Georgia Tech players Jordan Domineck, Zach Quinney, Jeff Sims and Tariq Carpenter spoke with media following the Yellow Jackets’ 56-33 win over Duke Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
Defensive end Jordan Domineck
On creating five turnovers:
“We know that turnovers definitely do have a huge impact in the game, and just that we were able to get five as a defense, as a team, that was really the standard. That was our goal. We exceeded our goal, because we were really just aiming for three. But five (turnovers), we’re just going to keep building off of that.”
On his strip-sack and fumble recovery for a touchdown:
“On the previous couple of plays before that, the ball just didn’t bounce our way. We didn’t get the call that we wanted, but coach (Andrew Thacker) just told us, ‘Go put the ball down, do what we need to do.’ We were able to set them up on the one-, two-yard line. Coach gave a great call, the defense executed to perfection. and it just so happened that I was the person that came off and got that play.
“I didn’t want to let my teammates down for just setting me up with such a perfect opportunity, so that’s really on them. That’s not even on me. It was just from the coach’s call, and my teammates doing their job to let me get that strip sack and everything. It was my first college touchdown. I feel so happy. And I’ve got to thank Quez Jackson, David Curry, anybody else that was on the defense at that time, or anybody else that’s on our defense, period, for everything that happened today.”
On finally playing again:
“I felt like I was in the Super Bowl. We hadn’t played football in so long. Our teammates were ready, we were hungry. We came into the hotel this morning with just a dawg mentality. I could see the passion in everybody’s eyes. I could see the passion in the coaches’ eyes, players’ eyes, staff’s eyes, even the medical staff’s eyes, and I’ve never seen that before. Everybody was ready to go out here and play.”
Offensive tackle Zach Quinney
On running for 377 yards:
“As an offensive lineman, that’s what you love to see. Pass protection’s great – we love passing the ball; we’ve got to do it – but there’s just something about running the ball that we love, and it felt great to be able to do that against a really good team, especially at the d-end position. They had some good defensive ends. And it felt good to do it. I haven’t beaten Duke since I’ve been here, so it felt really good.”
On quarterback Jeff Sims’ willingness to run and take hits:
“It inspires us. You see a lot of quarterbacks nowadays that don’t really want to get hit – get down and all that stuff, just kind of throw the ball away. Jeff’s not that guy. He’ll take a hit at any time if it means it’s going to get us the yards, and that inspires us. That’s what I love about him. He really never gives up on a play, and I love that about him.”
Quarterback Jeff Sims
On his pocket awareness:
“Before practice, we work around bags and things to work on pocket movement and getting our feet right to avoid pressure. So just taking what I did in practice and putting it into the game, that was the big thing.”
On the play of the offense:
“I feel like there were a lot of points that we left on the board. There were a lot of missed passes early in the game that could have put it away earlier, but we just started grinding and executed the offense towards the end and it was smooth.”
On offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude being on the field:
“It really helped a lot because he was able to see things that he usually wouldn’t see from the box, and just getting that communication right on the sideline and him telling me what I missed and what he sees as soon as I come off the field, it was a great experience for me, just knowing that I have my coach right there by me, telling me what I can do better and what I did wrong.”
Safety Tariq Carpenter
On the secondary:
“When we play with energy, as far as, like, us – me, ‘Yeh’ (Juanyeh Thomas), Tre (Swilling), ‘Z-Walt’ (Zamari Walton) – I feel like we can be the best secondary in the country. Like (Saturday night), we just played with a chip on our shoulder. Because nobody’s talking about Juanyeh, nobody’s talking about how good a season ‘K.O.’ (Kaleb Oliver) is having. We just add that fuel to our fire. Social media talks about how bad we’ve been playing and stuff. We actually see all that stuff. Whenever we get back to where we want to be, I just want all the people to have been talking down on us to stay away.”
On the run defense:
“Coach ‘Thack’ (Andrew Thacker) called a great game. He had put his trust in us. I remember, it was whenever we got that strip fumble and we scored, we told him to call that play, and it worked. We had a good week of preparation. Everybody was on the same page. We were calling everything out on the field. and coach Thack, he called an unbelievable game.”
On telling him to call the blitz that led to the strip sack:
“When we knew the ball was going to be up on the half-yard line, we told him, like, Hey, let’s run this. He actually just texted me like 20 minutes ago and he had said he’s glad that he listened to us. It paid off. I’m just glad that he put his trust in us.”
