Al Groh breaks down Georgia Tech defense
From my interview with Al Groh for the “10 things” series, Groh offered a handful of observations about a few players I asked about, which I haven’t gotten to posting. Without further ado…
On T.J. Barnes: “He’s not a flamboyant player, not a flamboyant person, but he’s a very determined kid. He’s had a lot of challenges to work through in life, starting long before he got here. He’s got challenges here. He’s always fighting the weight circumstance, different issues. He’s one of those people who doesn’t say very much but is a very bright person. Was a different player in the spring, did a nice job.”
On Shawn Green: “Shawn Green, much the same way. He really hadn’t gotten much time. He came here as a freshman, not in the picture, out of shape, broke his leg, really not ready to participate or be coached in training camp last year. … He just wasn’t really ready to go. He hadn’t been able to condition and train. He missed a good deal of spring practice. So the first time he was able to get concentrated coaching was in the spring. And he made good progress. [Defensive line coach Andy McCollum] has done a nice job with those guys.”
On the secondary: “Well, we have a lot of experience on the corners, or a good amount. We don’t have very much experience at safety. We really only have one safety (Isaiah Johnson) that’s ever played very much. It’s kind of split that way. Pretty good experience, a lot of background in the schemes that we’re playing, a lot of background in pattern recognition on the edges. In the middle, we’ve got to catch up with the looks that the players see.”
On safeties Johnson and Fred Holton: “Isaiah’s got two years of playing. Fred has never really played safety in games. Two years ago, he played some special teams. Last year he was out for the year, so it was kind of the same situation as Shawn Green. Didn’t get coached for the whole fall. Didn’t participate. Had 15 practices in the spring to start to catch up. Picked up well on what he saw, there’s just a vast amount of other looks to see that are yet to come. … He showed a very good upside. He’s got range. He’s got toughness. He sees the game well. It makes sense to him.”
On Jeremiah Attaochu: “A lot of plays that Jerry had – and I use this same critique with other guys – I would look at the play and say, ‘What’s he doing? It’s not what we teach. It’s not what he did on Wednesday (in practice). What’s he doing?’ Eradicating those from his game and doing the things that he knows how to do and do well with greater consistency, which should happen for a lot of these players who are now going into their third season of doing the same thing.”
On Jabari Hunt-Days: “He’ going to be a lot better in the future than he is now. He’s never played in a game. We have to get him ready in a hurry to play well. It’ll be very challenging to him, challenging to us, to get him ready. It’s necessary for both parties to get way ahead of schedule.”
Thanks for reading. I’m technically off this week, but the 10 things series will continue this week with A-backs coach Lamar Owens. Previously, wide receivers coach Buzz Preston, secondary coach Charles Kelly and Groh.
Michael Carvell reports on three commits this weekend. Coach Paul Johnson is now up to 13 for the 2013 class.
Ken Sugiura, Georgia Tech
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133 comments Add your comment
Vultur
July 18th, 2012
10:55 am
HighTech,
WhinE hates factual information.
WnE
July 18th, 2012
11:02 am
re:
Vultur
July 18th, 2012
10:55 am
HighTech,
WhinE hates factual information.
___________
Yet no one here will address why GT has such a slack drug testing policy at a college where a Baseball Player OD’d on black tar heroin and DIED, and Ruben Houston at some point had more than 60 pounds of pot on him while he had eligibility remaining at GT.
Both incidents above happened in the last 10 years.
How can that track record not cry out for more stringent drug testing policies?
crackbaby
July 18th, 2012
11:15 am
Young people take risks. Drugs happen to be one of them.
Testing for marijuana is probably not worthwhile. MJ stays in your system up to 28 days. If the team kicks the sh*t out of Clemson like they did last year, it’s okay with me if those who choose to partake light one up afterwards.
During summer break, what if a couple of under 21 players drink a few beers at the beach? What business is it of yours?
Reading wne’s crap makes me want to use drugs.
crackbaby
July 18th, 2012
11:22 am
How many people here think WnE has ever managed people in a work environment? Would anything you did right show up in your review? LOL! Probably not but you can bet you’d get docked for letting the popcorn burn in the microwave nine months ago. Ha!
How’d you like to work for this guy? Be his neighbor? Go to church with him?
Pass….
crackbaby
July 18th, 2012
11:24 am
@vultur – “HighTech, WhinE hates factual information.”
What he hates is CPJ. That is all that matters in his little mind.
Not Disappointed!
July 18th, 2012
12:56 pm
Let’s go Jackets! So ready for some college Football!
GTfan 2012
July 18th, 2012
3:19 pm
Hmmmm… so who is telling the truth. WnE says the UGA policy has been around since before Richt. HighTech’article from a UGA related site says 2006. Who is telling the truth? Could WnE be making up facts to fit his argument AGAIN?!?!?!?!?!?
GT Lee
July 18th, 2012
4:22 pm
new baseball coach…..
http://www.ramblinwreck.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/071812aaa.html
GT Lee
July 18th, 2012
4:24 pm
asst coach, that is……
big gt fan
July 18th, 2012
4:42 pm
the way you win is because your players are better than the other team, the defesive line has two guys that were 4 star players please put them on the field [ kallon, williams]
GTfan 2012
July 18th, 2012
4:45 pm
Williams will be on the field this year a lot. Kallon is still green, still learning the game, but I think he makes it on the field too, even if its only on special teams.
Moobs Johnson
July 19th, 2012
10:05 am
I think you got the wording mixed up in the title – it should read “Al Groh Georgia Tech defense breaks down”
GTfan 2012
July 19th, 2012
11:35 am
Hey Moobs,
Go crawl back to your hole (aka the UGA blogs). We don’t want your kind commenting on the GT blogs. You are a pathetic excuse for a human being.
Moobs Johnson
July 19th, 2012
11:42 am
GTfan 2012, what crawled up your hole?
macrotech
July 19th, 2012
12:37 pm
WnE….here is a fact for ya; GT has never been labeled a “Party School”. uga has enjoyed some PRETTY high rankings in the “Party School” category. While you’ve pointed out two, well documented incidences…THIS just isn’t a big issue for us. Sorry for your disappointment.
E Rock
July 19th, 2012
1:07 pm
Why are we tallking about GT defense? Al Groh is a UVa castaway/reject an UVa Alum !! What GT should be talking about…is the Red Grange offense they run !! WahooWa !!!!! Cavs winning ACC this year !!
superDawg
July 19th, 2012
5:08 pm
macriod nurd is a word that will pass the filters,because spelled with an E the comment will be rejected.Now do you get it NURD!
superDawg
July 19th, 2012
5:10 pm
macriod gt has never been called a purty school either.
BS Patrol
July 20th, 2012
3:13 am
Considering CAG’s track record at Tech, I think I would show a little more enthusiasm. I am in favor of showing him the door.
GTfan 2012
July 20th, 2012
8:15 am
Moobs,
Someone who comes on another teams’ blog to personally mock the other teams coaches and players is a pathetic excuse for a human being. Stop and think about your life for a second. You are what you spend your time and energy doing.
Argentina Blue
July 20th, 2012
9:34 am
@BS Patrol – Can’t disagree with you. And if Paul Johnson doesn’t get the Jackets’ act together against Virginia Tech and Georgia, he needs to follow.
GTfan 2012
July 20th, 2012
1:19 pm
Argentina Blue,
CPJ will easily keep his job if he wins every other game except those two you mentioned. The only way CPJ even gets a warm seat for 2013, is if he goes 7-5 or worse. Now on the flip side of that, eventually DRads expectations will rise, as they should. Eight wins might not cut it in 2014 or 2015 (CPJ has average just over 8 wins per year in his first four years as coach)… but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.
Argentina Blue
July 20th, 2012
2:31 pm
@GTfan2012 – You’re right that Paul Johnson will keep his job even if he loses to Virginia Tech and Georgia this season. But there’s no excuse to keep losing to those teams every year. Is the Tech adminsitration going to tolerate ANOTHER coach who can’t beat Georgia? I lost a lot of faith in Johnson after he blew that 2009 game against a thoroughly mediocre Bulldogs team, and I’ve seen little since to restore it.
BLT
July 20th, 2012
2:59 pm
macrotech, you just seem to bring out superDwag and all his “glory”.
Let’s see if his hypothesis holds true.
BLT
July 20th, 2012
3:01 pm
superDwag is right…can’t use that spelling for one of their monikers for us
1 4 GT
July 20th, 2012
6:18 pm
gollum posted the following on July 18th. I found thru Google that the NCAA instituted their national student athlete drug testing policy in 1990. and Georgie began doing their own policy in 1995 per AD McGarity who said it has been around for 17 years–2012 minus 17 years =1995, so I think it is likwlt a safe assumption to think they had a problem then. Once again, gollum paints with a broad brush in making his guesses public knowledge. The following is credited to gollum “UGA’s policy has been around since the late-80s or early 90s before many other schools even had any drug testing policy at all, and way before CMR was ever hired at UGA.”
“According to their AD their drug testing policy is strict because they want their SAs to be responsible adults and drug-free adults.”
explosive defensive line, linebackers, secondary
July 20th, 2012
9:55 pm
Most of GT’s defense has two years of technical coaching
from Georgia Tech Defensive Coordinator Al Groh.
Coach Groh says in the third year something starts to happen,
like beating that Virginia Tech football team.
LET THE BIG DAWG EAT!
July 21st, 2012
8:31 am
There will be plenty of breaking down Tech’s defense by opponents once the season starts!
BLT
July 21st, 2012
9:23 am
“LET THE BIG DAWG EAT!”
Your post and name are both hilarious! You should be working at the Punchline. Thanks for contributing.
GTBob
July 22nd, 2012
3:51 am
Is the Tech adminsitration going to tolerate ANOTHER coach who can’t beat Georgia?
We have been losing to them consistently for about 50 years now. Do you really think it is a coaching problem?
dagnabit
July 22nd, 2012
10:28 am
Could we get some one to write the ga. tech blog? One of the folks on the internet perhaps.
BLT
July 22nd, 2012
10:52 am
Ken’s on vacation and he just writes the articles, not the blog.
Argentina Blue
July 22nd, 2012
11:20 am
@GTBob – If I recall correctly, George O’Leary knew how to beat Georgia – at Tech and UCF.