Everything From Defensive Coordinator Blake Gideon & CB Rodney Shelley Ahead Of Matchup Vs BYU

Georgia Tech defensive coordinator Blake Gideon and cornerback Rodney Shelley met with the media ahead of their matchup vs BYU. Here is everything they had to say.

Blake Gideon Opening Statement….

“What an honor to be here at a great bowl. The FCS has put on a wonderful event for our guys. I won't compare our experience to any other experience, but I'll say the reviews have come back pretty good from Rodney here and the rest of the players. Um our guys are really pumped about this opportunity. I think that comes from the quality of the opponent that we're playing against. We believe that we're playing against a playoff team from a championship-caliber program. We have a ton of respect for coach Sitake and the rest of his staff, and obviously his players, and what they've built there over time through consistency, and I think it's pretty apparent that we believe in a lot of the same things that their program believes in with toughness and effort and physicality. Just hearing him speak, along with coach Key last night at a staff gathering, it was very apparent that those guys share a lot of those same traits and believe in a lot of the same program-building philosophy. So, we're excited. It's going to be a great challenge. Our guys have practiced their tails off for the past few weeks, and we're ready to go finish off this story the right way.”

Gideon on how his defense has performed year one and what is the next step in year 2…

“Yeah, I think you know you don't look at how a season's going to go in the beginning and wish you stump your toe, but I think after you do stump your toe, you're kind of grateful for those moments and what you learn about one another. What I learned about myself and obviously as a staff, and then what we learned about the players. I don't think enough credit is given to the immediate change that these guys made. And you know, I can come up with whatever call, we can scheme, whatever scheme we want to scheme as a staff, but the players are the ones that make it come to life, right? For those guys to put their foot down really at halftime of the Pitt game and decide how things are going to go moving forward is about as impressive a thing as I've ever been around in any locker room. So, it's been a wild ride. It's been fun. I'm so blessed. I'm honored to coach these guys that have gotten over themselves and allow themselves to be coached and want to be coached, and they fight, and they keep swinging for each other. It's been a great year, great experience for me this year, and we're looking forward to building on this in the future.”

Gideon on Similarities between Haynes King and Bear Bachmeier...

“Yeah, toughness number one. I think both of those guys carry that mentality for their team, right? And whenever your quarterback is one of the toughest, if not the toughest, guys on your team, I think everybody else kind of comes along, coaches included, right? If this guy's willing to do this and stick his nose in there and go get those extra few yards, then we can all do a little bit more, too, right? So, I think absolutely this guy carries that mentality that coach Sitake wants out of their program. and that's pretty important whenever it's the guy that's guaranteed to touch the ball every snap. So, um, our preparation and obviously dealing with Haynes and our offense every day, there are some carryovers, but, um, these guys are professional coaches, too, on the other side. They'll have their change-ups, and they do a great job of, um, of finding the weakness, the soft spot in the defense, and we're going to have to be prepared to adjust. I think that's the main thing in bowl games.”

Rodney Shelley on bowl opportunities and playing in those types of games…

“It's cherish the moments with your teammates. Uh, obviously, for me, this is my last bowl game. I'm a senior, and I just want to cherish all these moments with my teammates, you know, and just come around these guys.”

Shelley on how far the program has come and the possibility of getting 10th win…

“It's a big thing in the room right now that we want this 10-game as a win. I think there's a little history behind it or whatever. Um, what I think it'll be like the seventh season or maybe something in that nature. 10th season. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Couldn't remember the 10th season. It's just, you know, it's amazing. I think it's going to be a good thing for us to get this win.”

On the biggest challenge of facing dual-threat quarterbacks…

“BYU is a great offense. I feel like they can establish the run, the pass, and add the quarterback running game as well. I think that's something you just have to pay attention to. You know, they'll try to open you up, throw the ball, throw the ball, maybe come back with a quarterback run. You never know.”

Coach Gideon on Bear Bachmeier….

“Whenever you watch him on tape, you have to remind yourself that the kid's a true freshman and he's mature beyond his years. I think you see growth. That's probably was accelerated faster than most freshman quarterbacks. I think his toughness and competitiveness, and the willingness to go compete in those environments that they played in in the Big 12 all year. It's apparent that he's not afraid, right? And that's again one of the things that you look for, not just at the quarterback position, but in any position. Same with us on defense. Is this guy afraid of the moment? Is he gonna do it right all week and then panic on Saturday night? So, um, this offense obviously they run it well, they throw it well. The element of quarterback run forces you to play 11 on 11, right? And that's always a possibility. Coach (Aaron) Roderick on offense does a great job of mixing that in. There's no real tell down in the distance area of the field when it's coming. It just forces that to be a constant reminder in all of our guys' heads of it could happen here, it could happen here, and we can't take anything for granted just because the situation normally means this or this. They do a really nice job of changing things up, and uh obviously they've got the players to be able to handle all that mentally and execute it physically.”

Shelley on the mentality of the team to finish what they started…

“I don't know. I can't even explain. Just to see all these guys just, you know, willing to put it all in, even when it, you know, there's no risk. They just want to play ball, you know, be together. Uh, create this bond for life, you know. I think that's what it's about.”

On the difference in the defense during the Pittsburgh and Georgia game…

“We made some changes schematically. Um, probably not as earth-shattering as it may have seemed, but you know, I think our guys just something we had always talked about throughout this whole process was not worrying about the result and just enjoying the process and immersing ourselves in the process and being the best in the world at my job on this play. The last play already happened. We can't really do anything about it, and the next play has enough worries of its own, right? So, let's just own our job in this play. I think everybody just kind of relaxed their shoulders and untucked their shirts a little bit. And, you know, just went and played ball. We like to overcomplicate it a lot as college coaches. We like to get in there and play mad scientist on the chalkboard and draw up all these fun schemes, but at the end of the day, it's getting off blocks and tackling, leveraging the ball, leveraging off routes and coverage. I think it wasn't really, Rodney will tell you, it wasn't anything earthshattering that we did going into the Georgia game. I mean, we've said, "Hey guys, we're going to run these calls and we're going to get really good at them, and I believe in you guys. Y'all trust in me. So, let's go. Let's go own our role, own our job." You see what we can be as a unit. A starting safety goes down in the Georgia game in the first 10 plays, and a true freshman that's never really played meaningful snaps goes out there and this what I mean, all the things that could have happened happened, and our guys just stopped in my opinion stopped worrying about the result and just played, you know, and I don't care how many points they've already scored, how many first downs they've already made. They just played the next play. And that's the game. That's the measure of a good team, a mature team, especially on defense, is their ability to move forward.”

Shelley on the impact of Coach Gideon on Georgia Tech….

“Great guy. I've learned a lot from Coach Gideon on and off the field, kind of things, you know. He came in, asked for some blind trust, and you know, kind of believed in him. I actually had a moment in the season where you know he uh kind of talked to me about my shoulder injury because we have some similar injuries or whatever, and that's you know it kind of pulled me a little closer to him as well. Just uh learning his scheme, the way he taught it, the way he was passionate about it. You know, it just gave me this feeling like, yeah, he's a great guy, going to be a great coach this season.

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