Georgia Tech’s porous run defense must find way to stop Hokies ground game
If there were a moment in time for Georgia Tech’s defense to make a significant step forward, Saturday would be that time.
The 13th-ranked Yellow Jackets face Virginia Tech at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium. And while their offense is not overly impressive on paper as a whole, the Hokies (2-4, 1-1 ACC) may come to Atlanta looking to rely heavily on an apparent matchup advantage.
Virginia Tech has the league’s seventh-best rushing attack and is averaging 4.54 yards per carry. That should be a concern for a Georgia Tech defense that ranks 105th nationally and last in the ACC in stopping the run (166.2 yards per game allowed), has allowed nine runs of at least 10 yards and three runs of at least 20 yards, is letting teams run for 4.2 yards per carry (86th nationally) and has surrendered seven rushing touchdowns.
Against four FBS teams, Tech has given up 187.5 rushing yards per game. On Sept. 27, Wake Forest ran for 210 yards and three scores against the Jackets.
“Just being more disciplined in our runs fits, when you’re in a gap, not jumping out of your gap. We’ve been working on that, we’re constantly working, so we’ll definitely get it down pat,” Tech linebacker Melvin Jordan IV, a transfer from Oregon State, said about fixing Georgia Tech’s run defense. “It’s gonna look how we want it to look when we put it all together and do what we’re supposed to do. Just gotta keep working at it; nothing’s perfect.”
The Hokies attack, which ranks fifth in the ACC in converting third downs (45.5%) and sixth in total first downs (121), features three primary runners: quarterback Kyron Drones and running backs Terion Stewart and Marcellous Hawkins. That trio has combined to total 777 yards on the ground, and Drones has accounted for four of the team’s six rushing scores.
Stewart, who injured his shoulder Saturday in a loss to Wake Forest and is questionable ahead of the game against the Jackets, is averaging 8.6 yards per carry. He ran for 174 yards on 15 carries in a win at North Carolina State on Sept. 27, and totaled 138 yards against Georgia Tech as a Bowling Green running back in 2023.
“They got some good athletes. Virginia Tech is a really good team,” Jordan added. “They can definitely come in here — we can’t come in and play around. They can come in and put up some points. They got a nice quarterback, some good running backs. We just gotta do our job like we do every game. Attack this week like we attack every week, and go out and play as hard as we can.”
Further reason the Hokies may look to run and run often? The team’s passing attack has been, in a word, bad.
Virginia Tech ranks 16th in the 17-team ACC in completion percentage (59.8%), passing offense (202.7 yards per game), yards per completion (10.2) and passing efficiency (122.03). The Hokies also have allowed 12 sacks.
Drones has thrown for 1,216 yards and nine touchdowns but also been picked off four times. Georgia Tech held Drones to 128 yards passing on 16 completions and 5 yards rushing in 2024, but the Texas native scored once on the ground and completed a TD pass in a 21-6 victory in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Stopping Drones and the rest of the Hokies’ rushing attack will be a major key for the Jackets if they want to make it through the first half of the season undefeated.
“One thing you’re never going to accuse me of is just continuing to do the same thing and getting hurt by the same thing. We’re going to make changes,” Tech defensive coordinator Blake Gideon said Sept. 30. “We’re going to make the necessary changes to put ourselves in better positions, be successful, and play the style of defense we want to play. At the same time, we do need to take a look at ourselves first during this bye week, and that’s what we’ve spent all day the past couple of days doing.
“We need to look at ourselves first, just technique, leveraging the ball, getting off blocks, tackling, finishing plays whenever we’re there to make them. We can say we need to make more plays or we need to do this or do that, but we can put them in better positions as coaches, and that starts with me.”
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