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CAPITAL ONE ORANGE BOWL: MISSISSIPPI STATE v GEORGIA TECHDecember 29, 2014Adam GotsisMIAMI GARDENS, FLORIDA Q.  From Australia to the Orange Bowl, you didn't take a direct flight here, of course. ADAM GOTSIS: Yeah. Q. But I know you've been asked a million times and I apologize, but have you taken time to really appreciate how unusual your story is? ADAM GOTSIS: Yeah, I mean, probably about a week before I came here my brother actually messaged me, like I still can't believe you're playing in the Orange Bowl, and that kind of like just made me think about it and made me think about what all my friends are doing back home or probably what I'd be doing back home if I wasn't given an opportunity, so it's pretty cool to look at it from that perspective like I'm over here in America playing in one of the biggest college sporting games of all time. It's pretty exciting. Q. When you went to Tech, you go through high school and the recruiting process and all that, did you ever imagine that your career was going to turn out like this, that you'd become a key player? ADAM GOTSIS: I knew that I was going to take it day by day. That was kind of like my mentality coming in. It's just kind of the way I wanted to handle it, to take every opportunity I get, whether it was being red‑shirted or playing a little bit, and that's what happened. I was just going to take both opportunities and just run with it and give it my all because that's what I did to get here, and that's the mentality I've had ever since. Still just taking it day by day and been given more opportunities lately, so now to play on a big stage and get recognized a bit more and get put on the map a little, but it's slowly getting bigger. Q. Did you play Australian rules and rugby? ADAM GOTSIS: I played only a little bit of rugby in high school but I've played Australian Rules football pretty much since I was eight years old. Q. Of the three, which do you prefer? ADAM GOTSIS: I love football. I love football. I was a big Aussie Rules kid. Where I live, we're about 10 hours from 18 teams, so that's kind of a big deal. If you're not an Aussie Rules fan, you're out of circle. Q. Have you tried to educate these guys as to the finer points of Aussie Rules? ADAM GOTSIS: I've shown them a few videos and they just get lost. I've tried to explain it, and it's just one of the most confusing games to explain, as well. Q. Everybody just knows this guy. ADAM GOTSIS: Exactly, and then they don't even know why he does that. There's questions about everything now. It's a really good game. Like I feel like there's a bunch of guys back home that either I've played with or are playing back home at the moment that could make it over here and play college football or play even in the pros, I think. Just the type of athlete they are, they have such good hand‑eye coordination and such a good motor to be able to run all day. They're fast. I see no reason why more kids and stuff can't come over and start getting recruited because they're just athletes. Q. On to this game a little bit, they have obviously a very good offense, they have an outstanding quarterback. The biggest challenge will be what on Wednesday night? ADAM GOTSIS: I think just stopping the quarterback run game. I think that's going to be a big deal. We're focused a lot on that. As everyone knows, they're one of the best‑‑ they were No.1 in the country for a big period this year, and once you get within the 20s he's going to run the ball. No question he's going to run the ball. That's going to be a big challenge, but we're looking forward to it. Every day is a new challenge for us, and we're just taking it that way. Big disappointment coming off the ACC Championship loss, so we're pretty fired up, and it's going to be a good game. Q. You had Florida State right where you wanted them. How long did it take you to get over that disappointment? ADAM GOTSIS: It's disappointing, but it's just one of those things. Whether we won or lost we had to flush it anyway. We've got another game, and that's just the mentality we've had all year. It was the same thing after we beat Georgia. We beat Georgia, we got to celebrate for a few days, and then you've just got to flush it and move on to the next one. The next one is the most important one. We want to finish our season on a high note, they want to finish theirs on a high note, so it's definitely going to be a battle out there. Q. Even if you did beat Florida State you'd be right here today. ADAM GOTSIS: Exactly. Q. That's one way to look at it. ADAM GOTSIS: Exactly. Appreciate that. Q. Who's the better quarterback, Jameis or Dak? ADAM GOTSIS: I guess I'll find out once we play. On film they're both grate grate athletes, great quarterbacks, run their offense to the best it can be ran. But yeah, it's just going to be a good battle out there going up against another NFL caliber quarterback, NFL caliber O‑line, as well. It's just another challenge, especially SEC West now and the whole ACC‑SEC thing, so it's going to be a good challenge. Hopefully give the ACC more credit than we get most of the time, but yeah, it's going to be a good battle out there. Q. Your defense, when you've been on your best it's been creating turnovers. Is that the way you look at this game? ADAM GOTSIS: Yeah, yeah, we feel if we can get the ball to our offense and limit their amount of possessions that they can have, that's a big thing for us, clock management, things like that, get the ball to our offense because we feel like our offense can't be stopped, and we've seen that by a number of good teams this year. We've been able to pretty much run the ball with ease the majority of the game or throw the ball with ease the majority of the game. On defense we just need to cause a turnover, get a turnover or a big stop I feel and get the ball to our offense and give them another opportunity to score. Q. How did you get recruited? ADAM GOTSIS: Pretty much I was just playing football back home, like American football. Q. You played on a team? ADAM GOTSIS: Yeah, it was like a rec league type thing, so it's nothing big. Q. What was the name of the team? ADAM GOTSIS: I was with the Monash University Warriors, and pretty much just like a rec league. Q. 11‑on‑11 football, pads, the whole thing? ADAM GOTSIS: Yeah, pads, but it was from basically 18 and up. You could be going against 35 year olds and you were 18. So I was 17 playing in that league. I was like pretty much one of the really good players in the junior competition which is under 18, and they really didn't want me like playing in there anymore because the junior competition is 14 to 19 or 14 to 18 so you've got 18 year olds going against 14 year old kids, and it's not really fair, especially if you're played a few years and are experienced compared to these guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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