TCU coach Sonny Dykes, receiver Quentin Johnston and linebacker Dee Winters gave their initial thoughts on Georgia on Tuesday during a teleconference. The Horned Frogs opened as 13-point underdogs against the Bulldogs in Monday’s College Football Playoff Championship game.
Dykes is 13-1 in his first season at TCU, which finished 5-7 a year ago and entered this campaign unranked. Johnston is one of the country’s premier receivers and earned offensive MVP in the Fiesta Bowl semifinal, when he had six catches for 163 yards and a touchdown in a 51-45 win over Michigan. Winters, a linebacker, was defensive MVP with seven tackles (three for loss) and a pick-six.
Here’s what the trio said about the coming matchup against Georgia:
Dykes:
On embracing facing the reigning champs:
“We’re excited to represent the Big 12 in the national championship game against a great Georgia opponent. I have tremendous respect for the Southeastern Conference, tremendous respect for Georgia. Getting to this point undefeated, I know they’ve played a great schedule. That’s been an outstanding year for those guys. I want to congratulate coach (Kirby) Smart and their entire program. They’re obviously an outstanding football team, and we look forward to playing them on Monday night. It’ll be a big challenge for us. But our players have been able to overcome challenges all year, and we’re excited about an opportunity to try to do it again.”
On Peach Bowl impressions (what Ohio State did, where Georgia will try to improve):
“Ohio State made some big plays against them, particularly in the passing game, and I’m sure they’re going to work to get some of those issues addressed. Quite frankly, they just made some contested plays, and Ohio State’s got a really good group of wide receivers. And those guys really played well. Credit their quarterback. I thought C.J. Stroud really played well in that game. Georgia is not accustomed to giving up that many points, but you got to see what Georgia is all about in the fourth quarter of that game. You got to see what kind of team that they have because they responded and did exactly what you would expect them to do. They found a way to win. Give Kirby and their players a ton of credit for doing that. At the end of the day, that’s what this whole thing is about.
“I’m sure that they’re correcting some of those plays in the passing game. And those are the kinds of plays that we’re going to have to make. We’re going to have to make some 50/50-ball plays, and we’re going to have to have our best players step up and play big games, kind of like they did last week. When you get to this point of the season, on this kind of stage, those great players, they have to perform at a high level.”
On comparing Georgia and Michigan, and what makes the Bulldogs unique:
“I think Georgia’s got probably a little bit more varied scheme than Michigan did. I thought Michigan’s obviously very well-coached to have a great scheme. But Georgia does a really nice job. They’re going to show you different looks. They’ve got great answers for things when people make adjustments in game. Seems like (offensive coordinator Todd) Monken does a nice job of staying ahead of people as they adjust, he adjusts. And they do a really good job getting their best players the ball. And they have a ton of playmakers. That’s the thing that’s unique about this team. Most of the time you play against a good team, and there’s two or three guys you say, look, we’ve got (to) really take this guy away.
“But Georgia has just so many good players and guys that are really exceptional talents. You can’t go into a game and just say, OK, look, we’re going to – if we take this guy away then they’re going to have problems. That’s not the case with their offense. They do a great job throwing the ball. They do a great job running the ball. They’re very efficient, really good on third down, really good in the red zone. You sit down, look at all the important characteristics for an offense, and they check the box in every single one of those. They’re just a team that really doesn’t have a lot of weaknesses. So that’s the thing about them.”
Johnston:
On being significant underdogs again and how it’s motivated TCU throughout the season:
“I’m not surprised with it given that we were picked to be seventh in the Big 12 and ended up coming out on top. Obviously being the underdog is something we’re not unfamiliar with. So going to try to just keep moving like we did the rest of the season and keep our heads to the ground and keep playing football.
“We use it as motivation because why not? It’s one of the main things I feel like has driven us to the success we’ve come to this year. So honestly, going to be a lot of outside noise, people projecting us to lose by however many points. But we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing and prove them wrong from week to week.”
Winters:
On Georgia’s tight ends:
“Georgia has a very good offense. They like to use their tight ends the majority of the time. And I think (Brock) Bowers is a really good tight end that they’ll try to target against us. I think (defensive coordinator Joe) Gillespie does a great job setting up game plans for us to have success in the 3-3-5.”
On being constantly doubted as a team:
“We used it all season. I think our coaching staff does a great job just motivating us. But when you hear how you’re about to lose to a team or however many points you are going to lose by, it just fuels us as a team. I think everyone takes it into consideration, and it fuels them.”
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