Comments made by Georgia Tech coach Geoff Collins following the Yellow Jackets' 31-13 loss to No. 4 Notre Dame Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium:
Opening comments:
“That’s a really good football team. You walk out on the field and you see the size and the speed and the strength they’ve developed. I think that’s a really good football team. One of the best offensive lines in the country and one of the top 10 defenses in the country, both total and scoring. I do think our guys battled. There’s still a lot of things that we can continue to get better at, but as far as effort, competitiveness, things that we harp on in this program, I think we showed that today.”
On Notre Dame’s effectiveness on third down:
“The first drive, in particular, we had 'em in third-and-long, third-and-medium. Got to get those stops. I thought (defensive coordinator) Andrew Thacker called a really good game defensively, moving some stress around. But we continue to have to find ways to shore up our pass rush lanes. We had great coverage in the back end and the quarterback (Ian Book), he’s a really good athlete. He’s hurt a lot of people with his feet, but (we have to make) sure the pass rush lanes were secure to not let the scrambles hurt us on third downs as well.”
On struggles on offense:
"First of all, you’ve got to give credit to Notre Dame. That is one of the top defenses in college football. We kept trying to move things around to get some things started. We found our rhythm in the second half. Really proud of the way they continued to battle, our offensive staff continuing to communicate and finding some good rhythm, and then I thought the guys got in a good flow, but the thing that we’ve got to clean up and have to do better at defensively, obviously, is getting off the field on third downs.
“We were getting them in second-and-long and we were getting them in third-and-long, and we’ve got to get off the field in those situations. The same thing offensively, we’ve got to convert third downs. I think that’s the story of the day, is just the third down.”
On doing tackling drills during the pregame:
“That is part of our process. That’s part of who we are. That’s part of our identity. In the midst of a global pandemic early on, we took that part out of our pregame routine. I’ve regretted it throughout the season. And after our guys have, knock on wood, been so good with following our protocols, our mitigation strategies, all the things that we’ve learned about (how) to play in pregame and practice and meet in this new environment that nobody’s ever gone through before – now that I’ve learned, we’ve started adding back certain things and the tackling circuit before the game was one of the big ones.”
On injuries:
“A ton of true freshmen played today. We had a ton of guys get dinged, a ton of guys were out, a ton of guys weren’t even dressed up. But the guys that came in and battled and fought – just really proud of them. And (what) you saw on special teams was a bunch of young guys and they went in there and just fought and tried to represent who this program is and fight for the older guys, as well.”
On the state of the team going into the open date after seven games:
“We’re light years ahead than we’ve ever been at any time. Obviously, there’s still a ways to go. Certain positions are developing at a very high level. Certain positions, we’re continuing to build depth. (There are) different things that we need to continue to do better, but as a whole, just as a culture, as a program, we’re light years away from where we had been in the past.”
