Georgia Tech: A step back?

Virginia at Georgia Tech: Oct. 9
Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech: Nov. 4

It’s hard to be too down on Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets are getting some Top 25 love, after all. But the talk in the preseason as far as the ACC is concerned is about the tough Coastal Division with Virginia Tech a trendy darkhorse national-title favorite, plus Miami and North Carolina being a part of the mix, with Georgia Tech almost an afterthought.

The Jackets are still the defending conference champions, so don’t overlook Paul Johnson’s crew.

“I think we can be as good or better than a year ago. We’ll see,” Johnson said.

For that to be the case, Georgia Tech will have to improve most noticeably on defense. The Jackets gave up 24.8 points per game and 360.3 yards of total offense per game in 2009. Enter Al Groh, deposed from the head job at Virginia and now ensconced in Atlanta as Johnson’s new defensive coordinator.

Groh will bring his trademark 3-4 to Georgia Tech. The scheme is different from the traditional 4-3 in more ways than the numbers, so it could take a few weeks before we can get a sense of whether or not the D will see the improvements that Tech fans are hoping for.

On offense, Josh Nesbitt will be the key at quarterback in Johnson’s triple-threat option attack. Nesbitt threw for 1,701 yards and 10 touchdowns and ran for 1,037 yards and 18 touchdowns as the point man in the offense.

The one question mark with Nesbitt has to do with his passing accuracy. Nesbitt completed just 46.3 percent of his passes in 2009.

“He just needs to be more consistent,” Johnson said. “He’s got a strong arm. He needs to be more consistent. The guys around him need to help him. We need to block a little better, run better routes, catch the ball. He’s very capable.”
 
 

Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at [email protected].