Groh on preseason, linebackers
Greetings-
A couple other reporters and I spoke with defensive coordinator Al Groh Monday after practice (the day when defensive coaches and players, along with coach Paul Johnson, are available). You can read my awesome (sarcasm) collection of notes from the interviews here. I am working on a story about Tech’s linebackers and asked him a few questions about that.
Q: How did the preseason go for the defense?
A: There’s been a good sense of purpose. Clearly, there’s something that we want to prove and that’s been pretty consistent throughout. It’ll take a long process to do that. It’s a process to prove yourself. You don’t do it in training camp, you don’t do it the first week you don’t do it the first quarter of the season. it takes 12 weeks to prove yourself. We’re still obviously in the early part of the process.
Two cents: Fair answer. Al Groh doesn’t seem like the type to go waving the pom-poms.
Q: Did anyone surprise you with how much he improved or did it pan out as expected?
A: It pretty much has. I think those players that were kind of going in a positive direction continued with that.
Two cents: When giving an interview subject two ways (Is it A, or is it B?) to answer a question, he/she usually takes the easier/safer option (sometimes, I suppose, because it’s the correct one). I try to avoid phrasing questions that way, but I do it a lot, and it’s almost like I try to grab the words out of the air as soon as I realize I’ve done it.
Q: How did the linebacker group look to you?
A: As I said, the evaluation comes when we start to play and so we’ve gone through a process where we put it in, we practice it, we come in, we look at it, we correct it, we go back out the next day and try to get better at it. It’s a process that we’re involved in.
There’s certainly not results at this time. If you just look at the daily results, then you lose the big picture of what you’re trying to get accomplished. So we’re trying to stay focused on that and realize for us to prove what we want to prove, it’s a long process to do it and it’s going to take 12 weeks to do that.
Two cents: I don’t say this to poke fun, but I think “process” is one of Groh’s favorite words. It says something about who he is. In the same vein, one of my favorite words is “taco.” I had three Monday night. Pretty good.
Q: Is it accurate to say that for your defense to do what you want it to do, you need to have playmakers at the linebacker spots?
A: We need playmakers all over the place. That has to be a position in every defense that produces that. To make an analogy to a baseball lineup, that’s kind of where your 3-4-5 hitters are supposed to be. But there are some defenses where it comes from the front guys.
What you do is you just evaluate where those particular players are and as I say to the baseball analogy, if it just so happens that your second baseman is your best home-run hitter, than you bat him fourth, even thought most second basemen don’t hit there.
It’s the same thing with the linemen. If they look like they can be better playmakers, then we try to create some things for them. If we’ve got a secondary player who’s maybe our best pressure player then we’ll use him with more pressure than somebody else.
Two cents: One of my favorite baseball players of all-time was a power-hitting second baseman, at least in his prime. Ryne Sandberg. I think his answer was a qualified yes.
Q: Have (cornerbacks) Louis Young and Rod Sweeting taken advantage of their athletic ability?
A: They have. Those are two players that showed promise last year. Rod Sweeting played sparingly. Louis played mostly special teams, but when they came back, really throughout the winter, very diligent. I’d be out here on a Saturday in February or whatnot, look out the window and there’d be Louis and Mike Peterson and a couple of others doing drills. So they’ve shown their intent and their purpose from long ago.
Two cents: Interesting detail about Young and Peterson. Groh said a couple weeks ago that Young is a guy who loves everything about football, whether it’s practice or weights or meetings or whatever. It may sound a little obvious, but it isn’t. Not every player is that way.
Q: How has Jemea Thomas looked and what sort of role do you see for him?
A: It’s an evolving circumstance with him there. It’s not what I see his role to be, it’s what he carves out to make his role. All I do is go on what I see. When I see certain things from a player that enables us to create a role for him, then that’s what we try to do. But in all cases, the player kind of has to show us something in the first place.
This is a talented player who really didn’t have to have it screwed down real hard last year. If he made a mistake running the defense off a card (with the defensive scout team), it was quickly forgotten. Now, particularly in the back end, those mistakes aren’t forgotten. That’s been a transformation for him here.
Two cents: Groh was talking about Thomas being redshirted last year, if that was unclear to you. It sounds like Thomas has yet to find his role in the secondary. I’d think he’s the No. 3 safety but beyond that, I don’t know. I can tell you that he switched jersey numbers from 38 to 14.
Q: You’ve said in the past that Jeremiah Attaochu is the prototype for his position. How close are the other three linebackers — Julian Burnett, Daniel Drummond and Steven Sylvester — to what you want for their respective positions?
A: What we’d really like is Casey Matthews, DeMarcus Ware and Jerod Mayo, if you want to know what the prototype looks like. Anything less than that is somewhat short of the prototype, but that’s the trick of it. That’s the fun of it, is to take what we have and try to get the results that we’re looking for in whatever way that we need, to take the skills of this particular group and try to mix and match ‘em and come up with what we need.
Two cents: Read: Not as close as Attaochu is. It’s not too surprising. Drummond is a converted B-back and Burnett and Sylvester were recruited to play in a different scheme. It’s a good group, though, and one that has two of the best players on the team (Attaochu and Burnett). In 2012 and beyond, you’ll see more “fits” into the scheme than this year.
Thanks for reading. Please follow on Facebook and Twitter!
By Ken Sugiura, AJC
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
147 comments Add your comment
final score > total rushing yards
August 23rd, 2011
12:22 pm
WOW. This disproves all Techies theories that there are no rednecks or racists in the Tech fanbase.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QlyKORe3qg
Referring to your black players as N-words is not going to help recruiting.
And before you nerds accuse ME of making this video, how many people do you know who would be willing to act like this (while showing face) simply as a bogus ploy??? I hope somebody recognizes this guy and beats the living daylights out of him.
Tech fans are absolutely pathetic.
dawgfan
August 23rd, 2011
12:22 pm
Kudos to Ken for taking an insanely boring subject (Georgia Tech’s defense) and trying to make it interesting.
dawgfan
August 23rd, 2011
12:28 pm
final score>yards, don’t forget this crybaby Techie classic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-OTwA66BJg&feature=related
Things haven’t gotten much better for that poor Techie since then either. His middle fingers are probably very tired.
Born2Buzz
August 23rd, 2011
12:34 pm
I can see why UVA finally got sick and tired of Al and canned him. He just won’t give a straight answer.
Which is why we love CPJ. Ken, have you asked Coach Johnson what his expectations of the defense is this year?
I know our linebackers are going to be better. Hope the DL and DB’s are better also. CPJ will not tolerate a lack of results. He canned Womack after going 11-3!
ashley
August 23rd, 2011
12:41 pm
Nothing says class like all the halftime rap concerts and rappers on tech’s sidelines.
final score > total rushing yards
August 23rd, 2011
12:55 pm
Tech fans are the most hypocritical bunch that the world has ever known.
They LOVE to belittle UGA as a redneck and classless fanbase, but by just doing that, they are contradicting everything they want you to believe they stand for.
No fanbase in the world would rather watch their rivals play in hopes of them losing, rather than watching their own games. I guess when most of your games are on ESPN3.com, it makes it easier to do, however.
The vast majority of Tech students have been far from the popular, social types throughout high school. When they arrived at Tech, they got their little freshman RAT hats, wrote “to hell with georgia” all over it, and banded with similarly socially awkward students with the same thing in common…. “let’s hate UGA and belittle them in hopes of finally feeling confidence in our lives for the first time”
The video above goes against anything a Techie will preach to you, that they are pristine people, loaded with class and respect for all things associated with their program.
Go to hell, Techies. I don’t claim to be the classiest apple on the tree…. because I admit to HATING everything about your fanbase and athletic program.
Hayseed Dixie
August 23rd, 2011
12:57 pm
Oh, ashley, I think the trailer park’s out of cigarettes, go jump in your LeSabre and get a carton.
It’s Groh funny he mentions Ware as his prototype. I had occasion to talk to Tony Gonzales, and he said Ware was one guy in the league he really prepped for.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 23rd, 2011
12:58 pm
And this video shows just how classless not only the mutt fans are but their coaches too—-i.e. “Choke” Grantham
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVxv0AZxum4
womb@
August 23rd, 2011
12:59 pm
Tacos
Hayseed Dixie
August 23rd, 2011
1:04 pm
I know why some of you UGA guys are so teed off.
You guys have had some solid, genuinely embarrassing moments in the past few years:
Losing to Tech after being pre-season No. 1
Winning the Fulmer award.
Damon Evans, need I say more?
The black-out against Alabama where they handed you your butts.
The black helmets against Florida, same result
I mean, we at Tech haven’t had anything even *approaching* that level of cut-and-dried humiliation.
A couple tight games against an self-proclaimed “SEC powerhouse”, don’t even come close.
I’m sorry, and I totally understand why you guys feel pretty bad.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 23rd, 2011
1:07 pm
Talk about humiliating. And you mutts call Tech fans nerds??? Check this out —-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etMlNW5w-50
ashley
August 23rd, 2011
1:11 pm
Oh sweetie, I dont smoke nor do I live in your trailerpark. Embarrassing? Not really. The NCAA hasnt asked us to vacate any wins twice in the past 6 years, our fomer Heisman candidate and coach wasnt involved in a hit and run on campus while high and with an open container. A former druglord that we proudly played in a bowl game wasnt arrested by federal officers for holding his ex gf at gunpoint abd we definitely didnt feel the need to make rings to celebrate a single win.
final score > total rushing yards
August 23rd, 2011
1:14 pm
If you fail to realize the UGA kid in that video is putting on an act for a low-budget css show, you fail to understand college kids.
The one of the Tech fan calling his black players n—–s, that is no act, son.
hahahaha!!!!
August 23rd, 2011
1:15 pm
You are right! Being asked to give back the last championship yech will ever see isnt humiliating at all!! LOL!!
Nevermind the fact that yech students cant go a week without getting mugged on their own campus!! LOL!!!
final score > total rushing yards
August 23rd, 2011
1:19 pm
4 tickets, 4 hot dogs, 4 cokes, 4 years on PROBATION
Not embarrassing at all…. techies??
Shinhoster
August 23rd, 2011
1:20 pm
Enter your connemts here.
Scooter
August 23rd, 2011
1:23 pm
Did Tech just have an official popped for child porn???
final score > total rushing yards
August 23rd, 2011
1:25 pm
And enrolling a terrorist, Scooter….
jbdawg
August 23rd, 2011
1:28 pm
Hello AJC… Since you missed the last NCAA investgation involving the Techies, maybe you should file an FOI asking if Coach Groh’s “observation” of player workouts constitutes an NCAA violation. The circumstances definitely sound incidental, but the last time I checked, even those violations should be reported.
Have a nice day!
Supersize that order, mutt
August 23rd, 2011
1:48 pm
Scooter, Tech TURNED IN some staff member (maybe a prof, I don’t remember) for kiddie porn. Did THUGA have a professor who murdered his wife in public? There are losers and creeps in every area of society. Obviously there are losers and creeps who are professors also.
By the way, there was nothing in that video, other than the caption, that indicates he was watching a Tech game. And whether the kid in the stands was putting on an act for the cameras or not, if I were his father, I would have been embarrassed. And, all you have to do is look at his face, and you can tell he’s a nerd, regardless of where he goes to school.
final score > total rushing yards
August 23rd, 2011
1:55 pm
Why don’t you open your ears in the redneck/racist georgia tech fan video. Listen to the television and listen to him call out Tech players by name.
Nice try to cover up and spin the embarrassment that video should cause.
final score > total rushing yards
August 23rd, 2011
1:57 pm
redneck/racist tech fan video, 1:06: “aww f— Nesbitt is throwin’”
Kb
August 23rd, 2011
1:59 pm
Hayseed , Losing to tech is always embarrassing, even when you lost 24 players to season ending injury.
BigTimeTechFan
August 23rd, 2011
1:59 pm
I don’t see Tech beating UGA for a while:
1. They just recruited the “Dream Team”
2. They now have a strength and conditioning staff
3. The wear Nike Pro Combat uniforms
4. They have SEC Speed
not right, Tech has no chance
juvenal
August 23rd, 2011
2:04 pm
Super, thought you were weaning off throwing pearls to the swine..er….dauugs……
GT Fan
August 23rd, 2011
2:05 pm
AG seemed to provide much more insight to Heather D. (ESPN ACC blogger) when asked about the D.
HD: How much progress has the defense made, now that it’s entering the second season?
AG: We certainly have seen a good deal of progress here. That proof is only going to come over the course of 12 weeks. We’ve got a lot to prove, but we’re pleased with where we are in the process. The players have been very intent with it, and to this point, they’ve done the right things.
HD: Your secondary is pretty young, but talented. How has that group in particular looked?
AG: We really only have one player in the starting four who saw any amount of significant minutes last year, and that’s Isaiah Johnson, but we have a more athletic, more versatile group, versatile both mentally and physically that has enabled us to move on to some things that we never would have considered attempting to do last year.
There’s more she asks on the ESPN site. Overall AG sounds pretty confident with the Ds progress. Good to hear!
DawginLex
August 23rd, 2011
2:19 pm
Looks like some of you are destined for timeout.
Geez grow the F up
Back to football:
I got my response back from the dude at Collegefootballnews.com
“Sir, Are you referring to my first BOLD prediction? If I had written that UGA’s going to go 8-4 or 9-3 without a signature win for the 4th consecutive year(handing UF its 4th straight loss would hardly be signature worthy) and have yet another disappointing/underperforming season(5 of the last 6), and the great football program that Georgia is will finally look in a different direction, you’d be wiping the sleep from your eyes.”
“Do I think UGA starts 2-3? YES
Will Richt get fired mid-season? Very unlikely-that’s what makes it bold, as opposed to the first paragraph.
After top ranked recruiting classes year after year, if you are fine with this mediocrity, more power to you brother.”
There is a lot I could dispute(how is 2005 and 2007 underperforming?)
but, I took the high road and pointed out that Richt deserves a chance to fix what he created.
Does not change the fact that his BOLD prediction was idiotic and not well thought out.
Re Boise
August 23rd, 2011
2:31 pm
Didn’t Boise lose like 20 starters from last years team?
DawginLex
August 23rd, 2011
2:42 pm
No only 8.
but they lost Pettus and Young at WR. Those 2 won the VT game in the final minute.
Their strength is their DL, QB and RB. Linebackers are smallish. OL is capable but not that big. WR’s are all new. Kicker is a freshman.
Big advantage to UGA in a close game with Walsh
Max
August 23rd, 2011
2:47 pm
Tech sucks at life
juvenal
August 23rd, 2011
3:48 pm
Lex-the entire range of your fan base in 5 minutes…….
tar and feathers party
August 23rd, 2011
3:48 pm
Yo jimmers, I for one am taking the smurfs to pound the living s h it out of uga! Go smurfs, hit that s h it!
tar and feathers party
August 23rd, 2011
3:50 pm
Yo Max, mop that floor, your Tech Grad boss might notice your failures and FIRE your ugly butt.
DawginLex
August 23rd, 2011
3:54 pm
Good one
headley lamar
August 23rd, 2011
4:03 pm
Headley says the Vegas guy has GT to win 6 games. So if you want to cash in on your confidence of 5-7 then get in touch with headley’s friend and make some $$$.
Not a friend named “Vegas”. I was referring to the Las Vegas Casinos and the over under they have on Tech wins this season.
They will be happy to take your money …. I mean bet.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 23rd, 2011
4:06 pm
juvenal, regarding your question about me weaning off messing with the mutts, it’s still a weaning process. lol
Supersize that order, mutt
August 23rd, 2011
4:07 pm
headley, don’t you ever have anything new to post? You have been posting that same crap for the past 3 weeks. You’ve made your point, whatever it is. NEXT !!!!
headley lamar
August 23rd, 2011
4:13 pm
After top ranked recruiting classes year after year, if you are fine with this mediocrity, more power to you brother.”
There is a lot I could dispute(how is 2005 and 2007 underperforming?)
but, I took the high road and pointed out that Richt deserves a chance to fix what he created.
The whole mediocrity thing is a myth and Techies love repeating it. It basically started with Spurrier and his famous comments about not knowing what happens when the talent gets to UGA etc.
That was when Goff was coach. Under Richt UGA has had mostly Top Ten recruiting classes.
And what have they done.
1. Finish in the Top Ten 6 out of 10
2. Win 90 games in ten years ( Second in SEC to LSU’s 91 )
3. 90 wins in ten years good for 7th best nationally
4. Two SEC titles.
5. 9-1 vs Tech
Thats far from mediocrity or not doing anything with the great talent
Oh and I cant see UGA going 2-3 to start.
3-2 at worst.
headley lamar
August 23rd, 2011
4:16 pm
headley, don’t you ever have anything new to post? You have been posting that same crap for the past 3 weeks. You’ve made your point, whatever it is. NEXT !!!!
I know ive made the point that Tech is only supposed to win 6 games this year.
Was just answering the post and clarifying that I don’t have a friend named Vegas but was in fact referring to Vegas Casinos.
GTFan478
August 23rd, 2011
4:17 pm
@final score who in there right mind would ever videotape themselves saying that. It was probably you acting like a Tech fan. I mean weren’t you the one that said on the blog last night that atleast we (meaning uga) know how to use them. Of course we all know you were referring to black athletes on ugas football team. Nice try now get a life.
juvenal
August 23rd, 2011
4:19 pm
Super, mostly they confirm what we already think about them(so we can appreciate Lex all the more)….just try to bring a little levity, so many folks take $port$ way too seriuos…think #2 in recruiting says more about what a rip-off those services are…….
GTFan478
August 23rd, 2011
4:21 pm
@headley if you want to call 6-7 and preseason no.1 and not winning your division let alone conference not being mediocre then I would love to know what your definition of the word would be. And lets not forget losing to UCF in a bowl game.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 23rd, 2011
4:24 pm
yeah, juvenal, I usually enjoy reading Lex’s posts, headley’s posts usually make me laugh, because they’re always the same, and so obviously biased against Tech. I find it interesting that the mutts slam us when we bring up facts from the past, but it sure seems to me like the live in the past.
headley lamar
August 23rd, 2011
4:31 pm
@headley if you want to call 6-7 and preseason no.1 and not winning your division let alone conference not being mediocre then I would love to know what your definition of the word would be. And lets not forget losing to UCF in a bowl game.
1 year out of 10 is the exception not the rule.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 23rd, 2011
4:32 pm
1 out of 10??? more like 3 out of 10……the last 3. I don’t think he was just referring to losing to UCF
headley lamar
August 23rd, 2011
4:32 pm
1. Finish in the Top Ten 6 out of 10
2. Win 90 games in ten years ( Second in SEC to LSU’s 91 )
3. 90 wins in ten years good for 7th best nationally
4. Two SEC titles.
5. 9-1 vs Tech
Thats far from mediocrity or not doing anything with the great talent
Those numbers dont lie.
You can pick one year here or this stat there and make it look different.
The stats I gave were the big picture. Not just a corner.
headley lamar
August 23rd, 2011
4:35 pm
1 out of 10??? more like 3 out of 10……the last 3
in 2008 we were 10-3. That isnt mediocre.
DawginLex
August 23rd, 2011
4:36 pm
I had a nice back and forth with the dude.
He believes anything other than an SEC title is underachieving. He is entitled to his opinion.
I personally think Richt’s best coaching jobs were in 2006 and 2007. Started crappy and finished like gangbusters.
Russ Mitchell told me :2006-SEC 4-4
I said 2006- 9-4 and beat 3 ranked teams to finish the year with a freshman QB.
It’s all about perspective
DawginLex
August 23rd, 2011
4:37 pm
Later boys.
til next time
Supersize that order, mutt
August 23rd, 2011
4:37 pm
and yet you’ve been irrelevant in the SEC east for at least the past 3 years, and I doubt any of the powers in the SEC west even take you seriously anymore.