Quotes From Caldwell's Press Conference
Football coach says team must run the ball well against Georgia Tech.
Nov. 16, 1999
On the team's seniors
"It's going to be a very interesting time for us because of the fact that
we haven't had such a large number of guys leaving the program at this
stage. Particularly, this large nucleus of guys has been a very valuable
nucleus for us. There are a lot of good leaders and, certainly, a number
of guys that contributed a lot to the program. At this day and age in
college football, typically, senior classes aren't that large because so
many guys transfer, there are so many problems in terms of attrition and
due to injuries in the sport. Fifteen is a large number, and when you get to
20, it's extraordinary. They're unusual in terms of their number and they
also are a very unusual group because they've certainly done, I think, a
very good job of doing what we asked them to do just in terms of the little
things involved with the program. They're good students and good citizens."
On Georgia Tech and Joe Hamilton
"When we've had a defense that's been a top-ranked defense as well, that's
what we're going to call upon. We're going to call upon them to play well.
They average over 40 points a game. They're phenomenal. What we'll ask
our guys to do is the same thing we ask them to do every week - stop them.
That's the key. It's also very important, too, that we do what we set out
to do early this year is run the football and make certain that we win that
time of possession war. That's extremely important to us in this ballgame.
And we need to run the ball effectively. That's key. We were the first
team this year to hold Florida State under 40 points. Florida State is a
pretty good football team. So is Georgia Tech. We're going to ask the
same thing again - that we hold them down. We know we'll have to score
some points and that their offense is capable of scoring points as well.
We'll look for any edge we can get along the way. Obviously, it's going to
be tough. They're a tough team. He (Joe Hamilton) is a very, very bright
individual. He has great command of their offense and he's a great leader.
He's got pinpoint accuracy throwing the ball, particularly on his deep
balls. He probably throws the ball deep as well as anyone you'll see. He
does everything well and plus he can run with the best of them. He's very
quick and he's got good speed on top of that. I know one thing, he's one
of the best if not the best (in the country)."
On Duke
"Some things happened to us that hadn't happened to us. We got a kickoff
returned back all the way for a touchdown and that hadn't happened to us.
We haven't had a major breakdown in our kicking game except for the snap
over the head of our punter for two points and a safety. Other than that
we've been solid in our kicking game for the most part. The other thing
that happened to us is that we turned the ball over back in our own
territory twice. We were leading our league with the fewest turnovers.
Our offense turned the ball over less than any other team in our conference
up until Saturday. We turned it over five times in that ballgame. When
you turn the ball over that many times, you're going to give up some
points. So you cannot expect our defense to show the same type of
stickiness and toughness that they'd shown in terms of keeping teams out of
the endzone as we'd shown in previous weeks. We did things we hadn't done
before. We gave them a very short field to operate on."
On bouncing back and approaching the final game
"Our team has been a resilient team. If you look through history, one
thing they do is that they'll come back at you. They're able to recover,
sometimes not as quickly as you'd like, but yet they still find a way to do
it within a reasonable time. I don't think that there's any question that
you'll see the same thing from our group this week. Still having an
opportunity to have a winning season going into the last ballgame of the
year tells you something about this team in terms of the way in which
they're able to keep fighting and keep their head above water. That's
certainly where we are now. We're fighting for our lives. We certainly
approach the game differently because every team presents a little
different challenge for us. You have to go into a ballgame looking at what
their strengths are, trying to find a way to adjust and take those away
from them while trying to enhance yours. In that respect, we're preparing
for a different opponent. We're also going to pull out all the stops and
make sure we do whatever we can to win this ballgame by any means
necessary."
