Everything From Clayton Powell Lee and Aidan Birr After Georgia Tech 30-29 Win

Clayton Powell Lee on the two-point play and the interception…

“I mean, we called one of our base coverages. There are a lot of eyes on the quarterback. He told us that if it's sprint out, plastered, honestly. So when I saw it sprint out, the nearest guy was that receiver coming on the drag and really just trying to match him, and then just seeing where the quarterback was going, honestly, and then he just you know gave us a present, and I was happy to capitalize and just you know call it a game on that one. Last week I had an opportunity, but then I'm just grateful to have another one, even though it may not count as that she counts in my heart, honestly."

Aidan Birr on a potential last-second field goal…

I mean, two Toros in two weeks is kind of crazy. Like Coach Farrell, he's been coaching for however long. He said he's never had one until this year. So two in two weeks is pretty crazy. But, you know, thank God we practiced it again this week so we were ready for it, and it was awesome.”

Powell-Lee on how much time and effort go into defending two-point conversions…

“A lot, honestly, on Tuesdays we work it a lot. Yeah, two-point Tuesdays we call it, we have racks of four or five. We just practice two-point plays, how to defend them, where they might try to hit us, and our weaknesses. So practicing those really helps in these situations like this. It's just good to know that you're prepared for situations. So I'm glad that we practice those things.”

Powell-Lee on the Wake Forest students gathering to storm the field…

“It was just something we noticed. Like, what's the point? We finna win this game, honestly. So, it was one of those like just keep on playing, don't worry about them. They can be sad when they realize they didn't win, so."

Powell Lee on if he was surprised the offensive unit didn’t kick the extra point and decided to go for it all on the two point conversion…

“I mean, it takes a lot. You trust your offense. I mean, I would have trusted our offense to go for a twi. You just have to play the game, honestly. When they stayed on the field, it was like, okay, they're going for the win here. Let's bow up, honestly. So that's our thought process on defense, honestly.”

Powell Lee on what changed defensively when Wake Forest had success…

“Nothing really changed. It's like we weren't just being disciplined to our keys, honestly. That's something we got to always fix, is, like, you have a good, strong first quarter. It's like, okay, we're doing good. But then when things don't go your way, you got to, you know, stay disciplined to the game plan, stay disciplined to your eyes and your keys. We got a little off track, honestly, but I'm glad that we were able to, you know, go into halftime, not even have to make corrections for real, just honestly just saying, all right, we haven't played as bad as we can play. If we just stick to our keys, stick to our reads, things are going to turn out in our favor. That's what happened. I mean, it's just glad to see that we can still play ball together, as a defense, knowing that, all right, things may not be going our way.”

Powell Lee on the frustration of Wake Forest wide receivers making tough catches….

“It's frustrating, obviously, as a DB, you wanna give up zero catches in the game.I mean, they're on scholarship, too. There is a game one on one, you’ve got to capitalize on the one on ones, and we're gonna go into next week. This bye week really just harping on things that we could have fixed. A lot of plays happen just because of our own mistakes, if I were saying. That's what we're going to say. We do our own job. We're not worried about anybody else's job. We're going to be able to do some great things.”

Powell Lee on if anything changed when Wake Forest backup came in…

“Not really, honestly. Just game plan. They're going to give him the same plays that No. 2 was getting. It may not be as run, but we know that he's a talented thrower as well. So just stand to our keys and just try to contain him as well, honestly."

Birr on what went through his head as Wake Forest kicker shanked a kick…

“Yeah, I mean, honestly, this is going to sound – but I hate it. You know, because going through what I did last year, like, you know how that feels. Like, I feel like I did that at Georgia, you know, like maybe not the same time. But, you know, it's just something you don't want to see from anybody because, you know, we're all like kickers are all like a little fraternity. You know, like I spent the summer with that guy for like a couple of days. Like me and him were kicking in Orlando together. So, I mean, he's a great kicker, and I know he'll bounce back from that.”

Birr on why this Georgia Tech team is special….

“I think the biggest thing for us is just the complementary football. I mean, you know, maybe when the offense isn't doing well, the defense picks it up or the special teams picks it up, or vice versa.  I think that's what makes us special. I mean, like somebody said, or like CP said, I don't think we ever thought we were losing that game. We've been in that situation before, and we all had confidence that we were gonna pull it through.”

Powell Lee on the reversed turnover at the end of the first half…

We got some momentum heading in the I think that was halftime, I believe. It's just like, ref saw what he saw. He's going to keep on playing ball, honestly. It happened a couple of times in that game with a couple of plays, but it's like a next-play mentality. Just because the chips don't fall the way you want them to, it doesn't mean that we have to get all pouty or get in disconfidence. It's like we knew going to halftime, we're right where we want to be. We ask for games like this, we prepared for games like this, and it's just like no flinch, keep on playing.”

Powell Lee On the evaluation meeting on Sundays…

It’s great. Obviously, after a game, you want to chill on Sundays and things of that nature, but I mean, just the way Coach Key prepares us, like, okay, we won, great. Now let's get on this Sunday, when everybody's tired, everybody's exhausted mentally, physically, emotionally, and let's fix the things that we can correct. It's just like going into those days; it's a lot, but it helps us for the upcoming week, in my opinion. A lot of guys, I think, feel the same way. Those days and those Sundays really help us in preparing for the next week. We get a jump on the next opponent. We get a jump on what corrections we can make. With corrections, like, if you don't fix them, they're going to keep appearing in the following week and the following week. Just trying to eliminate those corrections and just keep on playing ball, honestly."