The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
» RB Smith taking advantage of limited chances,
In Georgia Tech’s season opener, running back Dontae Smith had one touch, a pitch on a fourth-and-1 that he ran in for a 15-yard touchdown run. A week later against Kennesaw State, after the Owls had scored consecutive fourth-quarter touchdowns to reduce Tech’s lead to 38-17, the Yellow Jackets turned to Smith, who supplied all the production on a four-play, 42-yard touchdown drive. He had four carries for all 42 yards to help settle the game.
Playing behind running backs Jahmyr Gibbs and Jordan Mason, Smith has made a habit of making good on his handful of chances.
“One thing that (running backs coach Tashard Choice) preaches a lot is that everything that you want one day is going to be in front of you, so you’ve just got to be prepared,” Smith said. “That’s something that always stuck with me. So I just feel like when that happens, I just do what I’m taught, and it’s just football.”
Against Kennesaw State on Saturday, Smith led the team with a career-high 82 rushing yards on eight carries. For his work on special teams — he is a gunner on punt team, among other roles — he also was named the team’s special-teams player of the week.
“Really proud of Dontae,” coach Geoff Collins said.
Special teams also is a means for Smith to stay ready for his occasional snaps on offense. By playing on the kickoff, punt and kickoff-return teams, he is able to stay warmed up.
“I actually enjoy running down there (on special teams),” Smith said. “Like punt (team), I love doing.”
He also gets a feel for the game by talking with Gibbs and Mason and pays attention from the sideline.
“I take it all in, and it helps me,” Smith said.
Defense has to win “50/50 balls:” There is no doubt that Georgia Tech faces a tough task on the road against the sixth-ranked Clemson Tigers.
Tech defensive coordinator Andrew Thacker is embracing the challenge while understand the circumstance ahead of Saturday’s matchup.
“They’re big at receiver,” Thacker said of Clemson wideouts, including Justyn Ross and Joseph Ngata. “They got size and length. Just as far as catch radius, they’re excellent route runners. Justyn Ross is their best route runner and is elusive in space.”
Ross is the Tigers’ second leading receiver, with seven catches for 77 yards and one touchdown. Ngata currently leads the Tigers’ receiver corps, with nine catches for 161 yards.
With great receivers, it is important to win the oneon-one battles, and Thacker knows this will be one of the major deciding factors in the outcome of Saturday’s game.
“What that requires is being in phase,” Thacker said. “Being close to someone in coverage. The competitive-catch piece of it (and) finishing while the ball is in the air, we call that 50-50 balls. Those competitive situations where we got to win. It’s football disruption, attacking through the arms, attacking through the hands, going up and being the first one up in those situations.”
Cochran, Cooper “yin and yang” on line: Standing 6-foot-7 with a solid base and long reach, Georgia Tech left tackle Devin Cochran fits the template of offensive-line coach Brent Key perhaps as much as any player in the position group. He plays next to left guard Kenny Cooper, one of the remaining holdovers from coach Paul Johnson’s option offense. Cooper is more compact, with a body ideal for getting leverage on defensive linemen with an attitude to match. Cochran likes the pairing. “It’s kind of yin and yang,” Cochran said. “Because I play a little bit more maybe too cautiously at times. I try to figure out blitzes, and I try to think a little too much. Kenny gets down, he puts his hand in the dirt and he goes.”
Playing together for the first time (Cochran is a grad transfer in his first season at Tech), they have been largely effective together as part of Tech’s five-man front, which will be challenged Saturday by the ultra-talented defensive line of No. 6 Clemson.
With Cooper’s straightahead style, “we’re able to really kind of help each other out in that aspect when it comes to finding ‘backers, getting great movement,” Cochran said.
Remembering 73-7: As might be expected, Georgia Tech’s 73-7 loss to Clemson last year has stuck with the Yellow Jackets.
“Truthfully, it’s something that we’ve spoken about,” cornerback Tre Swilling said Wednesday. “Truthfully, it’s something that I still think about, and it happened on our home turf, on our home field. Does it add any motivation going into the game? I’d be a fool to say that it doesn’t.”
The 73 points amassed by the Tigers were the second most points scored on the Jackets in program history, exceeded only by a 94-point game by Auburn in 1894 and a 73-0 win by the same Tigers in 1903, a defeat that prompted Tech to hire John Heisman away from Clemson. Defensive coordinator Andrew Thacker said Tuesday that he still carries “scar tissue” from the defeat.