Post-game comments from Georgia Tech players TaQuon Marshall, Desmond Branch, Malik Rivera, Qua Searcy and Brant Mitchell following the Yellow Jackets' 34-10 loss to Minnesota in the Quick Lane Bowl Wednesday night in Detroit.
Quarterback TaQuon Marshall
“It’s tough. It’s the last one you play in college, you don’t know if you’ll get a chance at the next level. You hope you do, but if you don’t, this is the last one you play. It’s tough to go out this way. Very emotional. But we didn’t come ready to play and it showed. We only scored 10 points. That’s bottom line. We didn’t come ready to play, they did, they showed it.”
“They out-physicaled us from the jump, they outplayed us from the jump, and it showed from the first two drives offensively it showed. We didn’t move the ball. Two quick three-and-outs and they held the ball the whole first quarter and most of the second quarter. You get a little momentum going into halftime but when you come out you don’t get any momentum back on your side, it’s kind of hard. The defense is doing their best to try to get off the field. But if we aren’t trying to give them any momentum on the offensive side, then it’s kind of hard to balance it out. It’s almost one-sided.”
» More: What Paul Johnson said after Quick Lane Bowl
Defensive end Desmond Branch
“We knew what they were going to do. They were going to run the ball down our throat. Everyone, we knew it all through practice. We knew everything. We just couldn’t stop it, plain and simple. That’s the game of football. You’ve got to know what’s going on and you’ve got to know how to stop it. And we knew how to stop it, we just didn’t execute it.”
“I just think we didn’t bring it. We didn’t bring it. That’s plain and simple. We know how to execute we know how to play at a high level. We just didn’t play at it. That’s on us for not doing that and that’s on us for sending out coach (Paul) Johnson in that type of fashion. He does not deserve that. A hall of fame coach doesn’t deserve to get hung up 228 yards by a Minnesota running back, in all due respect. Shame on us for not stopping him.”
Safety Malik Rivera
“Obviously, they were more physical than us at the point of attack. I think that’s just what it was. We needed to be more physical, we needed to be more tough and we weren’t.”
On Minnesota running back Mohamed Ibrahim:
“I think he’s a very good back, but I don’t think we helped ourselves on top of that, so that’s what led to that.”
“I guess the ref thought I was trying to push him down to the ground. That wasn’t my intention, but if that’s what the referee calls, it’s what the referee calls. I’m not going to argue it.”
A-back Qua Searcy
“It’s definitely a tough feeling, not just losing a game but it’s the end of the season. It’s my last game, I won’t be around those guys anymore in the locker room. It’s a tough feeling.”
On when he knew Tech was in trouble:
“We went two three and outs (to start the game). We thought we could overcome it so we didn’t really stress it much, but it just kept happening. It was something we were just trying to work on, but we couldn’t get it right.”
Linebacker Brant Mitchell
On Ibrahim:
“He was just a hard runner. He didn’t go down easy. Kept his feet moving a lot. You hit him low, he’d still fall forward. Credit to him, he’s a good back and he played really well against us.”
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