Everything From Haynes King & Malik Rutherford After A Win Over Virginia Tech

Star quarterback Haynes King and veteran wide receiver Malik Rutherford talked to the media after their win over Virginia Tech. Here is everything they had to say.

Haynes King on if the bye week or execution helped in the offense cooking early in the game…

“A little bit of everything. The bye week definitely helped getting a lot of guys back healthy, the feet under them. Then, there is also the execution aspect of it. At first, we executed at a high level, but we still have room for improvement, especially the way we ended the game. We gotta do a lot better in that aspect of it.”

King on how far the program has come….

“No, I mean, it means a lot, and then, now, just seeing how it was built, you know, from the ground up, you know, trying to build it with who he hired and who he brought in this program. He really cares about the locker room and what we do, and he wants it to be a player-led team. You just see that and, you know, we have a lot of input on kind of what goes on. Just this feeling in general, just being with the guys and finding ways to win, and right now being 6-0 is a really good feeling. You know, like I said before, the job's not done yet. I believe everybody knows that and knows what the standard of this team is.”

On the growth of the team and not starting slow, but getting a good start and finishing…

“I mean, we've definitely grown a lot. We still have a lot of room for improvement. We gotta be able to finish the game clean. That second-to-last drive was not clean. That was unorthodox and what we did and how we executed was really poor. I believe everybody knows that wholeheartedly. Obviously, you don't go out there trying to do that. Stuff happens, but how are we gonna respond? You just got to take it one play at a time, and just do your job and executing in that aspect, and everything will be fine. But like I said, we have a lot of room for improvement and we got to find ways to continue to sustain as a team and continue to sustain as offensive unit. So once we do that, then we'll be really, really dangerous.”

Malik Rutherford on the touchdown and the two-point conversion…

“I had an option route on the touchdown. I think it was the will or the sam. I just seen them bump out, just sat in the open zone. Me and Haynes locked eyes. I was like, yeah, this is a touchdown right here. The two-point conversion, I had a plan the whole week to dive in the end zone. So as soon as I saw the little gap, I was like, yeah, that's me right there.”

Rutherford on the blocking on the perimeter…

“Yeah, blocking out on the perimeter was great. Coach McKnight he drilled that in our head all week. We have to protect our teammates and just block. When you block, good things come to you. You get the ball, score touchdowns. So yeah, we take pride in blocking. We got to keep getting better every week.”

King on the offensive line…

“I felt like they played really good, you know, and that's expected from them. You know, they do their job, you know, at the same time, they don't get enough praised with what they do and how they come in preparing each and every day. So they do a really good job, but, you know, we also...Got to play cleaner towards that end. Harrison made a mistake. He probably didn't hear the whistle or whatever, it still happens. It still happened, and we got to learn from it and do better. I feel like overall. except like penalties and stuff like that. We played clean football today, and they did a really good job up front. It's just everything's learning, we're getting better each and every week.”

King on the students' photo of him with a crown on his head…

“I mean, I might have seen it. I try not to pay too much attention to it because, you know, just let my play on the field just kind of dictate everything else. You know, the stands and the sport and the students and the fans, they did a really good job today showing up, showing out, being really loud. Making it a true home-field advantage like they've done this whole season. So I really love the way that they come out and support and try to help us to victory.”

King on how he blocks out the outside noise…

“I mean, that was just one of my goals throughout the summer. Each year, I try to look at myself in the mirror, where can I improve? And one of those I felt like was outside distractions, outside of the building. I really don't have any social media or anything like that. I have people help and run it for me if I need posts and stuff like that. So I feel like that helps a lot of the outside noise. So I don't see it 24/7 post this, post that people, reaching out to me, stuff like that. So that helps a lot, but other than that, the only opinions that matter are the opinions in this building. Our expectations are always gonna be more important than external expectations. So that's number one, of course, but we just gotta keep our eyes on the goal and keep fighting.”

Rutherford on how good it feels to be a part of something special for the city of Atlanta….

“I ain't from Atlanta, like it ain't, you know. But yeah, it feels great, man. It just, you know, like we came a long way, especially from our freshman year, you know, being 3-9 to now being this year being 6-0. It feels great for like, you know, all the work that we put in all of these past years. I feel like it's paying off. But like Haynes said, you know, we're not done yet. We have a goal that we want to achieve.”

King on if the team feels has relief and how they stay motivated...

“I mean, we don't necessarily feel relief because you feel like relief, you're feeling the pressure, you're feeling the outside noise. We're really not doing that. We're out there having. Not necessarily satisfied, but proud and stuff like that after wins. Proud of what we've done and how we prepared that game, that week going into that game. Proud of how we executed. Like I said, it's not necessarily satisfied because satisfied means you feel like you've arrived. We haven't arrived yet. On top of that, it's just, we're trying to take it one game at a time, and it's not really a relief. It's more of pride in what we're doing and how we're doing it.”

On what day from Malachi Hosley do for this offense moving forward…

“I mean, he does a lot for us, you know, and it's not just with the ball in his hands. It's with the ball, you know, out of his hands. How does he play? He's a really good teammate. A really good locker room guy as well. You know, he was a great addition that we've had for this season. You know, he's just explosive, and it makes my job a lot easier to just get the ball in his hands. You let him work. On top of that, you can give it to Jamal or Trelain, and then you go to the receiver, and now you give him a lead. Eric, Isaiah, the whole spill. There aren't enough ways, there aren't enough balls to give to everybody. There's only one ball, so that makes it hard, but just giving it. Giving those guys a chance to make plays out in the space is always going to be a positive for the offense."

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