Georgia braces to defend Tech’s best option

Georgia coach Mark Richt opened his news conference Tuesday by rattling off all the offensive stats in which Georgia Tech leads the ACC.

He went on for quite a while.

“Total offense, scoring offense, rushing offense, yards per completion, passing efficiency, fewest sacks, fewest interceptions thrown, third-down conversions, fourth-down conversions and No. 1 in turnover margin,” Richt said. “Nationally they’re No. 1 in yards per completion and third-down conversions. And from what I heard, they might even be breaking an NCAA record for their third-down conversion rate, and actually they’re No. 2 in the nation in rushing. So obviously they’re getting it done on offense.”

Of course, that’s nothing new for the Yellow Jackets. Since Paul Johnson arrived on the scene in 2008, Tech has used his unique version of the spread-option to shred defenses with regularity.

Georgia got an indoctrination by fire in that regard in Johnson’s first season on the Flats. The Jackets came to Sanford Stadium and lit up the Bulldogs to the tune of 409 yards rushing on the way to a 45-42 upset victory.

Now on its third defensive coordinator since then, Georgia has gotten progressively better at defending Johnson’s maddening creation. But while the Bulldogs have won each of the games since, it hasn’t been because they discovered the secret formula for stopping what the Jackets do.

“You just can’t simulate it,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. “You can’t simulate how well they play offensive football and the way they block. … I’ve got a feeling we’re going to have to play a series or two to really get a feel of how fast it happens. It’s not how fast they are between plays, but when the ball is snapped.”

That first year Johnson and his option showed up, A-back Roddy Jones killed the Bulldogs on the perimeter and ran for 214 of the Jackets’ 428 total yards. Willie Martinez was the defensive coordinator then.

Georgia showed steady improvement under former defensive coordinator Todd Grantham, who arrived in 2010. The Bulldogs gave up 411 rushing yards his first season, but simply outscored Tech 42-34. The next season, they limited the Jackets to 243 yards on the ground and haven’t given up more than 306 since then, which is a relative success.

But Georgia’s defense is now under the leadership of Jeremy Pruitt, and this will be his first crack at defending the indefensible. FSU did not face Tech last season, when Pruitt served as defensive coordinator for the Seminoles.

“Jeremy has had experience, and I think all of our coaches have had some experience defending this type of offense,” Richt said. “So you know, it’ll be the first shot out of the cannon, so to speak, for this staff to go against that offense here at Georgia Tech.

“I have done my best to explain, you know, kind of how this game goes, and the emotion of the game and how relentless Georgia Tech is in how they go about their business.”

Pruitt was secondary coach at Alabama when Georgia Southern brought a similar attack to Tuscaloosa in 2011. The No. 3-ranked Crimson Tide won 45-21, but gave up 302 yards rushing in doing so.

Kevin Sherrer, who coaches outside linebackers for the Bulldogs, also was on that staff.

“Obviously when we coached high school we saw that some,” said Sherrer, who was defensive coordinator at South Alabama last year. “Last year, I coached against Navy. (Linebackers coach Mike) Ekeler coached against Navy. … So we’ve all seen it. How much experience that is, how much that prepares you for it, I don’t know. There’s always those wrinkles and ways they get numbers and all that. You’ve just got to be disciplined in your technique.”

The best news for the Bulldogs is they have five senior starters who will face Tech’s option a fourth consecutive year and two junior starters who have experience against it.

“It means a lot,” senior linebacker Amarlo Herrera said. “We know how to play it, we know what to expect. We’ve just got to keep watching film. The more film you watch the more you know about this team.”