Quotes from Georgia Tech players after the 49-38 loss to South Florida Saturday in Tampa, Fla.
Tobias Oliver
On what he saw at quarterback:
“The same stuff I’ve seen at practice. I prepared all week to play. I mean, every week, it’s nothing new. I prepare to play every week. They didn’t throw anything at us that I didn’t see at practice, so it was really just like practice.”
On if he was surprised that the offense moved the ball effectively while he was in:
“No. We knew it was coming. The plays that we ran, we hadn’t run yet. We knew it would work perfect for the defense. We knew it would be successful.”
On if he thought TaQuon Marshall would come back in the game:
“They told me to stay ready the whole game. His knee had been bothering him. I was alert, but throughout the thing, they were like, Hey, you and TaQuon might alternate. Even when he went back in, I was ready to go.”
Nose tackle Kyle Cerge-Henderson
On defense in second half:
“We had a lack of communication. They started to hurry up a little bit, and we had practiced it. But we had young guys who were unfamiliar with the hurry-up and the flow of a game, but that was a good learning point, honestly. It’s tough to lose, but I think if that situation was to come again, I think we’d be ready next time.”
On losing in his hometown:
“It’s always tough. I’m a sensitive guy, to be honest, even though I’m a d-lineman. To go out there and play as hard as I tried to play, you just hope that guys will rally behind you. So I’m not really sure of what else to say about it.”
On the heat:
“It wasn’t even hot. We weren’t worried about the heat. The heat didn’t beat us today.”
On losing Tariq Carpenter and David Curry to targeting penalties:
“It’s tough. It’s always tough to lose guys. David is a great leader for us – redshirt junior, he’s been here for a while. Tariq is a young guy but he’s stepped up big. So both of those guys, I didn’t see the plays, honestly, so I’m not really sure if they deserved it or not, but it’s tough.”
Quarterback TaQuon Marshall
On missing opportunities on two drives in the fourth quarter:
“We moved the ball pretty well. I just knew going into that, (if Tech scores a touchdown) we go up – what – it’d be two possessions, we get the ball back, probably have the hands team out, get the ball back, run the time out. So that was really my mindset going into that final drive. And then we had a hiccup with a fumble. And then tried to make something happen. We got the ball back (with 5:08 left). The ball got tipped when I was trying to throw it. Got my arm hit, they picked it off. I mean, they made a play. I mean, it’s tough. It’s tough.”
On losing again after giving up a two-score lead after an offseason of trying to prevent it:
“Kind of happened today. We just had a hiccup with the fumble. You don’t have that fumble, we go down and score, we’d be having a totally different conversation right now. That’s just how the game goes, though. But it’ll be better next week. We’ll be better next week playing on the road again. As of right now, we’ve just got to let this one sink in. It hurts. It’s tough. This one hurts. But come Monday, we’ll look at the film and see what we need to get better at and go from there.”
His message to the team:
“It’s tough I don’t think I really need to say anything right now just because everybody knows (losing) sucks. If it doesn’t suck, then I don’t think you need to be here, but it’s a tough loss. I think we’ll really adjust to things later on. There’s some things we’ve got to fix. (It’s the) second game in the season – things you’ve got to fix. It’s not a conference game. Like I said, it hurts. It would be great to be 2-0. But we’re 1-1 going into ACC play next week. And at the end of the day, I was telling Qua (Searcy), if we’re in Charlotte in December (for the ACC championship game), we won’t even be thinking about this game.”
A-back Clinton Lynch
On Qua Searcy:
“He’s a hell of a player. I just told him, ‘Just don’t let this one bad play define you.” Because he’s made a whole bunch of plays for this program, and I was just telling him to keep his head up.”
On the team’s mood:
“Everybody’s human, so we’re all going to be down for a little bit, but we can’t let it affect our season. We’ve just got to keep our heads up and keep grinding and just look at our next opponent for next week.”
On Tobias Oliver:
“He really stepped up to play. He made a whole bunch of plays. He ran the offense to perfection, to be honest. I thought he did pretty well.”
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