty to the situation. I mean, we're prepared for it. We have really decent linebackers, a really decent front four, front five. We're prepared for them. Q. I'm guessing a lot of your fans were hoping it would be a rematch with Duke as opposed to Georgia Tech and the running game. What was your reaction when Georgia Tech was the team? Do you care at this point in the season? TERRANCE SMITH: I mean, it really didn't matter who we played. Every game's a big game. They're just the next people in front of us. Didn't matter whether it was Georgia Tech or Duke. We're going to come out and play and perform the way we have to to get to where we want to go. It's just the next rock in the road. Q. What were your impressions of Georgia Tech growing up? TERRANCE SMITH: Growing up, Georgia Tech was a pretty big university to go to. Education, one of the top‑notch programs in the country. I liked Georgia Tech. It was just a little too close to home for me. I had to make my own decision and decided to come to Florida. Q. Did they show much interest in you? TERRANCE SMITH: Yeah. They recruited me pretty heavily. Like I said, I just didn't want to be that close to home. I kind of wanted to get away, step up. I had to go somewhere else. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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