They fancy themselves as nasty brawlers. They inspire themselves with old game video. They cut block.
The Goon Squad cometh.
The mission statement, provided by Georgia Tech offensive tackle Phil Smith: “Just to be the toughest, the baddest, the meanest, the strongest. We really believe in that.”
What began as something of a joke has become an identity. The Tech offensive line has found unity and inspiration under the banner of the Goon Squad, the brainchild (to use the word loosely) of center Jay Finch and former walk-on Cory Pritchett.
“It’s just, everybody is a goon and we’re going to go out there and fight every play,” Finch said.
If they prove worthy of their word, it bodes well for Tech’s offense. A willingness to endure is requisite to play offensive line in coach Paul Johnson’s spread-option offense. The offense is run-heavy, and run blocking is more demanding on the body than pass blocking.
Second, line coaches Mike Sewak and Todd Spencer demand that linemen drive off their stance low and hard into opposing defensive lineman. They are called to cut block, barreling themselves at defensive players below the waist. Repeatedly throwing one’s 300-pound body at the legs of a similarly sized moving target is usually not a choice made eagerly.
“When you’re in the trenches, there’s a lot of pain,” Sewak said.
It was in the midst of that pain that the Goon Squad was born. Pritchett and Finch came up with the name in the spring and then began inducting teammates. At practice, the linemen break huddles with the chant of “Goon Squad!” Finch calls it “just something to keep us motivated and going.”
The linemen have found their muse in their predecessors from the 2009 team that won the ACC championship. They often gather to review Tech’s upset of then-No. 4 Virginia Tech, which opened the door to Tech’s title run. They admire the grit of players such as Sean Bedford, who came to Tech as a walk-on and left as a two-time All-ACC center, and Brad Sellers, a converted defensive lineman who started every game of the 2009 season as a 250-pound tackle.
They study “not just the techniques, [but] the intangible stuff you see on the field that can translate into winning football games,” Smith said.
They will need intangibles, as they are short on some tangibles. There are no seniors in the group. By measure of combined starts among returning linemen, Tech’s line is the least experienced in the ACC, according to espn.com. Tech’s linemen have a combined 37 starts, mostly accumulated by Smith and guards Will Jackson and Omoregie Uzzi. That’s two less than A-back Roddy Jones. Five ACC offensive lines have twice as many career starts as Tech, led by Florida State with 112.
The depth is thin. Freshman guard Trey Braun appears to have won the No. 3 guard job, and he is backed up by two more freshmen. Further, injuries in camp have stunted the effort to develop a “five as one” cohesion. They’ll get another chance at Saturday’s morning scrimmage at Bobby Dodd Stadium, which will close preseason training.
Said Sewak, “We still continue to try to find some backups, some guards and tackles.”
Sewak calls the group “a work in progress.” That said, it’s difficult to ignore Johnson’s track record. Last year’s line, which returned two starters, produced the nation’s No. 1 rushing offense. In 2008, with linemen recruited to play in a pro-style offense and still learning the spread-option scheme, Tech hammered out 273.2 rushing yards per game, fourth in the country.
If the first string — tackles Smith and Tyler Kidney, guards Jackson and Uzzi and Finch at center — can stay healthy, Tech should be fine. Smith already will miss the first two games of the year for breaking team rules. Injuries to any of the five may be a problem. It might require more Goon Squad pledges.
Like Sewak, for example.
He is not a card-carrying member, he said, “but I look forward to the initiation. If it’s coming off the ball and hitting somebody low to high, I’m all in.”
