Presser transcript: Ryan Willis pre-Georgia Tech
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Virginia Tech quarterback Ryan Willis met with the media before the Hokies take on Georgia Tech Thursday. Read his comments here.
On working on the “Andy Dalton dive” as opposed to sliding on scrambles:
“They had a whole cutup ready to go for me after the Duke game. If you don’t recall, I slid a little too soon before the first-down marker that would have ended the game, but we had to do a quarterback sneak on fourth and one. Coach Fuente, he wasn’t too happy. He had Andy Dalton at TCU and he was really big about diving, always knifing for the first down. Basically, they wanted me to imitate that and stop sliding and start diving. Gain extra yards here and there.”
On was it easy to make the transition from sliding to diving:
“I was actually thinking about, when I was running the ball, just dive don’t slide. Get those few extra yards, get the first down.”
On what has he seen from Georgia Tech’s defense:
“There a pretty good defense. They run the 50 defense, we haven’t seen it yet this year. It’ll be a new challenge for us. I think we have a pretty good game plan heading into the game. I’m excited to get after it.”
On him being amped up on the football field:
“You know, I love this game. I get excited every opportunity I have to play. I need to calm down a little so it doesn’t cloud up my judgement on the field. Never too high, never too low. I need that happy medium. I’m just excited to get out there. I love this game and I’m happy. I’m in my happy place out there. Not much to it.”
On how much has Coach Fuente talked about getting the most out of every drive against Georgia Tech:
“Time of possession is going to be huge for us. Eliminating three and outs and giving our defense some rest, because that triple option can go for a long time on the field. We just need to do our best, execute our plays and take care of the ball.”
On is there a danger of putting too much pressure on each drive:
“No, we’re not thinking of this game any differently than any other game. We’re going to go out there, execute, do our job and hopefully, good outcomes will come.”