At the start of spring practice, Georgia Tech defensive coordinator Al Groh had an announcement to make to his players.
The defense would be adjusted to play to the players’ strengths. Given that players such as defensive ends Izaan Cross and Emmanuel Dieke are more SUV than monster truck, the tweaks would utilize their quickness.
Groh downplays the adjustments, and the differences are not glaringly obvious. However, all involved obviously hope the results will be. The Yellow Jackets gave up 26.1 points per game to finish 60th in scoring defense in 2011 out of 120 teams. In 2010, Groh’s first season, Tech allowed 25.2 points per game, 57th in the country. The Jackets’ 42.4 percent efficiency on third down was 83rd in the country.
“I think it’s a work in progress,” coach Paul Johnson said. “We’re not going totally away from what we’ve done, some different wrinkles. ... I think it’ll help our guys some.”
In spring practice, the linemen have worked on a “one-gap” technique, different from the “two-gap” scheme they have previously used. In the two-gap, a defensive lineman’s responsibility is to stalemate or drive back offensive linemen to give linebackers space to make plays. A one-gapping lineman will try to penetrate gaps between offensive linemen to make plays himself.
“You feel like you get to utilize your talents a little bit more and try to make some more plays as opposed to setting it up for people behind you,” Cross said.
The defense has practiced some four-man fronts, a different look from Tech’s standard of three linemen, sometimes bringing an outside linebacker from a two-point stance to a three-point stance.
“Personnel-wise, it isn’t changing,” inside linebacker Daniel Drummond said. “Someone might be in a different spot, but the personnel hasn’t changed.”
One goal of the changes will be to increase pass-rush pressure without relying on blitzes. A stouter run defense, too, would serve to improve Tech’s third-down defense. In league games, Tech permitted 4.9 yards per rush, 10th in the ACC.
Defensive line coach Andy McCollum gave a positive report on his players Wednesday, after the final practice of the spring before Friday’s spring game. Defensive ends Euclid Cummings and Anthony Williams and nose tackle Shawn Green are among the most improved from the spring.
“It took a little bit of time, but Euclid’s got a chance to be a really good football player,” McCollum said. “I’m excited about things he can do.”
Whatever it takes to keep the score down. Tech has proved almost incapable of winning when it doesn’t score much. Since Johnson became coach in 2008, the Jackets are 2-11 when they score 20 or fewer and haven’t won any such games since his first season. In the same span, rival Virginia Tech is 11-7 when scoring under 21. (The Jackets have averaged 12.2 points in those games compared with 15.8 for the Hokies.)
Groh hasn’t exactly fed the old playbook into a shredder. The Jackets will continue to use a two-gap system. Cross said the changes aren’t “completely new or mind-boggling or any of that.”
“We really don’t have much different in the way of scheme,” Groh said. “What it depends upon is a combination of what we’re going against and who we’re playing against and who we’re playing with. [Based upon] how we mix and blend that, we decide how much of each to play.”
No matter the changes, the line has its challenge laid out. The Jackets will have to replace nose tackle Logan Walls, a three-year starter, and end Jason Peters, a two-year starter. Cross, the lone returning starter, will get help from ends Dieke, Cummings, Williams and Christopher Crenshaw. Nose tackles T.J. Barnes and Green have made strides in the spring, Groh said.
“We know that we have the talent and ability and size to get what we want to do done,” Cross said.
