Tech going deeper into offensive playbook

With a veteran offensive line, a quarterback with 10 starts under his belt and returning starters across the offense, Georgia Tech offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude went deeper into the playbook in the preseason.

Patenaude said Tuesday that he introduced “all of our things”: different formations, motions and other wrinkles that he hadn’t included in his first two seasons running the Yellow Jackets offense.

“And now we can run the same plays out of 10 different formations and motions and moving the back around,” he said. “Things that we couldn’t do as much (before) because the movement pieces sometimes got in the way.”

As Tech readies for its season opener Saturday against Northern Illinois, it is a promising development for an offense that was 10th in the ACC in total offense a year ago and 14th in scoring offense. Quarterback Jeff Sims said he feels more comfortable in his grasp of the offense, the product of studying the offense more.

“Because sometimes I could forget some things that I wouldn’t go over, so it’s really just staying in there, going over it, watching film and trying to learn every day,” he said.

Sims said that he notices things on the field that he wouldn’t have last year, awareness that helps him make adjustments before the snap. Patenaude said that Sims has made throws in practice the past two weeks that he would have not been able to make a year ago because of his tenuous understanding of the scheme at the time. Sims said also that he has prepared more for opposing defenses than he did last year — he said in July that he had been studying Tech’s first five opponents of the season — a plan he intends to continue through the season.

“It’s really just watching them over and over again, just to make sure that I’m good with any blitz or any stunt that they’ll bring or any defense that they’ll be in,” he said.