Johnson transcript from Monday

A few quotes from Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson’s press conference on Monday, courtesy of the sports information department:

“Good morning. We’re looking forward to getting back to practice this afternoon. We took last week off after the [ACC] Championship game to take finals. We’ll start day one of bowl preparation today. We have a quality opponent in the University of Iowa. They’re a tremendous defensive football team. I’ve known [Iowa defensive coordinator] Norm Parker for a while and he has a great reputation. They have some outstanding players and they play well together as a team.

“Offensively, they have some big guys that lean on you and mash you a little bit. Then, they’ll throw some play-action at you. Their quarterback [Ricky] Stanzi will be back for this game, which will be a big help to them. They have a good football team. They don’t beat themselves and they’re very well coached. I think they’ve showed a lot of character in that they’ve come from behind in several games this year and did what they had to do to win. It will be a big challenge for us to get ready for Iowa.”

On if bowl preparation will be changed at all from last year to this year:

“Not really. There’s only one way to prepare and that’s to go out and practice. There’s not a whole lot of different ways to do it. I think that one of the goals of the team was to win a bowl game. I don’t think any of these players here have won a bowl game, so this is a pretty big deal to them. They’ll prepare to go play. This team has been pretty resilient and focused in. We’ve played 13 games and we’ve only had a game or two where we didn’t show our best effort. Overall, they’ve kind of showed up most of the time. I would be surprised if they didn’t work hard and don’t show up to play. Last year [in the Chick- fil-A Bowl], it was one of those games where we got beat. We got beat in the first 15 minutes. We self-destructed on special teams and we didn’t give ourselves a chance to come back because we dug such a hole. Hopefully, we’ll learn from that.”

On if a bowl game is a reward or a validation of a season:

“I think it’s somewhere in between. It’s a reward for having a great season and yet it’s important in the aspect that it could set the tone for the next season because it’s the last game you play. Certainly every time you play you want to win, but I don’t think you can make too much out of it one way or another.”

On if the approach of the team will be different because the Orange Bowl is a BCS bowl game:

“Well, it probably factors in at what is at stake, but it doesn’t change the way you get ready to play or approach the game. We’re going to approach the game the same way we have all season. We have more exposure. More people are probably going to watch it than a regular season game because you’re the only one on. It’s national TV and a BCS game, so you have a chance to make a statement one way or another. My concern is that if we play the way we’ve played all year, than we’ll see if we’re good enough. What you don’t want to do is regress and play your worst game of the year in your last game.”

On if the situation of these juniors [ who are considering  leaving early] effects recruiting at all:

“We’re still recruiting guys. We’re straight forward and honest with all of them. They know exactly where we are. So, we have to have some flexibility in that. We might have to have some guys, depending on the numbers, come in January. But, as long as they know that up front and you’re honest with them, then they know it. The juniors have to declare by Jan. 15th, so we’ll have a better idea about who’s staying before the signing day, so we’ll know.”

On Iowa’s ability on defense to create turnovers:

“I think they do a great job in zone coverage and they break to the ball well and they can get pressure with their front four. When you can do that, you can drop seven back into coverage and have some interceptions. Plus, nobody can run the ball on them. They generally play with six guys in the box and can stop the run, so they have some guys dropping. They’re well coached and they have some good players. They’re pretty good.”