Georgia Tech football spring preview

By Doug Roberson

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

There was the high of the ACC championship victory, followed by the low of the Orange Bowl loss.

Johnny Crawford, Johnny Crawford Paul Johnson and Josh Nesbitt will have no some new faces surrounding them in 2010. The Jackets will open spring practice April 24.

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Now, after several offseasons worth of change crammed into just a few weeks, Georgia Tech’s spring practice will kick off Monday and end with the T-Day game at 1 p.m. April 24 at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

Over the next four weeks, coach Paul Johnson said he hopes to set a two-deep depth-chart for the coming season, see his team learn the basics of the 3-4 defense, and get a good look at the freshmen who redshirted in the fall. Oh, and begin improving on last year’s 11-2 record and No. 13 ranking without Derrick Morgan, Jonathan Dwyer, Demaryius Thomas and Morgan Burnett, who left early for the NFL.

“There’s a lot of excitement,” Johnson said. “We’ve had some coaching changes and some scheme tweaks. Any time you do that it renews everybody’s enthusiasm. Everybody feels like they are on square one and everyone has a chance to play.”

Indeed, with perhaps a handful of exceptions, every job seems up for grabs. Some of that has to do with the hiring of defensive coordinator Al Groh, who will install a 3-4 scheme that will use three linemen and four linebackers. Because of various injuries, Tech used myriad schemes last season that saw them frequently get that important stop when they needed, but not consistently slow down an opponent’s running game (151.6 yards per game allowed) or passing game (208.6 yards per game allowed).

Because the techniques, lingo and philosophies are different, brainpower might be as important as 40 times for the first few weeks.

“Some guys can take it from the classroom to the field,” Johnson said. “There’s nothing you can do until you learn the basics. Some guys are quicker learners than others.”

Teaching those players are a new defensive line coach, Andy McCollum, and a new inside linebackers coach, Joe Speed. Charles Kelly has taken over the entire secondary. He was the cornerbacks coach exclusively last season because former defensive coordinator Dave Wommack instructed the safeties.

There was only one coaching change needed on offense; office assistant Lamar Owens was promoted to A-backs coach. He takes over for Jeff Monken, who resigned to become head coach at Georgia Southern.

Johnson said the transition from styles and personalities from one staff to the next has been fairly seamless.

“It’s kind of what I thought I would it be and the way I wanted it,” Johnson said.

Redshirt freshmen will be closely scrutinized on offense because of the loss of three starters on a line that paved the way for an ACC-best 295.4 rushing yards per game, as well as the competition to back up injured starter Josh Nesbitt at quarterback.

“This spring will be their first chance to get a lot of meaningful snaps and see what they can do,” Johnson said.

On special teams, Johnson signed a kicker in the most recent recruiting class, but he said incumbent Scott Blair is more than capable of handling the duties. Johnson joked that Blair simply needs to pretend every team they play is Clemson. In two games against the Tigers last season, including the 39-34 win in the ACC title game, he was a perfect 7-of-7 on field goals and threw a touchdown pass. He was 7-of-13 the rest of the season, including misses in the 24-14 loss to Iowa in the Orange Bowl and the 30-24 loss to Georgia.

All of the answers won’t be found on the new turf at Rose Bowl field. Johnson said it’s very seldom that he doesn’t leave the spring without something to worry about.

“I’d like to see guys get better,” Johnson said. “Challenge those guys to try to find something to get better at. They need to have their goals: What am I going to get better at?”