Johnson says Tech has lots to work on

By Doug Roberson

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson said his team has a lot to work on and that there will be a few changes in the starting lineup for next Saturday's game at Kansas.

The defense, which limited S.C. State to 272 yards and 10 points Saturday, missed too many assignments.

The offense, which had 384 yards and 41 points, needs to play with a greater sense of urgency.

"There's a lot of things we can get better at," Johnson said.

Johnson declined to say what players will move in and out of the starting lineup, other than the changes are being made for a lack of effort.

Two things Johnson said he isn't worried about are the passing skills of his quarterback, Joshua Nesbitt, or that Anthony Allen had just six carries for 28 yards, mostly because S.C. State focused on taking out the B-back on every play.

"Last I looked it's a team game," Johnson said. "Bottom line is you are trying to win."

Nesbitt had the worst passing day of his career on Saturday, completing 1 of 6 passes for 8 yards, missing badly on some of his attempts. This came after Nesbitt's 2-for-9 effort in the Orange Bowl. Johnson said the Yellow Jackets won't do anything differently in practice to improve the passing game.

"He did a good job running the offense," Johnson said Saturday. "He got us into the right play for the most part. One hundred and thirty yards, a couple of touchdowns, we will take that. I said a long time ago it doesn't matter how you get it. We got 41 points; I don't know that it would have been any better if we had got them all passing. Then we would have been saying we couldn't run."

Nesbitt agreed with his coach on Saturday that he can improve his passing and that the offense lacked urgency.

“I felt like we were walking around too much,” he said. “We need to dictate the game."

The Yellow Jackets' offense will have work to do against Kansas. The Jayhawks, under first-year coach Turner Gill, were defeated by North Dakota State, 6-3, on Saturday. But Kansas' defense allowed just 168 yards, including 73 rushing yards.

Based on the Jayhawks' results Saturday, Tech's defense may be getting what it needs as it continues to implement coordinator Al Groh's 3-4 scheme.

Kansas' offense was undone by three turnovers, a missed field goal and a blocked punt. It also allowed four sacks. Tech didn't have any sacks against S.C. State.

“We never really got our chemistry on offense," Kansas quarterback Kale Pick said. "Everybody had their moments, and everybody had rough points in the game. As a unit, we just didn’t click. We have a young offense. This is the first game of the season. A lot of these guys haven’t even stepped on the field yet. We clicked and then we didn’t.”