The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jacket's secondary aims for improvement
Cornerbacks and safeties see benefits of meeting together.
What was expected to be a strength for Georgia Tech last season — the veteran-filled secondary — was not. Corner- back Tre Swilling expects that to change.
“We have a lot of expe- rience in playing from me, Zamari (Walton), Tariq (Car- penter), Juanyeh (Thomas), specifically,” Swilling said Tuesday. “We’ve all started and played the last two or three years or more. I expect us to look like that. I expect us to look like we’ve been out there starting and playing, and we understand.”
Despite the fact those four defensive backs — Swilling and Walton at cornerback, Carpenter and Thomas at the safety spots — were all returning starters last year, the Yellow Jackets did not always look like it in the secondary last season.
Opponents had a 22/6 touchdown pass/interception ratio, giving Tech the poorest rating in the ACC. The Jackets had one pass defended (a breakup or an interception) for every 9.1 passes by the opposition, the second highest rate in the ACC. (Louisville had the lowest rate, at 6.1.)
“To be straight honest, you just look on paper, we didn’t play well at all,” Carpenter said. “We know all those things that have been said – how bad we played. We’re kind of taking that personal. We come in to work every day.
“I just know in the fall we’re just not going to be the same secondary. We’re going to look completely different.”
Safeties coach Nathan Burton said while his group “did an OK job” fitting into the run defense, safeties were betrayed by misreading pass plays for run plays and watching too much instead of keep- ing their vision focused on their keys. In an effort to reduce confusion, the cornerbacks and safeties have worked together more — in meetings and on the practice field — during the spring than last season.
Last week, coach Geoff Collins spoke to the discon- nect, saying it was frustrating that “we were a collection of corners sometimes. We were a collection of safeties sometimes. And not always a defensive back unit, a secondary unit.”
By meeting together, “(the cornerbacks) get to hear the safety calls, as we are looking at it,” Burton said. “Because our safeties are going to make the calls in the defense. So there becomes a trust fac- tor that gets built when Tre hears Tariq make the correct call during the meeting, and it’s correct.”
While the groups don’t always meet together — Bur- ton said coaches might iden- tify plays the safeties and cornerbacks need to go over together, but meet separately for everything else — the more they’re together, the mutual understanding increases.
“We’re able to kind of be on a more even understand- ing of what everybody’s doing and how we’re doing it, and the calls they’re making and when and why,” cornerbacks coach Jeff Popovich said. “I just think that builds a much bigger trust factor when it’s not just me telling them, ‘Hey, Coach Burton’s telling them this. This is what you’re going to hear from Juanyeh.’ They hear it from Juanyeh. So I think that just makes them feel more comfortable because it’s also how Juanyeh’s going to say it when we get out there on the field and they come out in a formation.”
To the degree that the communication challenges affected play last season, Tech has the pieces for a stand- out secondary, if the issues can be addressed. Carpenter and Thomas are two of the more athletic players on the team, with a total of 53 starts between them. Safety Derrik Allen has a skill set, Burton said, that is “unbelievable.”
Swilling and Walton (49 combined starts) are being pushed by a number of athletic backups, such as Tobias Oliver, Myles Sims, Miles Brooks, Kenan Johnson and Kenyatta Watson. Wesley Walker is emerging as a nickel back, making the fourth most tackles on the team last season.
“We’ve still got a ways to go, but we’re excited about the kind of cohesiveness that they’re starting to build together and the direction we’re heading,” Popovich said.
Lin e backer i njured: Tyson Meiguez sustained a torn ACL, making it highly unlikely he’ll be able to play next season. Meiguez was expected to play a backup role at linebacker and contribute on special teams.
Meiguez made t he announcement Tuesday from his Instagram account.
A member of the 2020 signing class from Creekside High, Meiguez played in seven games last season, mostly in a special teams role.