Nov. 7, 2013
By Matt Winkeljohn
Sting Daily
As in most bye weeks, the Georgia Tech football team has been tweaking this week. The Yellow Jackets first spent more time than usual correcting mistakes from the past game, and then zeroed in on some fine tuning.
There is time before next Thursday’s game at Clemson, and the Jackets will dive into preparation for the Tigers in earnest today (Friday).
“Usually in the bye week you focus on all the things you can get better at, and you go back to basics,” said quarterback Vad Lee.
“We’re definitely getting better at all of our base stuff as far as carrying out fakes and meshing up with B-backs and making it look like we’re running the dive when we’re not. Pass protection is big. [The dive plays are] big.”
Tech’s collective health will improve with this down time. Offensive lineman Ray Beno may return to action after the break, although line coach Mike Sewak Mike Sewak said Wednesday that Beno’s not likely to move immediately into a full-time position.
More importantly, the Jackets are working to sharpen their execution.
With less time spent installing a specific game plan, the Jackets were in something akin to preseason practice mode at times early in the week.
“We spent a lot more time in the first practice seeing what me messed up on [in the last game],” said Zach Laskey. “I think in the base option we’re starting to get that down to a T, which is crucial because if we run that well it opens up a lot of other things.
“I think right now, we’re struggling in the area of pass protection. That’s kind of what we look to get better at as well.”
Tech has won three consecutive games, and the offense has been outstanding in one game – Syracuse – and good in the other two outside of turnover issues.
Yet, “Any time you play seven games in a row, it’s probably good to get a day or two off,” said coach Paul Johnson.
In some ways, it may be easier to improve coming off a loss. Lee said there can be greater attention to detail because, “When you’re losing, it magnifies those mistakes.”
Don’t take that the wrong way; the Jackets appear to be dialed in this week.
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