Georgia Tech’s Jason Peters Q&A

Greetings-

I was supposed to talk with Georgia Tech defensive end Jason Peters immediately after practice Monday, but due to some sort of mistake I missed him and he later came by to the office of sports information director Dean Buchan for an interview, which worked out well because we could talk for longer than I would have otherwise.

I had some questions related to the defense and the N.C. State game, which made up part of Tuesday’s notebook, but also had some “get to know you” type questions that make up this Q and A. No two cents with this one; the answers speak for themselves. As you’ll read (hopefully), Peters is bright, interesting and talkative – an interview triple threat. Thanks for reading.

Q: What’s your favorite website?

A: My favorite website is stumbleupon.com. So basically when you first go on and log on to it, it’ll ask what are your interests and you fill all that information out and you’ll click a button that says ‘Stumble.’ Basically, it finds websites for you or just interesting stuff that you like and it just pops up for you and you just click ‘Stumble’ when you’re done with that web page. You just go to the next one, the next one, the next one. You  just keep hitting ‘Stumble’ and it’ll keep bringing stuff up for you. I recommend that you try it. You can lose a lot of hours on that website, I promise you.

Q: How much do you pay attention to other teams in the league or around the country?

A: A lot. Just because you know who your competition is, so you always want to see what they’re doing, how they’re progressing, what’s going on with them and around the league, just because I’m a competitive kind of person but I also really like the game of football.

I like seeing how other teams do it, how other conferences do it, how the game change. Say, if you play in the Pac-10, say, if you play in the Big 12 – or the Big 10 now (after losing Colorado and Nebraska) – or say, if you play against a team like Notre Dame, different leagues have different characteristics.

Say, if you play in the SEC, you may not be playing the same kinds of schemes, so it may be different kinds of players. I just like seeing how it all fits together, how different schemes work, how people are playing, how techniques work. It’s just something that kind of interests me.

Q: So do you try to watch games or just watch highlights or what?

A: I watch games, but the funny part is, the way I watch games is I’ll look for techniques. I’ll look for how people fit on plays, how people are playing things, what the offense is running, how it affects the defense. Unfortunately, I can’t just watch a game just to watch it anymore. I always watch it critically, making comments on how people are doing, stuff like that.

Q: Describe the ultimate play you want to make.

A: It’s the fourth quarter, we’re up by 3, the other team is driving down the field, there’s a minute left in the game, they throw an incomplete pass, they’re on, let’s say the 40.

Q: Your 40 or their 40?

A: They’re on our 40.

Dean Buchan, who was sitting at his desk working on his computer: That’s pretty vivid.

A: I’ve relived this many times in my head. Everybody in the stands, everybody knows it’s a pass play. They hike the ball, I come off, I give ‘em a move, I’m coming, I’m coming, strip sack, recover the ball, game over. That’s one of my ideal plays if I ever have one.

Q: Has that happened yet?

A: Not yet. Hopefully it’ll come.

Q: Who’s a true freshman player who’s caught your eye?

A: Actually, there’s two guys that have really caught my eye. (Linebacker) Kyle Travis and (guard) Shaq Mason. Even though Shaq still has a lot to learn and stuff like that and he doesn’t get as much playing time as Kyle, because Kyle’s on special teams right now, I think both of them have done an excellent job when they’ve gotten a chance to get in the game to actually really do something. I think they will be big-time players and big-time leaders on the team when their time comes.

Q: What’s the funniest thing that’s happened on the practice field lately?

A: I would say some of the funniest things that happened for us now, not necessarily on the practice field, but say, in meetings, is Coach (Al) Groh’s jokes. Once in awhile, Coach Groh – and some of them are a little less appropriate than others – but he’ll always hit you every once in awhile with a joke or something, randomly, really, really funny. It’ll just be hilarious and we’ll be rolling laughing.

It’s kind of unexpected because, usually he’s more serious and very professional, but every once in awhile he’ll hit us with a joke and we’re all just kind of blown back by it. But it keeps the energy up. It keeps everything kind of fresh for us.

Q: Like, he’ll start off a meeting with a joke?

A: It’ll come out of nowhere he’ll be saying something about a play or something at the end of film, and he’ll just come out of left field with it and it’s kind of like you’re sitting there and you hear it, but you’re not really paying attention, you think like, Did he just say that?

Q: Like, ‘A man walks into a bar’ kind of a joke?

A: He’s done it all. He’s had those he’s had funny clips to show us. It’s pretty funny.

Some links:

A Stan Awtrey about outside linebacker Jeremiah Attaochu in the Macon Telegraph.

George Henry filed this piece on quarterback Tevin Washington for the AP.

After losing Syracuse and Pittsburgh out of his conference, Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino offered his thoughts on the ACC’s expansion on his blog, as noted here in the Raleigh News & Observer. (Maybe Coach Pitino can reciprocate and mention my Brian Bohannon Q&A on his blog.)

N.C. State cornerback David Amerson has four interceptions, second in the country.

An update from AJC recruiting guru Michael Carvell on Georgia Tech prospect Dalvin Tomlinson from Henry County High.

Tony Parker from Miller Grove High, one of the top-rated basketball prospects in the country, paid a visit to Tech and coach Brian Gregory last weekend.

Kind of a busy day ahead, but I should post a CineSport video interview previewing Saturday’s game up late afternoon.

Thanks for reading. Please follow on Facebook and Twitter.

By Ken Sugiura, Georgia Tech beat