Comments made by Georgia Tech players David Curry, Jordan Mason and James Graham following the team’s 33-28 loss to Virginia on Saturday:
Linebacker David Curry
On defending quarterback Bryce Perkins:
“I think we definitely got back there a lot, we got around him, we just didn’t get him down enough. He’s a good football player and very slippery, and he’s been doing this every game the whole season. It just comes down to playmakers got to make the plays and we’d get there, and our d-linemen got in the backfield a lot and they did very good. We’ve just got to get him down.”
On emotion displayed by coach Geoff Collins after the game:
“If you’re around this program at any given day, the amount of care and just passion that he has for us and this game and Georgia Tech, that’s just another testament to it. We hate to lose and he’s just like one of the players. He hates to lose more than anybody.”
On Virginia’s passing game:
“They’re not much of a big-shot kind of team. They’re not a big, explosive team. They want to have the ball for a long time and drive the field. And so we are expecting that coming into the game.
It just comes to guys using their leverage. So on certain plays, if your leverage breaks down, that’s where you give up a third-down conversion. It’s just guys have got to use their leverage, got to use their technique that we practice every single day. Once we lock that down, that gets us off the field.”
Running back Jordan Mason
On the hole that he ran through for his eight-yard touchdown run:
“I can’t remember who it was, I think it was (graduate-assistant) coach (Nick) Newsome. He came up to me, he was like, did you see that hole? I was like, yeah. I was like, I don’t think I’ve seen one of those since high school. I was like, dang.”
On play of quarterback James Graham:
“I don’t know who got in his ear, but they really motivated him for this week’s game. He came out, did his thing. He did what he was supposed to do.”
Quarterback James Graham
On his improved play:
“I watched film Sunday after the loss we had last week and just learned from the mental mistakes I had, just small things, and just made sure I didn’t do it in practice over and over. Every time I even made a mistake, I may have missed a hitch or something – I’m getting down and doing 10 pushups. If I even miss a wrong read, I’m doing 10 pushups. I’m just trying to get better every day and it showed today.”
On the number of pushups he did last week:
“At least 200.”
On what he saw pre-snap on the touchdown pass to Ahmarean Brown:
“I saw it. It was a read. If the middle field was closed, I wasn’t going there. If it was open, I was going to go there. If it was open, I was going to go there. And I saw it open, I’m like, oh, my God. It’s here. We’re about to do it.
And I just let it rip and he ran right under it – touchdown. Shout-out to all those receivers this week. They played great today. Practice was even better, and it showed.”
On the fourth-quarter touchdown drive:
“It’s just me going through my reads and having that time they gave me. That drive was amazing. Those guys just blocked their butt off. I knew my what my reads were, where I was going before the play and those guys just showed me the look I wanted and I gave it out.”
On improving but still losing:
“It’s tough, losing. Just overall losing is tough and (Collins) showed the emotions. I showed a few emotions. It’s just, we got better than last week. We played a lot better and we’re just going to keep growing as a unit. We bad boys ride together, we die together.”
