Highlights from Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson’s comments at his weekly news conference Tuesday.
On Tennessee:
“This team’s going to be a little different. Last year, they had a dynamic quarterback in Josh Dobbs, the young man from close by here (Alpharetta). They’ve got good skill. They’ve got a big offensive line who are big and physical. The running back (John) Kelly is a really good player. I’m sure they’re going to try to get him the ball behind that big offensive line.”
On the value of former kicker Harrison Butker:
“Harrison was great, especially toward the end of his career. Sometimes we forget how he was as a freshman, too, and when he first started kicking. He didn’t make all of them to begin with, either. I think that we’ll be O.K. there. Are these guys as good or better than Harrison? We’ll see. You’re talking about the all-time leading scorer in the history of the school, so he was a pretty good player. The biggest concern that I’ve got is not so much the extra point and field goal thing as it is the kickoffs. We had the luxury for the last little bit that you didn’t have to cover a whole lot of them. That remains to be seen. Are these guys capable of kicking it in the end zone? Yes. Will they? I don’t know.”
On KirVonte Benson winning the B-back job:
“It’s a culmination of things. He had a good spring practice. We recruited him to play that position. … He’s 215 (pounds). He ran a 10.6 100 meters in high school. He’s probably the fastest guy we’ve had at B-back certainly since Jon Dwyer and maybe faster than Jon. Now, how is he going to play and react? I don’t know. If you knew, you could mail the game in. You wouldn’t have to play. I think he’s got a good skillset for it. Will he play fast and tough? We’ll see. If not, then one of those other guys will play. It’s like at every position. He’s got the opportunity – what’s he going to do with it?”
KirVonte Benson wins starting B-back job
On the Tech defense:
“It’s a team game, and you certainly hope that you’re going to get contributions from everybody. A little more experienced over there, so early on, hopefully we’ll play well over there. I think coming into this game, us and Tennessee are both very similar on offense in that you’re breaking in a lot of new faces and new guys, but every time you think it’s going to be a lower-scoring game, it ends up being 50-49. You think it’s going to be 50-49, it could end up being 6-3. You don’t know. You’ve got to get contributions out of everybody. We’re still a young team. I looked the other day, especially offensively, we’ve got two seniors starting. Defensively, there may be six or seven, so, yeah, there’s a little more experience over there.”
On using more than one quarterback:
“If the one guy’s in there and getting it done, we’ll leave him in there and he’ll play. I wish I had the depth at every position that we have at quarterback. I can promise you, I’m worried a lot more about a zillion positions than I am quarterback just from a depth standpoint or a guy goes down or what happens.”
Paul Johnson keeps quiet on Tech’s starting quarterback
On the offensive line:
“I feel really good about the first group of guys. Kenny Cooper is a good player. Parker Braun’s going to be a good player, and Jahaziel (Lee) is very athletic. When he wants to, he’s a really good player. He’s got to be consistent. I said a year ago, those three guys are probably as good or better athletically than anybody we’ve had there. Now, they’re going to be playing against big, physical guys again, but, if those three can’t hold their own, we’re going to be in a world of trouble. I think they will. I think they’ll hold their own.”
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