Georgia Tech has another challenge ahead, but a great opportunity to get a win against Mercer on Saturday. Georgia Tech defensive lineman Tawfiq Thomas had his best game as a Yellow Jacket against Tennessee and talked to the media to preview the matchup. Here are the three most interesting things he said on Wednesday. 

On the mindset this week 

Mindset is critical, especially after adversity sets in and your team struggles to get a win. You can be defeated, or you can go out there and play at a high level. The Yellow Jackets are aiming for the latter and want to desperately pick up their first win. 

“Our mindset hasn’t changed too much. We still have a little more chip on our shoulder since we're 0-2 and it's not the way we wanted to start, but we got to get going some way, and this week got to be the week. And I feel like everybody's been focused on just focusing on this week and stop worrying about the week after week and just focusing on what we have to do to execute and get the win. Everything comes down to us winning, and we all want to win. We all put in the work.

So we all focusing on our jobs and ready to go out there and show that we can finally get our first win and keep it going. Feel like once we get our first win, everybody will feel better. I mean, keep everybody's heads up, but we'll just get to it; it's like momentum. So, momentum is going to start for the season and then going into Stanford week. That's our first ACC week. So, that's a big week for conference play, and we just got to stay focused for real,” said Thomas. 

On how to fix run defense issues 

One of the biggest issues has been Georgia Tech's run defense this season, where they currently rank as the No. 134 run defense in the country. Teams have seen the issues on tape and will keep trying to exploit them. Thomas harped on the importance of figuring it out and making a change, or the result will be the same. 

“We on it heavy. A lot of teams have been trying to gash us in the run defense, and it's going to keep on happening week to week. If we don't put on tape that we could stop the run. So this week you've been heavy on running. Everybody is executing their job. They're one of 11, and stop trying to do other people's jobs. Everybody, just do your one job and trust each other. I feel like we will have a gap-sound defense, and it'll look very good this week.

On how the defensive line can take a step forward. 

One of the most surprising things Thomas had to say revolved around the defensive line and playing without thinking as much. Essentially, just let it loose and play at a high level. 

“I feel like we're thinking too much. You've got to let it loose. I mean, when we go out there, you can't think too much because that's when you get in your own head, and you start worrying about things that you shouldn't. You should be worried about your job, your technique, and going out there and being the fastest, most physical, and most violent group we could be. I feel like week by week, we're getting looser, and everybody's getting the same mindset of just go, go, go and stop thinking, to be honest,” said Thoma