Georgia Tech ‘malfunctions’ in game-like scrimmage

As omens go, there was room for dueling interpretations as Georgia Tech went through a “game-style” scrimmage Thursday afternoon in Bobby Dodd Stadium.

The Yellow Jackets’ season opener is next Thursday against Jacksonville State, and coach Paul Johnson wanted to work out kinks.

So Tech tried to approximate a game, signaling defensive calls from the sideline, sending offensive plays in with alternating A-backs and receivers.

The result: They had kinks. “Yeah, [we had] a lot of malfunctions,” Johnson said. “That’s why we did it. Hopefully, we’ll learn. We did have a buzzing, but we got that fixed pretty quick.”

Indeed, the scoreboard buzzed. Was that a good sign (Buzz, after all, is the Tech mascot)? Or a bad one (technical difficulties before getting technical)?

Not everything was fixed so quickly as the scoreboard. With a new head coach, new defensive coordinator and a slew of Jackets who’ll be starting or playing for the first time at the college level, advance trouble-shooting seemed a good idea.

So defensive coordinator Dave Wommack was up in the coaches’ booth, calling defenses to the sideline, where they were signaled in. Headsets were used. Officials, some of whom will begin the season working the USC-Virginia game, were flown in.

It wasn’t always pretty.

“We had guys running wide-open in the secondary, missed assignments, there’s a lot of stuff we need to work on,” Johnson said. “I wish we were further along.”

Really, though, how many coaches wish they were further along with one week to go before the season opener, especially new coaches? Answer: a lot.

Sophomore quarterback Josh Nesbitt, one of perhaps 13 or more Jackets who’ll make his first college start Thursday, had a slightly different vantage point.

“If felt more like a game [than previous scrimmages],” he said. “The stuff coach threw at us could happen in a game. We adjusted to it very well.”

But, Nesbitt said in agreeing with Johnson, “We’ve just got to get better.”

When the No. 1 offense was on the field, the defense was a scout-team version of Jacksonville State. Middle linebacker Brad Jefferson, who will also make his first college start, was the one taking signals.

Fellow sophomore Morgan Burnett, a starting safety, said Jefferson was flawless. “Gladiator takes it and calls out the defense,” Burnett said. “We just play what Gladiator says. He’s a very intelligent guy, so he always knows his stuff.”

Jefferson said, “I always know exactly what they’re calling. If I don’t know, that screws up the whole defense.”

The idea was to reduce mistakes while keeping in mind that eliminating them entirely is rarely possible with a human dynamic. The goal then is to react properly, to deal with adversity with clear heads.

“It was a good message to me and the coaches that we’ve got a lot of young guys who haven’t done it before,” Johnson said. “When you have a lot of new guys, sometimes they get under the lights and go a little nuts.”

When the lights come on next Thurday night, Jefferson said, “It’s not about the new offense and the new defense. If the players play, we’re going to be good.”