Despite allowing only one touchdown in Georgia Tech’s season opener against Alcorn State, defensive coordinator Ted Roof said the defense needs to improve its four-man pass rush.
“We’ll do whatever we have to do to try and get the quarterback up,” Roof said. “You’d like to be able to do it with four because then that lets you get some coverage up where you don’t have to pick guys out of coverage.”
Defensive line coach Mike Pelton said following the season opener, he also sees specific need for technical and pass-rush improvement on the line.
“There’s just so much you can work on after your first game,” Pelton said. “They’re planning a lot better as a team. So, we’ll get a chance to evaluate again (Saturday).”
Defensive back Jamal Golden said the Yellow Jackets are focused on improving the mistakes from their 69-6 victory over Alcorn State.
“There’s always something you can do better at,” Golden said. “As a team, we just try to keep pushing forward and build off the things you did well last game. Whatever we did wrong last week, we try to fix that and pick up from where we left off.”
Coach Paul Johnson said he sees “a lot of room for improvement” before the Jackets face Tulane on Saturday.
“We got a lot of missed assignments, missed alignments and missed tackles,” Johnson said. “I thought the first group played really well early. Hopefully, we can build on that.”
With Tulane’s physical running backs and wide receivers, Pelton said the Jackets respect the Green Wave after last season’s competitive game.
Tech traveled to New Orleans and feel behind early to the Green Wave because of turnovers. The Jackets gained their first lead to end the second half and came away with a 38-21 win.
“Tulane was a team last year that followed us tooth and nail to the wire,” Pelton said. “We have a lot of respect for them, so we have to go out and do our best.”
Brant Mitchell, a freshman playing on special teams and at linebacker, said the team studied their film this week in preparation for the rematch against the Green Wave.
“They definitely have a lot of good athletes, so we’re working on pass coverage and watching out for screens,” Mitchell said. “They like to run a lot. I know they did that last year to us. We’ve really studied our film and tried to come up with the best scheme to take it to them.”
Golden, a senior, said after last season’s game, Tulane will come to Bobby Dodd Stadium ready to win.
“They played us pretty tight last year, and I’m pretty sure they felt like they had us,” Golden said. “They’re going to come in juiced up, and we’re going to get their (best effort). So we need to bring our (best efforts) and throw it back at them.”
Preparing to match Tulane’s physical offense, Roof said he’s concerned the defense didn’t have enough game time against Alcorn State to play themselves into “game shape.”
“It’s almost like they haven’t played a game yet,” Roof said. “Some guys got nine plays, some guys got 12 plays, so we have guys that didn’t even get in the double-digit plays in the first game.”
After fine-tuning in practice this week, Roof said he’s not worried about his starters Saturday.
“There were some good things and not so good things that we worked hard to correct, and hopefully they’ll pay dividends for us when we play Tulane,” Roof said. “You want your starters to get in the groove, and that will not be an issue this week. It’ll be a good football game.”
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