Georgia Tech defensive lineman Tawfiq Thomas has been one of the best pickups this offseason in the transfer portal and has become one of the best players on the team. He’s constantly making plays in the backfield and making his presence felt. On Wednesday, he met with the media to discuss his dominance, Kyle Efford, Virginia Tech, and how the team has improved its run defense. Let’s take a closer look.
On Kyle Efford
Yesterday, Georgia Tech LB and team captain Kyle Efford announced that he was going to medically retire. Efford has been at the heart of the Yellow Jackets defense over the past few seasons and Thomas talked about his impact today:
“Kyle that's a dog right there. He come put his head down no matter what was happening, hurt, not winning, losing, he got the same mindset. He's just trying to get better every day. He's the heart of the defense. He gets everybody going. He communicates. He's getting everybody on the same page. And I respect him a lot. I came in and he was on me since I got here. Like they put my locker right next to us. So me and him talk a lot. And we close. We are getting closer. And for that to happen, it just hurts everybody cuz like we don't want to see a brother go down like that. Especially like how it went down because he got a lot of life.
I know he's doing it for his health, but it's definitely unfortunate for us and him. But we just saw it, he's still happy. He's still here. He's pushing. He's still on us. So like he hasn't left. He's still here. He's at every meeting after he's in the treatment room still checking up on us. So it's just a real captain that you want in your team,” said Thomas.
On what is allowing him to dominate
“I feel I'm believing in this scheme. I'm really trusting myself in my technique and just really all the hard work through the offseason and actually being able to get the opportunity to put it out. Just show the world what I'm able to do for real. I feel like I've been able to do it. I just ain't had too many chances and now that I had the opportunity I feel like I'm taking advantage of it and that's all I really say for real. I'm just blessed,” said Thomas
On the improvement in run defense
Georgia Tech's defense has not improved as much as one had hoped, but Thomas has had a standout season, grading out well in run defense on Pro Football Focus. He talked about that today ahead of the matchup vs the Hokies:
“So we all just been playing together, playing our one of 11. Everybody just do their job and believes in each other. Because when guys do their job and everybody believes in each other, there's not much that people could do with us. So it's like when we get greedy and have the mindset, well, I'm going to make this play when things start gashing us and you can see it. So I'm just glad everybody is playing together, trusting the scheme and the coaches and letting us play fast. So I feel like just making us go out there and play better,” said Thomas
On Virginia Tech
While they have lost their last two games, Virginia Tech is a talented team and playing better under former Penn State head coach James Franklin:
“A good team. Um, they are coming off a loss, so I know they're hungry. So, we definitely got to be on our stuff. We're going into their home. I played it before. It's a crazy environment. So, I know our guys, we all got to be focused, laser-focused, paying attention to our details, our technique, and just worrying about ourselves, not the crowd or what's going on. There's going to be adversity, so we got to just be ready to fight it and just be able to overcome whatever comes and just believe in each other and just support each other, cheer each other on. We should be good,” said Thomas.
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