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Bobby Johnson Press Conference 10-09-06 10/9/2006 Coach Johnson’s Opening Remarks “I don’t think it needs to be said but I will say it anyway: it was a disappointing loss. To play as well as we did for most of the game but have certain key plays go against us and certain key mistakes go against us that caused us to lose that football game is tough. We have a lot of examining to do about how we do things and what we are doing. We do that all year long. It is a part of the process and we will continue to do that to see if we can continue to improve and play better every play.” Has there been a common denominator in the three close SEC losses that your team has had this year? Johnson: “The closest thing I know in the Alabama game and the Mississippi game, turnovers were a big factor. You can’t help the other team. If you look at all three games, we helped them out a good bit. These teams are too good to do that. Sometimes it is a factor of some people trying to do too much or just not concentrating. But turnovers are a part of the game. We just need to limit them. It is not ever going to be eliminated. It is a tough game. You get hit and sometimes you lose the ball. But someway we need to take care of the ball better than what we are doing. What is Chris Nickson”s status this week and will you have to watch him closely this week or is it a sure thing that he will play? Bobby Johnson: “I think he will be okay. He has a sore thigh. He got a deep thigh bruise with a helmet hit and there was just no way he could come back and do in the second half what he did in the first half. He was playing very well. He was 11 for 13 at the time. He was running the ball well, he was making good decisions and that certainly hurt our chances. Mackenzi Adams came in and did a good job, but that is a whole new process coming in there. The process we went through with Chris trying to teach him how to manage the game, we were trying to get that done with Mackenzi in one half. Obviously, we did not get that done. We had two turnovers and the last interception was a typical first time player mistake at quarterback. So Mackenzi did some good things. We are very proud of the job he did. He is tough, he is a good competitor and we like having him on our team. He will make some good plays for us.” What have you seen about Georgia that would make them vulnerable to giving up so many points last week against Tennessee? Johnson: “It is hard to put your finger on it. I know a lot of the opportunities came back to turnovers and special teams play and sometimes that just builds on you. I don”t think Georgia has all of a sudden opened up a big opportunity for everybody to think that Georgia is vulnerable on defense. I don’t think that is the case. Tennessee did an excellent job of taking advantage of certain opportunities they had and when they had the opportunity to put the game away they cert did it.” Talk about special teams as you prepare for this game? Johnson: “Every week it is (important). Special teams hurt us the other day. We had a foiled punt attempt that counted as a tackle for a loss, but that set up one of Mississippi’s touchdowns. We were playing pretty good defense but that just gives them a short field and an opportunity to get out ahead which they did. Those are critical mistakes and we cannot make those on special teams. “We had been pretty consistent up until last week on the special teams. We are going to renew our effort to get back to that consistency and make sure that again we don”t help the other team by setting them up with short fields on special teams errors.” Would you rather play Georgia with them coming off of a loss, or does it matter? Johnson: “I don”t think it matters that much. Usually by the time you are ready to play the next game you have forgotten all about the last one. You better have. We can’t dwell on coming close to beating Mississippi or on how well we did on offense or how well we did on defense. We need to concentrate on Georgia. We need to learn from our mistakes, of course, but go on and move on. I think Georgia will show no effects from the Tennessee loss and they will have their best game waiting for us.” How different are the Bulldogs with Tereshinski at quarterback as opposed to the other two quarterbacks that they have used this yeaR? Johnson: “I haven’t finished that analysis yet but I don’t think there will be that much difference. I think Georgia has been fairly consistent over the years. They want to run the football and they are very good at it. They have an excellent offensive line and they have some quality running backs. If you try to do too much to stop them, they will hurt you with the play action pass. “I was impressed (watching the film). Early in the game they had it going. I think Tereshinski did a very good job and I think he gives them some stability and senior leadership, the kinds of things you want from that kind of quarterback.” You have had a lot of recruiting success in Georgia since you have been at Vanderbilt. What do you attribute that to? Johnson: “During my days at Furman we were only an hour from the Georgia border so we knew how good high school football is in the state of Georgia. It is a big state. They have a lot of people there, a lot of high schools, and they have some good students. So we knew when we came to Vanderbilt that Georgia was still going to be a big, big recruiting area for us for all of those reasons. “You just have to get in there and battle a bunch of schools because everyone knows that. You are in there with every school in the SEC, the ACC and now all the big programs in the country recruit Georgia and especially the Atlanta area. Being at Furman, we know a lot of high school football coaches in the state of Georgia. I had a lot of contact with them with our camps at Furman over the years and recruiting their players. They know they can trust us.” Do you see anything mechanical about Bryant Hahnfeldt that he needs to work on? Johnson: “If Bryant kicks well in practice, he’ll be our kicker. I think Bryant just needs to get back to feeling good about it, get his confidence. Just like the turnover situation, if you consistently talk about it every day, every day I think it stays in their mind and we are going to move on. He is a good kicker and he will continue to be a good kicker. What are some of the traits that have come to define the University of Georgia football program? Johnson: “No. 1, just good players. They are the state school in the state of Georgia and there are a lot of good players in that state. They are close to Florida. They have fantastic talent, but they do a good job of taking advantage of it. They have a good scheme where they say ‘we are going to run it down your throat and we are going to play great defense and you are not going to be able to beat us with all the guys that we are going to be able to throw at you.’ They have got great tradition. They have great facilities. They have it all going for them.” |
