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TAXSLAYER BOWL: GEORGIA TECH VS KENTUCKYDecember 31, 2016Coach JohnsonJustin ThomasPatrick GambleDedrick MillsJacksonville, Florida Georgia Tech - 33, Kentucky - 18 THE MODERATOR: We want to congratulate Georgia Tech on winning the 72nd TaxSlayer Bowl. We will have Coach Johnson open up with a statement, then we'll take questions, followed by the players. COACH JOHNSON: First of all, I was really proud of my team and the way they were resilient and kept fighting today. Hats off to the University of Kentucky. I thought they played really hard and competed the whole game. We were fortunate to make some plays when we had to have them. We hit a few more big plays than they did. That was probably the difference in the game. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. A lot of big fourth-down plays that went your way today. That seemed to be a big key to the game. COACH JOHNSON: Yeah, we got some good stops defensively on fourth down that helped. I went brain-dead there from my own 10. I was going to call timeout, but when they didn't cover the guard, I figured we'd let it roll. We did. Got the first down, so it was good. Went on down and scored. Q. Dedrick has had quite the freshman year in a lot of regards, on and off the field. What do you think today's game does for him moving forward? Do you feel the maturity level is also going to keep improving? COACH JOHNSON: Well, I certainly hope so. I think he can be a very special player. He's a very talented young man. We've got to try to help him grow up. Sometimes, you know, at that age, when you're 18, we all didn't make great decisions. It's our job to help him make the right decisions because he's got a bright future if he'll continue to work hard. I was getting on him today. I told him he was getting a little fat. But he was a workhorse today. He played tough. Q. Three wins last year, nine this year, big win over Georgia, trophy going back to Atlanta. You have to love the momentum? COACH JOHNSON: 3-0 in the SEC East, got Tennessee next. Hopefully we can take this and build on it. We have a good nucleus returning, but we lose some really key players. Offensively I always kind of look at the offense like baseball up the middle. We lose our center, quarterback, which are both three-year starters, that will be big guys to replace. Defensively we lose some key defensive linemen. P.J. Davis will be hard to replace as well. Q. Back to the fourth down thing, obviously a big play. Were you concerned the fact that they were that close and it was still a 10-3 game at that point? COACH JOHNSON: Yeah, I'm always concerned. We caught it on doubles. The guy flew back, which gave me a chance to look and see how they were lined up. If they didn't jump off-sides, if they had been lined up in the gaps, I would have had a timeout. I had the official standing beside me. When they didn't cover the guard, it was kind of a gimme, if we don't drop the snap or whatever. J.T. didn't give me much time to think about it. He quick-snapped me. Ran behind Parker, who is one of our better players. Dedrick is one of our better players, even though they're freshmen. It worked out. Q. Take us to the play call on the final scoring drive. COACH JOHNSON: I noticed the drive before they were firing the corner on tail motion. What we called was a stop route. But I thought they might fire the corner, and they did. So there was nobody covering. When the tail motion came, I think they thought it was a run. They fired the guy. J.T. made a nice throw. That's still a good catch. In that situation, it would have been easy. We had a couple drops today, but Ricky made a nice play on it. Q. Looking at the fullness of Johnson's career, what are your predominant thoughts on his career? COACH JOHNSON: I mean, he's had a great career, no doubt. He's such a great kid. He's just been a joy to coach, a joy to work with. He's got a great football mind. I think when he finishes playing football, he wants to coach. He'll be really good at it. Nothing much bothers him. He stays pretty calm. Sometimes you have to be gone for a year or two before people really realize what you did. There's no question that he'll go down as, you know, one of the greats at Georgia Tech. I mean, he's had a heck of a career. Q. Can you talk about what Harrison Butker meant to this program the last four years? COACH JOHNSON: Unbelievable. I was so happy for Harrison today when he hit four field goals. It's really something because I was joking with him leading up to the game that we were going to go for two on extra points. He was tied for the all-time leading scoring at Georgia Tech. He was clutch. The one before halftime was big. The one to go up by 16 was big. That's when one I could kick myself in the tail for. I played to go up 16. I didn't want to take a chance on not getting three points there on the third down. I was about that close to throwing it off the play, which would have been a walk-in touchdown if I'd have done it. That was a bad call on my part. But that was clutch, I mean, to make that field goal. I felt like if we got up 16, the odds of them getting in, two two-point conversions, wasn't good. Q. There was a sequence in the first quarter where Coach Stoops seemed agitated on what was going on on your sidelines. What was your interpretation of what was going on at that time? COACH JOHNSON: I have no idea. On our sidelines? Q. Yes. COACH JOHNSON: You'd have to ask him. He didn't say anything after the game or whatever. I wouldn't have any idea. Q. Coach Stoops said the offensive line did a great job against Louisville in the previous game. Today you had their quarterback on the run. What did you see from the defensive line today? COACH JOHNSON: I thought we got good pressure. We struggled at times to contain. He's really good at that. Going in, that was one of my biggest concerns. He hurt us the one long run there in the fourth quarter. But all in all, we got pretty good pressure, yeah. I thought the defensive line did pretty well. Q. Can you talk a little bit about the officiating in the first half. I know you can't get into specifics. Seemed like maybe they were a little flustered. There were some bizarre sequences for both sides. You were both chewing them out. COACH JOHNSON: You know, the game's over. Those officials have a tough job. Everybody doesn't see things the same way, so... I got on our guys at halftime. When I say 'our guys,' I'm the lead culprit. I didn't want anybody saying anything to the officials in the second half. It just doesn't do any good. I'm sure they're doing the best they can do. I'll just leave it at that. Q. What was your sense of the level of aggression? COACH JOHNSON: Probably some frustration. We did some dumb stuff. The one right at the kickoff to start the second half, we would have got a 15-yard penalty on the guy. We've got to hold our composure better than that. It's a physical game, emotional game. The way the game was going, both sides wanted to win. They were competing. Q. Can you talk about the strip and fumble recovery. Pat and P.J. made big plays for you. COACH JOHNSON: That was a great play. Trying to run a sprint-out pass. P.J. came on a blitz, slapped the ball loose, picked it up, was able to get it in the end zone. Can't think of a better way to start the game. That was a great start. The blocked punt could have been huge. We had a big mistake there. Following that ball, especially not in the last minute, then we had a drop, an overthrow. If we could have gotten more than three out of that, that would have been huge. Q. What was the injury to (indiscernible), when did he go out? COACH JOHNSON: We don't know how serious it is. You'd just be speculating right now to say anything. He went out I think right at the start of the fourth quarter, yeah. Q. Do you think that blocked punt was a result of the rugby-style approach? COACH JOHNSON: Our blocked punt? Q. Yes. COACH JOHNSON: Yes. He stepped right into the guy. It was a bad snap, too. It was a low snap. Q. On the punt following, he punted straight ahead. Is that his call to make normally? COACH JOHNSON: No. That's our special teams coaching. He's done a great job all year. Our punt team has been really good all year. The last half of the year, Ron has done a great job. It was just unfortunate. The defense went out and did a great job holding them. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. COACH JOHNSON: Thank you. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions for the players. Q. Dedrick, first of all, what is your best guess of how many family and friends you had that came down to watch? You've had an interesting freshman season, to say the least, on and off the field. What do you think this game does for you going forward in your career? Have there been a couple lessons you've learned this season? DEDRICK MILLS: I mean, I learned a lot, playing with these guys, the big boys. So, I mean, it kind of, like, motivated me going down the line to push harder because I know they ain't going to be here no more. I got to go twice as harder than I did this season. Q. How many family and friends? DEDRICK MILLS: I had 20 tickets of my own because players gave me some. I had at least like 20-some family members. Godparents bought 43 tickets, they sold all of them. I had about 60 people here. Q. Dedrick, talk about the fourth-and-one play at the 15 yard line. What were your thoughts about that play? DEDRICK MILLS: I mean, I feel like the fourth-and-one, if it's there, we got to get it. I know we going for it. It's coming to me so we got to get it. JUSTIN THOMAS: I knew we had to get it. If we didn't get it, that's points given to them, without them having to get a yard. I thought he was going to call a timeout after the motion, but he didn't. We were getting five, six yards a carry with Mills anyway. It was a real good first down. Q. How surprised were you that he did go for it? JUSTIN THOMAS: I was surprised. Especially that early in the game, being that far on your own side of the field. That's just the trust he had in us. We made him right. Q. Justin and Pat, has it sunk in this is your last college game? What are your emotions like right now? JUSTIN THOMAS: I mean, I guess going into it, you know it's the last one. It's a great feeling. Everything has to come to an end one day. Happy it ended like this. Looking forward to see what the future holds. PATRICK MILLS: Yeah, same what Justin said. Everything has to come to an end. I love my time here at Tech, man. I wouldn't trade it for nothing. My teammates, the school, the institution. I wouldn't trade it for nothing. It hit me when I got the trophy, held it up. That's the last time I'll be with them boys. They got a lot of success ahead of them. They just got to keep pushing on. Q. Justin, what do you see for the future for you now? Where do you go from here? JUSTIN THOMAS: I guess for me, I'll probably take a week or two off. I'll start training, go for the next level. If it works out, it works out. If it don't, got to find something else. But I plan for it to work out. Q. Your last collegiate pass was a big completion. How did you see that play unfolding? How important was that play? JUSTIN THOMAS: I think it was very important. They were firing the corners late in the game, like basically every play. They knew we were trying to run the clock out. He was getting five, six yards a carry. We kind of changed up the play call how we did it, set the guy in motion. They thought we were trying to run it again. Had nobody over top to help the far corner. Q. Pat, the defensive line did a great job today putting pressure on the quarterback. Your last career tackle was a tackle for a loss. How satisfying was that, especially with the physicality of the play up front? PATRICK MILLS: It was very important for us in the game plan. We had to get pressure when they threw the ball. We knew they was going to run the football. When it was time for them to throw the ball, we had to push and get some pressure, man. Lucky we did that, so... It's a good feeling. Good way to go out. Q. Patrick, you start the fourth play of the game with a defensive touchdown. Probably with the knowledge that your offense is going to score points for you, when you start out with a defensive touchdown, is that as good an omen that you can get for what might happen? PATRICK MILLS: Definitely is. You can get a defensive touchdown. We score, the offense hasn't touched the field. Always a plus. Extra points on the board. The offense kept moving the ball well today. It helped out in our favor. Q. Pat, there was some pushing and shoving. What did you think? PATRICK MILLS: We just out there playing hard, man. We 21, 22-year-old men. You get to pushing and shoving, there's always going to be some talking, man. We got to learn to keep (indiscernible). It's just a part of the game. It's part of the game. No harm, no foul. Q. Justin, take us back to that fourth-and-one early in the first half, deep in your own territory. The guard wasn't covered. Coach Johnson said you might have quick-snapped him a little bit. Were you trying to get that play off in a hurry before he called a timeout? JUSTIN THOMAS: No. The guards were uncovered the whole game, basically. They were in a 3-4 defense. That's just how it usually tallies up in motion. That's how it works in practice. He say I quick-snapped him, I probably snapped before he could call a timeout. Ended up going in our favor. Probably good we didn't take the timeout. Q. The way you finished the year, getting these wins after the rough start at the beginning of the season, how nice is it to go out on a high note like you did in 2014? JUSTIN THOMAS: It's great. We came in, I guess our first season, we went out on a high note, had a great season. Last year, it was horrible. It was something that you wouldn't want to experience. So just coming out, our class regrouping, getting the guys together, to come out of the season we had this year, I think it was a great turnaround, a great finish to our career. PATRICK MILLS: Yeah, it was an awesome finish. Like he say, start off 3-3, wind up winning six of the last seven. I mean, it couldn't end in a better way for us. Coming to a prestigious bowl, TaxSlayer Bowl, bring a win. Something to remember definitely for the rest of your life. Q. Justin, how was the transition when Freddy went out and Kenny came in? Pretty smooth for you? JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah. It was just like I didn't think much of it. Kenny did his job. Couldn't ask for him and step in and do any better truthfully. Q. (No microphone.) DEDRICK MILLS: It wasn't that tough. It wasn't that tough. Behind the offensive line, running off their blocks. Made it easier for me to find holes and get through them. JUSTIN THOMAS: I think he was running hard. He was coming in as a true freshman, running hard from day one when he stepped on campus. I think he translated over. Guys up front were doing their jobs. They were moving the guys off the line, getting the backers. Made his job easier. He's going to have to stay on them to make them look good. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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