Georgia Tech quoteboard

RODDY JONES

We’re definitely disappointed in the way that the game ended. It was  pretty emotional game for us being the last game. I guess it’s mainly a disappointment that that’s the way we leave Bobby Dodd Stadium.

On the wheel-route play:

We had a good play call on and Tevin threw a pretty good ball. It was just a little too far, couldn’t get both hands on it. Those are catches you need to make, especially in games like this. You’ve got to take advantage of your opportunities and that was a big one we didn’t take advantage of early in the game.

On offense’s play:

I think we just kind of shot ourselves in the foot a lot. They switched up some looks, so you have to give them some credit. They didn’t just sit back and stay in one scheme. They sent some blitzes and did some different things.  For most of the game, we felt like we could move the ball on them. We just would always stalemate. Missed assignments, missed blocks. Those things killed us. We can’t get in second and long, third and longs. We ‘re not build for that. We just didn’t execute enough.

On the inside handoff play:

Coach had seen something watching some other teams. I think we got it from Army.  Army had run it a lot against Air Force and Air Force plays a similar defense that Georgia does. We decided to put it in. It looked good during the week and so we ended up trying it. We did have some success with it, especially in the first half. In the second half, they started adjusting a little bit and left some guys over there to play it more. But it a good play for us pretty much all day.

STEVEN SYLVESTER

On holding up physically against Georgia’s size

I think we did pretty good as far as up front . We had to get to the quarterback, though. That’s the name of the game especially as a defensive front seven. If you give a quarterback like Aaron Murray time to throw, he has plenty of good receivers over there that he’s gong to find. And it seemed that was our problem today.

On differences in defense’s play since the Clemson game:

I think it’s just playing with a sense of emotion. If you turn on the film and look at the Clemson game, (you see) how emotional we were. Football’s an emotional game. You can’t play it calm. I feel like we’ve come out flat the past couple of games, didn’t quite give as much energy as we should have and attention to detail, but it’s definitely the energy level.

More on the energy level:

It’s pretty much an individual thing. Everybody prepares for the game different. That’s pretty much it. You have to get ready for these types of games. They only come around once in awhile. You only get these guys once a year. You just have to go out there and play with everything you have. I feel like we just weren’t there today.

LOUIS YOUNG

On plans to contain Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray or tight end Orson Charles:

I don’t think it was one particular person. We planned for them to run it, just try to power it at first, try to run it. Their running back wasn’t in the game and then we worked all week we were going to play a lot of man and take away that post route that they beat a lot of teams on so far this season. They hit some good spots, they hit some touchdowns. Like I said, it may have been one missed assignment and you’ve got pay the price for that.

JULIAN BURNETT

On difficulties of zone pass coverage:

It’s hard to say. There’s so much stuff that goes on different patterns and highs and lows and the pattern reads and all that. It’s just not being keyed in or focused enough on your job. One slight mistake can cost you a touchdown.

On Charles:

He’s pretty good player. He was one of the targets on our list. We knew that he was their leading receiver even though he’s a tight end, but he was their leading receiver going into this game. He made the plays that he needed to make and we didn’t. We weren’t in position to stop him. They were able to hurt us with him.

On if losing to Georgia hurts differently:

I guess you can say that. I don’t like losing to anybody and I’m pretty sure that the rest of the team doesn’t. But when it’s in-state and when it’s your rival … we’re tired of being the little brothers in the state. We were hoping for this win. We wanted to fight for it. We just didn’t get it.