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DISCOVER ORANGE BOWL: CLEMSON v WEST VIRGINIAJanuary 4, 2012Tavon AustinNajee GoodeDana HolgorsenGeno SmithMIAMI GARDENS, FLORIDA West Virginia70 THE MODERATOR: Could you have ever imagined that was how the game was going to go? DANA HOLGORSEN: Yeah, that's exactly how we draw it up, right? No, Clemson is a heck of a football team. You know, I was just telling them on the way in, regardless of what the score ended up, there was nothing easy about that. There was a snowball effect at one point in the game, and the only way that can happen is if you've got three sides of the ball playing together, and they're feeding off of each other, which we've been preaching that for quite some time. But we just kind of got at a point where it just started snowballing and all three sides were playing pretty good. Q. Can you talk about how much things kind of spun around on that one play, that 99‑yard fumble return for a touchdown. DANA HOLGORSEN: Well, yeah, and you know, as a coach, it's good to see something like that happen because we've been telling them for a long, long time, you know, just to keep playing. I told the guys, look, man, life is a lot like this, too. I mean, there's going to be good things happen and there's going to be bad things happen, but you've just got to keep playing. And in the first quarter defense gave up two touchdowns in the first three drives, so did Clemson. And then Clemson was driving down to put another touchdown on the board, but we kept playing and we looked for an opportunity to make a play, and making one when our backs are against the wall on the 1‑yard line is something that's pretty cool to see. Obviously the tide turned from there. But then offense went back out there and kept playing, and special teams made a play, and then defense kept playing, as well. Q. Geno's first few throws were a little high and off a little. Did you have to settle him down after the first series? DANA HOLGORSEN: No, I didn't say anything to him. He was 31 for 42, 401, six touchdowns, didn't get sacked, I thought he was playing pretty good. I don't know what you were looking at. Q. You'll see it on the film. DANA HOLGORSEN: Well, yeah. What I just said about‑‑ we scored two touchdowns in the first three drives. You don't come out jittery and not starting well and do that. So I thought he played well from the very beginning, not having any negative plays, not taking any sacks, not turning the ball over. If you throw a couple of incompletions, I think we can live with it if you don't do any of those things. Q. Was Tavon or Geno's performance more impressive to you? DANA HOLGORSEN: Now that I would have to look at the film to kind of study for sure, but I do know who the fastest kid on the field was, and that was very obvious. We made a conscious effort to get him the ball a bunch, and whenever we got him the ball, he made things happen. He's a kid that the more he gets the ball, the more confidence he has, and when he started making a few plays, he looks at me and says, "Coach, you're going to get me the ball again, right?" I said, "Get in there and let's do it." When he says that and he's got that mindset, then he's pretty hard to stop. Q. The Big East has gotten a bad rap of late in these BCS games, and yet you guys are about to leave the conference. From your perspective, does this say anything about the Big East, or is this more about you guys and moving forward and wherever you may be next year? DANA HOLGORSEN: Well, I've got two comments on that.  One, and I've only been there a year, I know, but West Virginia has won three BCS games in the last six years, which is a pretty good track record. You know, and West Virginia has been in the Big East for the last six years last time I checked. So I think that's a pretty good track record. And then going through the Big East schedule one year, we had some pretty tough games. We lost a couple of those, and then the ones that we won were tough. So the product at West Virginia was out there. There was a lot of teams in the Big East that gave us all we wanted. Q. The defense really set the tone obviously with the way that the momentum shifted, and that's something the defense has done here in the last four games. What do you think has been just the biggest difference there, three defensive scores in the last four games here and really have set the tone in all those guys? DANA HOLGORSEN: Well, Jeff has done a great job with our defense all year long, you know, but like I told them pretty much all year, these guys will vouch for that, but I don't think we're good enough on any side of the ball to be in the position that we're in right now. I think we're pretty tough to beat when all three sides of the ball play together, when defense is rooting for offense and offense is rooting for defense and special teams gets out there and plays hard. I think we had to figure out the formula after game 8 and finish the year with four wins. That amplified what we were talking about. THE MODERATOR: Geno, how much more special is this now that you're doing it in your backyard, with five other guys on this team that went to high school with you, in your backyard and your high school coach was in the crowd? GENO SMITH: You know, it's special to be here in a place where I basically grew up at, and to do it in front of my family and friends and to be with my teammates. But I'm not a selfish guy. It's not about me. It's about getting a victory for these seniors, and making sure we put our program where we need to be and making sure we represented our state and our university. Q. Geno and Tavon, when Darwin made the fumble recovery, were you watching the play? That obviously was a big play in the game. GENO SMITH: You know, we were down there near the end zone, we were just getting ready to go back out there and try and score. We figured they might have scored or they might not, but whatever happened, we were going to try and go out there and match it. Darwin made a great play. He's been making plays all year, and it was just good for him to step up in a big game and come up with that touchdown. Q. You come in, 83 percent of the country has picked Clemson to beat you guys. I know it's not something that's huge but obviously something that kind of stuck with you. How much more did that make you want to win this game? TAVON AUSTIN: Definitely it was huge for me. Me and Devon Brown was in the hotel, and it's the first time I seen it. I kind of got mad and turned the TV off and went to sleep. Came down with a great attitude. Coach Holgorsen got us together in our meeting and told us just to believe in ourself and believe in the people in this room, and that's what we did, we bought into what he said and we got the job done. Q. Can you just talk about putting up the 70 points and the kind of flow that you guys were in tonight on offense. GENO SMITH: Well, we got into a rhythm early. We were moving the chains. The offensive line did a great job picking up blitzes and moving guys off the ball. The run game helped out a lot. Shawne Alston and Andrew Buie stepped up big tonight, and we just continued to believe and continued to trust our coaching and execute the game plan. Q. Geno and then Coach, best game you ever had? GENO SMITH: So far. I'm not satisfied. We're not satisfied. You know, we can always improve. I felt like I still left some yards out there, still left some plays out there, some things I want to have back. But overall it was a good game. I'm not going to sit here and say we didn't play well because obviously we did. Q. Coach, best game you've ever had for a quarterback on your team? DANA HOLGORSEN: Well, we've had some pretty good performances over the years. We're going to enjoy this one. We did everything that we were supposed to do for the last‑‑ going back to it may be closer to two months now, and really proud of the way that these guys responded when our backs were against the wall. We did what we were supposed to do to get here. We prepared hard. We respected our opponent, but we weren't scared of anybody. We went out there and we did what we had to do to win the game, and we're going to enjoy it. Q. Geno, I know it's all about the team for you, but at any point were you thinking about breaking Tom Brady's record or Matt Leinart's record? GENO SMITH: Honestly, not at all. I had no idea that those records even existed. I had no idea those guys had those records. But it's just great to be mentioned in the same breath as those guys because obviously they've done some great things, and they're in a place where I want to be some day. Q. Geno, this one is for you but about Tavon: Coach earlier said he knew who the fastest guys on the field was. What's it like for you when you dump it off to him or you give him a handoff to watch him out go at it? GENO SMITH: Oh, man, he won me an MVP. I should give him a trophy. He takes it the distance every time. He's one of the quickest guys I've ever seen, with and without a football, and it's just a blessing to have a guy like him on my team. Q. Najee, the defense has really stepped up here in the last month of the season, and you guys really changed the momentum of this game with Darwin's fumble recovery. What is it about you guys you think that's allowed you to come together and have such impressive performances? NAJEE GOODE: Throughout the year we've been able to play good defense, like a bend‑don't‑break method, and we get down in the red zone, we're able to capitalize on certain things like fumbles, turnovers. We actually didn't know what happened, and we saw Cook taking off full speed, so I just hauled right behind him and just followed him. For our offense it's huge because they feed off our momentum, and we feed off each other's momentum and the crowd got into it, and that just made the game that much better. Q. Tavon, what was it about tonight and this game that had you feeling it, so to speak, and having such a good performance? TAVON AUSTIN: When they assigned me the best player on the field, and they said 84 percent voted we was going to lose, and I got into that offensive‑‑ Coach did, players did on the team. We had a serious meeting before we got here. It was no laughing, no joking around, and we came in and got the job done. Q. Geno, do you see this as a springboard for next season? GENO SMITH: Oh, definitely, but you know, we can't take it lightly. We've got to go back and get back to work and try and work twice as hard as we did last season, if we want to be back here next year. We believe that we're contenders, but we've definitely got to come out and prove it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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