Geoff Collins lightens practice as Georgia Tech’s season extends

Coach Geoff Collins has eased up on Georgia Tech’s practice load with the season now in its 13th week since the season began, and even longer including preseason.

On Tuesday, the team practiced in “spider” pads (foam shoulder pads), a day that is considered the team’s heaviest work day. Normally, the Tuesday practice is conducted in full pads with hitting.

“But as you go throughout the season, there’s some attrition through injuries or whatever other circumstances might come about in this new age that we’re living in,” Collins said.

The Yellow Jackets practiced at Bobby Dodd Stadium as opposed to their practice field — a benefit of having the artificial surface — for the second Tuesday in a row.

“Since it worked last week, a little bit of a creature of habit,” Collins said.

Part of Tuesday’s practice included a dodgeball game.

2. Collins announced his players of the week other than those named by the ACC (offensive tackle Zach Quinney, quarterback Jeff Sims and defensive end Jordan Domineck). The developmental players of the week were offensive lineman Cade Kootsouradis, defensive end Josh Tukes and special-teamer Josh Carlson.

Collins said Tukes did “a really good job” simulating Duke defensive ends Chris Rumph and Victor Dimukeje.

Collins also noted four players who turned in exceptional scores recorded on the team’s wearable GPS system. Running back Dontae Smith’s effort score set a team record (previously held by Josh Blancato), linebacker David Curry broke safety Juanyeh Thomas’ team record for most yardage recorded in a game (9,791, which is 5.6 miles), safety Derrik Allen set season records for most high-speed sprints and sprint distance (both previously held by Josh Blancato) and defensive end Jordan Domineck broke the season record for player load (previously held by Curry).

For the sprint-distance record, Allen ran 815 yards at 14 miles per hour or faster.

“In the past, if you hit 300, you were doing really, really good,” Collins said. “Now, 600 is the normal standard, and Derrik Allen popped it with 815 yards.”

3. Tech has four freshmen contributing on the defensive line, defensive ends Jared Ivey and Kyle Kennard, defensive tackle Akelo Stone and Emmanuel Johnson, who is playing both positions.

Stone recorded his first career sack in the Duke game.

“Those are four true freshmen playing defensive line, which is not an easy thing to do in major college football, so just really proud of them,” Collins said.

4. Collins’ assessment of N.C. State, the Jackets’ opponent Saturday: “Very talented. They play really hard. They’ve got a lot of unique things, both offensively and defensively, schematically. I think they’re one of the top special-teams units in the league, as well. And so just the way they play, their demeanor, they’ve got really good players and then they have creative schemes, as well. And then they play hard. And you just really respect the way they’ve played this year and understand it’s going to be a challenge going up there in Raleigh.”

5. Collins took time to share what he called his “best moment of the night” from Saturday other than putting up 56 points on Duke. Collins said that his postgame routine includes going through the locker room to check on the equipment-room staff.

When he walked through the locker room Saturday night, he said, it was “spotless,” as players had thrown away all the tape and put away their equipment and gear in their lockers.

“It looked like nobody had even been there,” Collins said. “And that just speaks to the leadership that we have on this team, the leadership in this locker room, how they understand that the little things matter in every single thing that you do and just was really proud of that moment.”