ATLANTA- Georgia Tech continued the short week preparations for Western Carolina on Thursday with a long practice in shorts and helmets as head coach Geoff Collins tries to manage workloads for his players on a quick turnaround of just five days. After practice, quarterback Jeff Sims, running back Dontae Smith, and safety Jaylon King spoke to the media about lingering thoughts from the Clemson game, how they viewed the first game under the mostly new assistant coaching staff and offensive brain trust, and shared some thoughts on Western Carolina as well.

Monday night was the first look at some of the defensive changes made defensively for the Jackets and safety Jaylon King credited their success throughout the first three quarters of the Clemson game to confidence and trust among the defensive players.

"I feel like it was a confidence thing and it was also trusting our coaches and our game plan and then trusting each other at all three levels to take care of each person's job and to not go outside the framework of your job," King said.

Facing a more pass-happy team this week with the Catamounts, King expects the secondary to be tested more than they were against Clemson.

"We didn't get as much action on the back end as we thought we were going to Monday night, but we will get a lot more action with these receivers and their quarterback," he said of Western Carolina. "I know it is going to be a challenge for the DBs, but we are up for that challenge. So that is how we plan on slowing down their offense, the DBs are taking it personally and we will be playing a great amount of man coverage on them."

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