Georgia Tech athletic director Mike Bobinski likes the progress of the football team has made thus far, particularly compared to last season, his first as athletic director. He added that he considers the defensive struggles a matter of depth. The Yellow Jackets play Pittsburgh in an ACC Coastal Division matchup Saturday.
“I think it’s been good,” Bobinski said Thursday in an interview with the AJC. “Clearly, we’ve gotten better on the offensive side of the ball. Anybody that remembers us talking about this before, last year, to me, was an anomaly where we had games where we just weren’t very effective offensively. That’s never been a hallmark of a Paul Johnson team.”
Regarding the past two losses, he said that the loss to Duke was a “bad combination” of the Blue Devils playing at their best and the Jackets not playing with the necessary intensity. He saw the North Carolina loss, in which the Jackets surrendered 579 yards and seven touchdowns on 11 possessions, as having a motivating impact on the defense.
“That’s become an issue of pride at this point and there’s sort of a resolve that that’s not going to happen again,” Bobinski said. “I look to us to really compete this week. It’s not going to be easy. Pitt’s a physical, talented team, but I think we’re going to show up and show up well.”
He said he has seen a lack of defensive depth impacting players in games and over the course of the season.
“We just need to, over time, develop some roster depth to allow us to compete,” he said. “I don’t have any question about the skill or knowledge of our staff on that side. It’s all about being able to get enough bodies and enough talented bodies to be able to compete throughout the course of a game and a season.”
Tech's recruiting class for 2015 is ranked No. 19 in the country by Rivals. Among the more highly touted commitments is Greater Atlanta Christian linebacker Tyler Cooksey, who picked Tech over various Big Ten, SEC and ACC competitors.
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