Paul Johnson ACC Championship Game Press Conference

Above is the full press conference from Paul Johnson and Jimbo Fisher. You'll hear some questions from yours truly.

Instead of quoting everything, I'll let you hear it for yourselves and post some notes and thoughts from his interview.

It's obvious Paul Johnson has talked up Florida State to this team as much as he can. He repeatedly said he thinks it's ridiculous that FSU has moved down the polls despite winning all of their games. He's been telling his team and preparing for "The #1 team in the nation." I'm glad PJ emphasized this due to all of the negative talk on Florida State and everyone jumping on the Yellow Jackets' bandwagon. No average team wins 28 in a row, and Tech will have to play a near flawless game on Saturday night to pull off the upset.

Johnson made a good comment about Justin Thomas and his experience. He talked about with the way he's grown this year, it's hard to remember that he's just a first-year starter.

After a comment about the increased passing game this year, Johnson stated how that's a bit of a misnomer. The team passed the ball more often last season, but the team has been more efficient throwing it this year with an increased completion percentage. PJ praised Justin's accuracy and how quickly he can get the ball out of his hand.

Johnson said that Synjyn Days is 100% and will get the start on Saturday, but Zach Laskey will get plenty of playing time too. He said that they will use a 2:1 type of ratio to start the game and they'll then evaluate who has the hot hand and who to use more. PJ once again praised how well both of these guys have played and that they both deserve to be out there.

A reporter asked Johnson a question about the Big 12 not having a championship, and as you could guess, he didn't exactly entertain the question very much.

PJ said the preparation for this game was no different than a regular season game. He then went on to say he thinks the preparation time for his offense is overblown more than anything. "I think if you actually dig down and look at the stats the teams that have more than one week probably don't do a whole lot better than the teams who have one. The teams with the good players are the ones that usually give you a hard time."

Johnson hopes that Winston hasn't let all of his turnovers out of his system. "If you asked me if we'd take four, yeah we'd take four and take our chances. It doesn't make any difference that he threw four because he found a way to come back and win the game, and that's what they've been good at all year."

The overall take from the press conference is that Paul Johnson is very confident in the Yellow Jackets. He talked plenty about the chemistry and effort this team has. He referenced that they didn't have any first-team ACC players, but they work together as a unit. "I promise this team will show up tomorrow night." It's reassuring how much Johnson talked up FSU and how good of a team they are. If we're hearing all of this, you can be sure that his group has been hearing it plenty.

The conference is worth a full listen. Don't worry, there's quite a few dependable PJ jokes in there, especially the last one as he walked off pointing at the podium. "You might wanna get Jimbo a ladder for that thing."

You won't be able to hear it, but you'll hear the laughter.