A day before their teams will be pitted against one other in the 41st annual Chick-fil-A Bowl, No. 14 Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson and LSU coach Les Miles held one final press conference from the Sheraton Hotel in Atlanta.Both coaches talked about the preparations they have made in the past few weeks in order to be successful in the game.LSU will have to focus on defending Georgia Tech’s option attack. “Defensively, I think we needed this time,” Miles said. “Playing [this offense] in a three-day period would be certainly tough for us. We’re a bit more comfortable with the idea of the options they have and how they run it.”The attack, led by sophomore running back Jonathan Dwyer and sophomore quarterback Josh Nesbitt, has torched many of Tech’s opponents.”[The option] gives you some advantages in that you don’t have to block everybody,” Johnson said. “It spreads the game out, and if you execute correctly, the defense better be good tacklers.”Georgia Tech will have to worry about game planning for a quarterback in LSU freshman Jordan Jefferson who has had very little playing time and is a great unknown for the football world.Johnson said he was not concerned with planning for any one player because LSU has multiple weapons.”Any time you get ready to play another team, I know for us, we’re going to get ready for the LSU offense,” Johnson said. “We’re not going to get ready for individual players.”Miles stated that “There are no plans to play anyone at quarterback besides Jordan Jefferson,” before glancing at Johnson and adding a “Maybe.”The teams took very different paths to wind up in the game, and the coaches say the win would mean different things for each team.It would give Johnson 10 wins in his first season in Atlanta after the Jackets lost six a year ago. For Miles, it would give his team a bright spot in an otherwise dreary national championship follow-up campaign.”At the end of the year, every team that has had a great season gets the opportunity to play for a bowl,” Miles said. “That opportunity for victory and a bowl championship is a piece we’re focused on.”A popular topic in the time leading up to the bowl has been that Georgia Tech is located in Atlanta, less than 2.5 miles from the game’s site.Much has been made of this topic, but Johnson said he took steps to ensure that his players still treated this as a proper bowl game.”When we checked into the hotel, we took all the players’ car keys and decided that we were going to treat this as if we were in Miami or some other place,” he said. “So the guys have a newfound outlook on Atlanta and some of the things here and certainly the things we have to do.”Johnson also noted that his team hasn’t played in the Georgia Dome at all this season, so it is as much of a road venue for Georgia Tech as it is for LSU.
Football: Miles, Johnson hold final press conference — 12/30
By Johanathan Brooks
Sports Contributor
Sports Contributor
December 30, 2008