Yellow Jackets look forward with prospects, veterans
ATLANTA — As the Georgia Tech football team gathered Friday for its practice of the season, the Yellow Jackets felt good about their future even with a tough schedule ahead.
Sure, there will be away games against Clemson, Miami and Notre Dame plus a neutral-site matchup against North Carolina and a home contest against Georgia, but there’s so much room for improvement after going 3-7 last year in Geoff Collins’ second season as head coach.
The Jackets like that their top two players of 2020, quarterback Jeff Sims and running back Jahmyr Gibbs — a former Dalton High School standout — are back and still considered considered freshmen.
In addition to 25 prospects just out of high school, there are 12 new players who transferred to continue their college football careers in Atlanta. Add back seven senior and graduate players who have returned by taking advantage of a free year of eligibility offered by the NCAA due to the coronavirus pandemic, and there is optimism as the Jackets seek their first winning season since going 7-6 and finishing second in the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Coastal Division in 2018.
“A lot of people look at the schedule from the outside in and they kind of think, ‘Ooh! They’re going to have a tough time doing X, Y and Z,’” said defensive back Tre Swilling, who is entering his fifth season but is considered a redshirt junior.
“We know we’re overlooked. We know we were put behind due to what we did the past two years. We want to get out from underneath that shadow.”
The Jackets were whistled for 8.9 penalties per game last season to rank 121st among Division I teams, and their average was 11.8 on the road. Of Tech’s 89 penalties, 41 were committed before the snap.
When all of the Jackets gathered in their team meeting room Thursday for the first time in 17 months — coronavirus protocols had previously forced them to adapt other strategies — their head coach preached a bit and then stepped back, part of his plan to turn the team over to players in many regards.
“The ability to focus in our meetings, the way they’re carrying themselves, confident, not a lot of rah-rah, not a lot of silliness, it’s about coming in focused, we understand the process, we understand the expectations, now let’s get to work and hold each other accountable,” he said.
“It’s an exciting time. In the past, the energy had to come from the coaches, but right now I’m able to just talk ball, X’s and O’s, scheme, technique, and the guys at this point are handling everything else.”
Tech will be bigger along the offensive line and more athletic along the defensive line the NCAA transfer portal brought them two edge rushers: Keion White from Old Dominion and Kevin Harris from Alabama.
Of seven Jackets using bonus eligibility, four are sixth-year linemen, with two on defense (Djimon Brooks and Antonneous Clayton) and two on offense (Kenny Cooper and Ryan Johnson).
“I put in a lot of work with these guys,” Brooks said, “and I really want to see that work come to fruition.”