With eight returning starters on the defense, Georgia Tech defensive coordinator Ted Roof has been aggressive in installing his scheme during the Yellow Jackets preseason. The greater base of knowledge – sophomore defensive end KeShun Freeman and junior linebacker P.J. Davis are the only two expected starters who weren’t with the team when Roof was hired in Jan. 2013 – has enabled Roof to teach more quickly.
“We’re further ahead (than last year),” Roof said Tuesday following practice. “How much further ahead, I don’t know. You really don’t know until you play a game, but we’re further ahead.”
Roof said that his unit is honing on the “really, really fine details” of the various schemes and having the weaknesses of each coverage probed.
“Because every coverage has strengths and weaknesses,” he said. “So you’re not repping the layups, you’re repping the things that beat it.”
The Jackets defense has pressure to improve from last season, when it was in the top 20 in the country in takeaways but also in the bottom 20 in yards per play and third-down conversion rate. As Roof acknowledged, the Jackets were opportunistic with clutch takeaways, “but you can’t count on that every year.”
“We’ve got to be a lot better, and our guys are working at it, and they’re working hard at it, but thank goodness we don’t play real soon,” Roof said.
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