Everything From Georgia Tech Defensive Lineman Jason Moore Ahead Of The Matchup Vs Pittsburgh

Senior defensive lineman Jason Moore talked to the media on Wednesday afternoon after practice. Here is everything he had to say.

On what he is thinking about going into the Pittsburgh game…

“My first thought in mind was basically kind of, this was the first game that Key took over as an intern coach. So I believe at the time they were ranked No. 24, and that was before they changed it to Acrisure Stadium up there. I was a redshirt sophomore at the time. Just like knowing how much that is and kind of seeing the parallels of like first game with him there and then like this game being just such a high magnitude. That's the first thing in mind, and just like kind of just focus on the week, treating this like a championship week because essentially that's what it is. We win, we are in, and just kind of just having that transparency throughout the whole team, knowing like just what we need to do at this juncture in time to get things going.”

On his relationship with him and Joe Fusile….

“Man, he's awesome. So he came in 2021, so the year after me. So just kind of seeing the transformation of like how he was then. He's just a big, stiff guy, just happy-go-lucky, just happy to be here. Just trying to find his bearings and just kind of just growing up with him in the program, the ups and downs, competing with him every single day at practice. Just us both making each other better. It's just been an amazing thing.”

On the Pittsburgh QB Mason Heintschel…

“Mason is just going through tape and coming up to the week, whether it's like ACC, Freshman of the Week, all of that good stuff. Just kind of a blip on the radar, there or four games beforehand, kind of just seeing like for 400 and like two three games, that’s not by accident. So just going through tape and seeing some of the throws he has as a freshman and some of the instinctual ways he is able to evade pressure, get out of the pocket, and just a great improviser. We have to do our job upfront to help the guys on the back end because he's going to be a tough task, more or less, to just kind of keep under wraps.”

On the high and lows of the program…

“It's kind of like one of those things where it's like it means the world. Coming in as a freshman, you have high expectations. You see other guys you play high school ball with. Like Will Anderson, won a natty his freshman year while I'm over here, three and nine. And then just kind of next season, more or less the same thing, three and nine. then just seeing that transition once the intern stage went through, then Key was hired as a full-time guy, then just the overall progression from year to year, just seeing overall consistency, being here while the building blocks of the program was being put in place. Just seeing it kind of all come to fruition at this point, just been like eye-opening, like everything's just been amazing. Seeing the lows of the lows, probably like the worst moment like ever as a Yellow Jacket. I didn't even play freshman year, just watching Trevor Lawrence just take us through the ringer. Now we have a chance to play for the ACC Championship. It's just like two totally different ends of the spectrum at this point.”

On the transparency and authenticity of the head coach and his approach this week with the team…

“I think it's just overall higher sense of awareness, just knowing that we win, we're in, and just everybody being more locked in and more in tune with their keys. A lot more communication, a lot more people flying to the ball, just being where you're supposed to be, and just having just a lot more attention to detail and just laser focus on what we need to get done at this point.”

On the run defense, the last few weeks, and how to improve it….

“I think a lot of it is just kind of guys believing in one another and just trusting themselves. Just like knowing that this guy's gonna be in this gap, this guy's gonna be this gap. Not trying to do more or less because most of the time, whenever you get gashed in a run game, it's not because of like what another team did. Half of the time, it's maybe someone misfitting the gap, jumping inside of a gap, outside of we got defensive tackle thinking, oh, I can peak right here, get the back, and boom, it rolls off the edge. Just kind of having that innate confidence in one another and your own skill set that we've done early in the season. Just kind of just get back to that, get the things rolling, get back to playing regularly, great defensive ball.”

On the attitude of the defense coming out of the Sunday meetings…

“The same thing after, like NC State, just kind of bad tasting your mouth. And it's just like Coach Gideon is talking about, he prefaced the meeting saying, hey, we've done this before in the past. Don't let the last two weeks be what dictates the rest of the season. Because there have been a lot of moments where we play complementary football for the entire team throughout the year. Some games where it's like the offense had to us bail us out in certain moments when we were having lows and vice versa. Going back down on those moments, knowing that Hey, we play great ball against other great offenses while maybe the other side wasn't up at that time. Being locked in and knowing what we can do and just having the innate confidence to just go out there and do what you need to do a part of the plan instead of just kind of being in a rut.”

On how the live tackling period helped the defense against Pittsburgh…

“I think just kind of like, same thing where it’s like the last two weeks, a lot of stuff on tape and people having taken wrong angles, not owning their leverage, and that might have been a cause to not being in pads as often. Just kind of being back in feeling where, hey, I need to take this certain angle inside out of receiver coming this way, feel with my left shoulder, right shoulder based on the backs leverage, knowing that where I need to be right here so we could just have 11 hats to the ball so we can down the ball carry without like extra mush hard edge and whatnot.”

On how Bobby Dodd Stadium is at night…

“It's electric. Just some of my favorite moments here have always been night games. It's just kind of weird where it's like, I feel like we perform a lot better, especially here during night games. Whether it's just throughout the years against other ranked opponents coming in or just like other highly touted ACC matchups, or whatnot. When the lights are shining and you see the skyline in the back and to see the pencil building just glowing orange, is just awesome. It's just amazing. Then the Coca-Cola building is just amazing, just seeing like the other sites and sounds of being in the city.”

On favorite game he has played in at Bobby Dodd Stadium…

“UNC is a close second. I say first would probably be like Syracuse at night when we played them was two years ago to be bowl eligible for the first time. Just that overall feeling of elation just like going from losing, losing, losing. We finally got over the hump, got to bowl eligibility. I'll probably also say NC State last year, that was like right down at the end. Game-winning field goal right at the end was ust amazing.”

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