Oct. 31, 2009
Recap | Box Score | Notes | AP Photo Gallery 
Vanderbilt Head Coach Bobby Johnson
Opening statement:
“I think Georgia Tech has a really outstanding offensive football team. We would have to play well to stop them and we didn’t help ourselves with turnovers and short fields. They do a great job with the offense. They took it to us. We hung in there for a while, but when you get in the second half and you have two turnovers and a short punt, you’re just asking to get beat.”
On Vanderbilt’s ability to defend Georgia Tech:
“They’ve got a great scheme, they put pressure on you. There is always an edge. You don’t feel good about what you’re doing to stop them. We tell our players if you give them a chance, they’ll burn you. They made a good play on a previous option and they took advantage of us. That’s the pressure that good offense puts on you.”
On Larry Smith’s injury:
“I just know his hamstring was bad enough to where he couldn’t play. We think Larry is going to be an excellent passer and getting better every week. We’ll just have to get him healthy.”
On Vanderbilt’s offense with Mackenzi Adams:
“We had a good plan on offense and we were executing well. Our run game was working and we could mix in a pass and not be predictable. Mackenzi came in and did a good job. He was ready to go. The turnovers hurt us in the second half, and hurt us offensively. We killed our chances. However, Mackenzi has done great things for this program and he will continue to step up. Our offense needed this success tonight and it was good to get the production we’ve been looking for.”
On freshmen Warren Norman and Zac Stacy:
“They just get better. They’re explosive and hard runners. Zac scored two great touchdowns tonight. Warren had the kickoff return for a touchdown and it’s unbelievable how well he’s done. We’ll continue to get better on offense. Warren does a great job of seeing a hole and getting in it. He busts through before anyone can catch up. He sees the field well.”
On Zac Stacy’s ankle:
“We will probably have to get his ankle surgically corrected in the offseason, but he’s been doing a good job in rehab during the week.”
On Georgia Tech’s Demaryius Thomas:
“He is a tough guy to cover man-to-man. He’s strong and fast and we just couldn’t stop him. We tried pressure and they would just hand it off or run an option play.”
On losing chances to reach a bowl:
“We still have a lot to play for. We have three extremely important football games. We have a big challenge going to Florida next week, but I expect our guys to practice hard, play hard, and give their best effort in all ways. We’re trying to build a program on the character of our players and they’ll continue to represent us in all ways.”
On playing 12 straight weeks of football without a bye week:
“It sure doesn’t help. Our guys have played a bunch of football and it’s hard to get your body working the same way it did at the beginning of the year.”
Vanderbilt safety Brent Trice
On defending Georgia Tech offense:
“We missed a lot of tackles that hurt us and lacked discipline. If one person messes up on defense, everything is off. We were surprised by the pass because you expect them to run most of the time.”
On momentum starting the second half:
“We had some good series to start the second half and played sound football, but got out of synch.”
On kickoff returns of Warren Norman:
“He has quick instincts and lets the plays come to him.”
Vanderbilt running back Zac Stacy
On dealing with Larry Smith’s injury:
“We had to go in there and get the job done. Mackenzi (Adams) is just as good as Larry (Smith) but we just couldn’t get it done.”
On kickoff returns of Warren Norman:
“He gave us a lift. It’s good to have him back there.”
On losing potential to become bowl-eligible:
“We need to keep battling and get some upsets in our upcoming games.”
Vanderbilt running back Warren Norman
On kickoff return touchdown:
“I took the kick and ran through the hole that I saw open up. They tried to not kick it to me on several occasions. I try to run straight ahead and not try to do too much.”
On tying the SEC record for kickoff return touchdowns in a season:
“It’s a good feeling, I’m trying hard to help the team win games.”
Vanderbilt quarterback Mackenzi Adams
On entering the game:
“It took me a little bit to get used to the speed of the game. I was a little rusty, but was able to jump in there.”
On offensive effort of team:
“We were rolling for a while but had some costly turnovers that we can’t have against an offense like Georgia Tech. We need to eliminate that if we’re going to win big games.”
On preparing to enter game:
“It starts with preparations all week to stay prepared to enter the game like tonight.”
On potentially starting next week:
“Nothing will change except for maybe the amount of reps that I receive during practice.”
Georgia Tech Head Coach Paul Johnson
Opening statement:
“We did a much better job in the second half of getting them off the field and we got some turnovers, which helped turn the game. I’m disappointed in the way we started. We missed some tackles that just killed us in the first half on big plays. They hit a ton of big plays. Offensively, we moved the ball fairly well all night. We just need to finish. There are a lot of areas we can get better at. All-in-all, we went on the road and won the game, and we are back on task next week.”
On the importance of getting the offside penalty in the third quarter:
“It was important. It kept me from having to go for it. We were going to try to pull them offside and if they didn’t jump, we were going to take a timeout. I was going to see how they would line up and then I would call a play. We were going to go for it.”
On Georgia Tech’s defense in the second half:
“In the second half, we played much better on defense. The one long drive they had to start the second half was on a tipped ball. When you tip a ball up like that and another receiver touches it, then maybe it’s not your night. Their kids played hard. They kept coming and I thought they fought all night.”
On the offense:
“(Jonathan Dwyer) did run the ball hard. It was good to finally get Roddy (Jones) in the endzone. He’s been the blocker. I thought Josh (Nesbitt) hit a couple of nice touchdown passes, which is kind of what we need to do. We didn’t run a lot of triple option plays. They decided they were going to take that away, and they did. We tried to play with our auxiliary stuff and it worked out well.”
On the player of Vanderbilt’s Warren Norman:
“He played well. I thought we did a better job of covering kicks in the second half. Who knows where we are going to kick it.”
Georgia Tech running back Jonathan Dwyer
On breakout performance:
“I guess you can say that. We have a lot of weapons on the offense, so each and every week somebody has a breakout game.”
On getting in stride:
“Well hopefully I can keep it going for the next few weeks and hopefully I’m not a one hit wonder.”
On running harder:
“I think I’m running with a purpose. Ever since last week, a couple guys on the team challenged me to run the way they know I can run. Every time I touch the ball I just try to make plays.”
On looking ahead:
“We know that if we do look ahead that it’s going to come back and haunt us. We just have to keep focus week in and week out.”
Georgia Tech quarterback Josh Nesbitt
On offensive line giving time to throw:
“They did a great job giving me time to throw the ball.”
On his 87-yard touchdown pass:
“That was a spur of the moment type thing. We saw the safety was in close and we knew our wide receiver could run right pass him.”
On third quarter adjustments:
“The defense got us fired up. That was the spark we were looking for the whole game and we really didn’t make any adjustments. We just went out and played our game.”
On offsides jump by Vanderbilt in the third quarter:
“Well, I hope it was my count that got them to jump offsides. Whatever it was, I’m glad they jumped.”