“We’re just really disappointed, and I think I’m disappointed more the way we played than the outcome of the game. I don’t want to take anything away from Virginia, I thought their kids played really hard. But we didn’t look like a very well-coached football team out there. We didn’t play very good. Our pass protection was awful. It’s the same basic gap protection. We’re trying to run two-man routes; it’s ridiculous. And then on defense, we couldn’t stop the run. That’s the bottom line.”
– Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson
“Missed a ton of tackles. Their back (Taquan Mizzell) is a good back. The play that killed us was the speed sweep that we worked on all week, and we had guys rolling down out of the secondary and corners that are supposed to be firing, and we couldn’t get it done. Guys couldn’t get off a block.”
– Johnson
“The bottom line comes down to turnovers. That’s what it comes down to. We talked at halftime, I told our guys, ‘Whoever turns the ball over in the second half, the other team’s going to win.’ You’ve got to value the ball. We go out there and give it up right away.”
– Johnson
“I don’t know how that’s not pass interference. I mean, the guy isn’t even looking for the ball. They can fine me if they want, but that was ridiculous. He’s face-guarding and running into the guy and everything else.”
– Johnson on a fourth-quarter pass into the end zone to A-back Clinton Lynch broken up by Virginia’s Micah Kiser
“It wasn’t quite as much as we had last week, but we kind of knew there wasn’t going to be a big crowd, there wasn’t going to be a lot of energy. So we knew we had to bring our own energy. I feel like for the most part, effort wasn’t a part (of the problem). It was just (that) we’ve got to execute better.”
– Tech safety Jamal Golden on the team’s energy level
“We tried to mix it up today, but the passing game was doing well, so I guess Coach (Johnson) just stuck with the passing game.”
– Tech wide receiver Ricky Jeune
“It’s just frustrating because there’s a lot of things that we should have done that we didn’t do.”
– Tech cornerback Chris Milton
“I was pretty well-defended. I should have just went up and grabbed the ball out of the air instead of just waiting to come straight to me, so that’s on me.”
– Lynch on the incomplete pass to the end zone
“He’s a very good athlete. He can move back there, and he can throw the ball. We got in his face as much as we could when he was getting the ball. We made him move his feet throwing the ball as much as we could. Just trying to rumble him up.”
– Virginia linebacker Mike Moore on Tech quarterback Justin Thomas
“We played some different techniques up front which allowed us to cause some issues and cause some confusion in terms of the quarterback’s reads. They’ve been running that offense for a long time, and they’ve probably seen every defense known to mankind. But I thought we did a really good job today of doing some things to hit the quarterback and take out their leading rusher.”
– Virginia coach Mike London
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