Interview synopsis:
Marble-mouth Gino Torretta fumbled through a question about GT's unfavorable scheduling from the ACC
- CPJ says can't do much about it, just get ready to play. Answer from league was that, "CLEM has the same short-week. CPJ told them, "Well CLEM is playing SCSt. so it's a little different!"
- Fortunate thing is that their coordinators are still the same which helps prep (continuity).
Where do you eval where your team is right now?
- You're not ever really where you want to be. Thinks BC has a really good defense, give them some credit.
- We got better on O last week but will learn more vs Vandy.
About taking the Ireland trip, then having to prepare for Mercer?
- He's sure there were some issues (jet lag, etc.) but the guys are a lot younger than him "I know it bugged me." - Guys seemed to re-adjust well.
Asked about bend/don't break D. Is he a guy that just cares about the points given up being less than what you scored
- Looks at more than that, looks at # of plays, average plays, etc. so you can compare apples to apples.
- Cited MTennSt running over 100 plays vs Vandy so the overall numbers don't compare unless you look deeper.
- Says our D is doing what we have to do but we can get better.
How much of D play is dependent on our offense controlling ball, etc.
- Didn't seem to agree with that assertion.
- Talked about creating more negative plays and getting off the field on 3rd down but the bottom line is if we allow 10 or less we're probably gonna win. (duh?)
Observations on how teams defend you
- Says all that talk is overblown. Most teams run some form of option now so we're not that special (my words, not his)
- Gun teams are read-option which is the same concepts as ours, we're just under center and our blocking is different. Didn't necessarily spell out how/why
- Most blocking is zoning, not hitting folks in the mouth.
- Says the ball is at the LOS rather than 5yds deep so it should hit faster.
Biggest concern with Vandy
- Pretty good defensively.
- TB and huge oline.
- Are more Stanford-like as a power-running team which is different than most of these zone teams.
Asked about JT. His role and the guys around him functioning.
- JT has a good grasp of what we're trying to do. If he stays healthy, he'll have a big year.