Tech secondary has talent, lacks experience
The seventh in a series of position group breakdowns of the 2011 Georgia Tech football team:
Cornerback Rod Sweeting and safety Rashaad Reid are leading candidates to start. JOHNNY CRAWFORD/jcrawford@ajc.com
Projected starters: CBs Rod Sweeting (Jr., 6-0, 181), Louis Young (So., 6-1, 190), S Isaiah Johnson (So., 6-2, 195), Rashaad Reid (Sr., 5-10, 191)
Others to watch: S Fred Holton was effective on special teams as a true freshman last year and will make a run at a starting job. S/CB Jemea Thomas will be in the mix at both positions after a productive spring and may end up as the nickel. CB Michael Peterson mostly played special teams last season but has experience to his credit. CB Ryan Ayers will also get a look for a spot in the lineup. S Lance Richardson is another possibility. The incoming defensive backs are Jamal Golden and Domonique Noble.
Key losses: Georgia Tech lost all four starters in the secondary, CBs Mario Butler and Dominique Reese and S Mario Edwards and Jerrard Tarrant. The four started a combined 107 games for the Yellow Jackets. Tarrant left Tech early to enter the NFL draft but went undrafted. Edwards and Reese were third and fourth on the team in tackles last season, respectively.
Key fact: The defensive backs have a combined 20 career starts, 15 belonging to Reid. However, it’s a group not entirely bereft of experience. Johnson started three games as a true freshman last year. Young played some corner as a true freshman. Sweeting improved considerably over the course of last season. Thomas played as a true freshman in 2009 and then redshirted last season.
Key fact II: Coach Paul Johnson said he thinks it’s the most talented secondary he’s had at Tech. Seven of the eight players in the defensive backfield two-deep are Johnson recruits. Peterson is the lone exception.
Key question: How much can talent make up for the experience shortage? Pressure will be on secondary coach Charles Kelly to hasten the secondary’s development. Defensive coordinator Al Groh can protect the backfield by using more conservative coverages, but to do so he would have to lessen pressure at the line of scrimmage. The sooner players like Young and Johnson can be entrusted, the more diverse Tech’s defense will be allowed to be.
Key development: The speedy Young has caused a stir with his progress in the spring and over the summer. Holton has been one of the hardest workers in the summer strength and conditioning program. Kelly has said the competition for jobs will be open. Thomas will likely make a strong bid somewhere in the secondary.
Outlook: Worth watching. This is a group that, particularly at the beginning of the season, will be liable to blow a coverage one series and produce a big play the next. Young and Johnson could be stars on the rise.
Your turn: What do you think?
PAST POSITION BREAKDOWNS
Ken Sugiura, AJC
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122 comments Add your comment
Supersize that order, mutt
July 21st, 2011
2:15 pm
I honestly did not remember that incident, but I am ashamed of both it and our response to it.
Supersize that order, mutt
July 21st, 2011
2:16 pm
OK, that’s part of what I have been trying to post. Let me see if I can get any more of it to go through….
Of course, all schools have their share of miscreants in their history, but that doesn’t excuse telling lies and distortions about things that never happened, which is what I really think those mutts were doing earlier. I doubt they knew a thing about the 1989 incident.
Supersize that order, mutt
July 21st, 2011
2:18 pm
As far as I know, all charges in any supposed incidents in the past several years, have been dropped for lack of evidence. And it is stupid to make accusations relative to them.
Well, that pretty much says everything I tried to say originally. I have no idea why the complete original post wasn’t allowed.
Supersize that order, mutt
July 21st, 2011
2:28 pm
hahaha, too bad you can’t be equally magnanimous and face the FACTS about the sleaze-factory in Athens. Are you man enough to admit that everything I said earlier was TRUE??? And, by the way, I DO agree with your last statement, although I wouldn’t call Ross a scumbag. What amazes me even more is that, if I remember right, Homer Rice was AD, and the fact that HE would let them get away with that is stunning.
Supersize that order, mutt
July 21st, 2011
2:39 pm
haha, why don’t you talk to us about Montez Robinson???
http://blogs.ajc.com/uga-sports-blog/2010/04/04/uga-football-player-montez-robinson-jailed/
Douglas Dawg
July 21st, 2011
3:24 pm
Everytime I come on here I see Super Tool is getting shamed by somebody. You are absolutely hopeless
Supersize that order, mutt
July 21st, 2011
3:38 pm
Douglas, tell me how I was shamed? I stated facts and you ignorant puppies can’t stand facts, so you fire back with lies, distortions, exaggerations, innuendos and name-calling. I am still waiting for ANY of you to deny any of the facts I listed, and also for you to tell me about Montez Robinson. You go the b**ls to do that?
fez
July 21st, 2011
3:58 pm
You are dumber than words can describe
Supersize that order, mutt
July 21st, 2011
4:00 pm
so tell me about Montez, fez. You got any b**ls on you?
fez
July 21st, 2011
4:03 pm
Apparently you think “balls” are putting girls in hospitals like tech’s trashy athletes
Supersize that order, mutt
July 21st, 2011
4:04 pm
Why are all you name-callers such cowards? I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT MONTEZ ROBINSON, and not a one of you can tell me. You can trash others all you want, but you can’t take it when somebody tells the truth about one of the constant stream of criminals and thugs in Athens. Chicken-s**t COWARDS !!!!!
Supersize that order, mutt
July 21st, 2011
4:08 pm
and yet you apparently think this kind of behavior is ok, since it involves a mutt —–
“According to the arrest warrant, the victim in the latest incident was the same woman as in two earlier cases that resulted in Robinson’s probation. Robinson was charged late last year with misdemeanor simple battery and second-degree criminal damage. The criminal-damage charge was for allegedly breaking the taillights on the woman’s car. The latest arrest warrant alleges that Robinson “grabbed and pushed [the woman] off of his bed and then picked her up and slammed her on the ground” Friday.”
Since you don’t have the b**ls to tell everybody else about it, then I will. That’s the kind of embarrassment that the University (sic) of Georgia offers over and over and over again.
fez
July 21st, 2011
4:26 pm
Breakinga tail light compared to a girl’s nose? Are you that insane?
Supersize that order, mutt
July 21st, 2011
4:36 pm
So typical….only read the part you like.. What about this, fool…..
The latest arrest warrant alleges that Robinson “grabbed and pushed [the woman] off of his bed and then picked her up and slammed her on the ground” Friday.”
Supersize that order, mutt
July 21st, 2011
4:38 pm
well, what do you have to say to that. That just happened last January, and as far as I know, he’s still in jail. The Tech players were supposedly eventually vindicated, since the girl’s bf started the fight. That doesn’t excuse anything in my book, but it is certainly no worse than SLAMMING HER ON THE GROUND !!!!
Supersize that order, mutt
July 21st, 2011
5:28 pm
Can’t face facts, huh, fez? Why doesn’t that surprise me?
fez
July 22nd, 2011
11:58 am
You are an idiot. For starters, charges were dropped and she was never hospitalized, unlike the poor girl from the 80’s or the young lady Tarrant raped. And how is the poor lady doing that Houston held at gun point last year in Marietta?
You are as trashy as the tech barbarians that beat and rape women.
threetrone
July 22nd, 2011
4:52 pm
Supersize, I just read your comment. My orig comment was not racist in any way. In it I said that I simply did not go to school with alot of blacks since I’m from the segregation years in Atl in 50’s and 60’s, and that all the current black starters for Tech, I, as a Tech alum, do not identify with or relate to with any significant degree of social integration. There were hardly any blacks going to Tech when I went there,still pretty much segregated. Since I don’t relate to them in a socially integrated way, I believe that Tech should cut out the wearing of black alot and get back to the orig white and old gold stripes worn during CPJ’s first year in order to watch a game. When I was at Tech they wore that and we had a black QB, and nobody had any racist remarks toward him ever. He was even in a class of mine, and did I drop the course b/c he was in it? Hell no. I just want Tech to wear colors of Tech and NOT wear black other than benign pin stripes. They look like Wake out there in black and gold, even on a white background, such background fooling no one with any Tech identity. It was the head of the Tech Alum Assn who said in the Tech Topics Alum Mag that “black is out” as a color for Tech apparel, including unis. This rule CPJ apparently became oblivious to after his first year of white and old gold unis. Hopefully he’ll go back to them this year so I can watch Vad Lee pass, an offense CPJ also seems oblivious to.
threetrone
July 22nd, 2011
5:05 pm
the only experience they mostly need is to not let the receiver get behind them; it happens every time, when you see a receiver on tv between the db and the goal line, he catches it and scores; also the dbs should watch the qb’s eyes
RamblinRecluseRoad
July 23rd, 2011
8:14 am
Jeff Ford sure could have developed a talented secondary. He led nation in interceptions for Tech around ‘71-2 season. For that matter, Rock Perdoni sure could develop the dl as a dl coach. I notice he was never asked to be a special teams coach or head coach. When I was at Tech I heard he benched 410 lbs. That’s almost 100 lbs more than the nose guard for Tech benches now, T.J. Barnes, who only benches 320. I see why Tech is worrying about the dl’s toughness and the need to develop it. Just like Maxie Baughn coaching the D and a former Tech great, where is Perdoni? Well, since he isn’t there and never has been as a coach, just another resaon for me to ramble reclusively. Wearing powder puff pink really makes me ramble reclusively.
Tom
July 23rd, 2011
9:22 am
threetrone,
There are still hardly any blacks at Yech today. The only ones on campus attempt to play sports there. I’m sure if a microscope was put above each of them 80% would be failing their courses or cheating. Facts are facts.
fez
July 26th, 2011
8:23 am
I figured you couldn’t handle anymore facts, tool. Thanks for playing