Zeek & Destroy: At a position that prioritizes size, Zeek Biggers worked hard this offseason to make himself smaller (and his hair shorter). But it’s the weight off his shoulders that has allowed the senior to play his best ball of the year.
Inside The Chart | By Andy Demetra (The Voice of the Yellow Jackets)
Weston Franklin winced. Joe Fusile shook his head.
Brute confrontations are an everyday existence for an offensive lineman. They take pride in exerting their dominance and knocking defenders back. But asked to describe the experience of blocking Zeek Biggers, Georgia Tech’s 6-foot-6, 322-pound grizzly bear of a defensive tackle, his teammates on the other side of the trenches don’t mince words.
“It sucks,” Fusile said, laughing.
“It’s like trying to block a truck. That’s what it feels like. The problem is, he’s faster than a truck,” the all-ACC guard added.
Franklin notes that he’s battled Biggers in practice for four years. Blocking him for one Saturday feels like a spa day by comparison.
“It’s definitely not fun. He’s a big guy that’s hard to move,” Franklin said.
Defensive tackles aren’t box score darlings. They eat up double teams, cancel gaps, force ball carriers to slow down or redirect, and more often than not, allow a teammate to make the finishing tackle. Value and glory can have a frustratingly inverse relationship. But that immovability is important, even if they don’t get the individual payoff.
It took a while, but Biggers has to come understand that.
“At first I was like, ‘Dang, I want some stats.’ But as I got older, I realized it’s all about the team. It’s a bigger picture,” he said.
But when a defensive tackle has a big statistical day, like Biggers turned in against 12th-ranked Notre Dame? It’s worthy of praise. The senior from Salisbury, N.C., had arguably his most impactful game of the season against the Fighting Irish, finishing with a season-high five tackles and two tackles for loss.
And according to his head coach, he did it, ironically, by not trying to do too much.
“Consistently with Zeek, just [doing] your job. Don’t try to make plays. Let the plays come to you,” said Brent Key, adding that the Yellow Jackets’ defensive line played its best game of the season against Notre Dame.
An honorable-mention all-ACC performer in 2023, Biggers was considered the anchor of a defensive tackle group that faced its share of skepticism entering the year. But he says the Yellow Jackets’ improved depth – not only Biggers, fellow senior Makius Scott and redshirt junior Jason Moore, but also transfers Jordan van den Berg and Thomas Gore – has allowed them to stay fresher throughout a game. And with the season moving into its final month, Biggers says that freshness will continue to pay dividends.
| Zeek Biggers’ Defensive Snaps Through Eight Games | |
| 2023 | 342 |
| 2024 | 228 |
“It’s not a drop-off in talent or playmaking ability. They can go in and make plays just like the people who are on the field the first time. That’s definitely a weight off,” he said.
He meant it figuratively, but in Biggers’ case, it could also be literal. When he arrived at Tech in the summer of 2020 from the same high school in Salisbury, N.C. (West Rowan) as his cousin, former Yellow Jacket linebacker Domonique Noble, Biggers tipped the scales at 363 pounds. Even amongst his peers, his proportions made him look like he was Photoshopped.
But that weight also hid a surprising amount of agility. Biggers could dunk in the sixth grade. He played outfield on the baseball team at West Rowan. But to be effective at the major conference level, Biggers knew he’d need to make himself sleeker if he wanted to tap into that athleticism some more.
He shed 30 pounds before last season, then dropped another 10 before this year. As a result, his most impressive statistic may be one that’s kept in-house: at 6-foot-6 and 322 pounds, he hit 18.3 miles per hour on a run against North Carolina, according to Georgia Tech’s Catapult GPS system.
“People might just think I’m going to bull rush or that I can’t run. I’m just going to sit on the line of scrimmage,” he said. “Just being able to move sideline-to-sideline, and still be a guy that can hold a double team in the middle.”
He’s felt lighter in other ways too. Biggers had been growing his dreadlocks since the seventh grade; the longest strands cascaded down to the middle of the No. 88 on the back of his jersey. He cut them this offseason as part of his pledging of Omega Psi Phi fraternity.
“If they got wet or anything, they were definitely heavier. I don’t have that weight on me anymore,” he said. He also noted that he doesn’t have to worry about another occupational hazard of his hairstyle: opponents tugging on his dreads and inadvertently ripping one out, like what happened against Georgia last year.
But the biggest weight that Zeek Biggers has dropped this year may be the one off his shoulders. He admits to feeling pressure earlier this year to produce. The expectations of a senior, trying to adapt to a new defense and secure a professional future for himself, had started to wear on him. He said a conversation with his mom, Stephanie, during Tech’s first bye week helped clear his head.
“She was like, ‘Just go out there and have fun. Don’t stress it too much. Just be who you are,’” Biggers recalled.
“I wasn’t playing how I wanted to. But now, later in the season, I feel like I’m finally stepping into that role, going out there and having fun.”
It was decidedly less fun for Notre Dame last Saturday. So there’s the triple irony in Zeek Biggers’ senior season. He’s smaller, shorter (in the tonsorial sense), and playing less, but his contributions to Georgia Tech’s run defense remain just as vital. He’s shown unsung durability as well – his streak of 21-consecutive starts is tied for second longest on the Yellow Jackets. He and his defensive-line mates will need another determined effort this Saturday when they face 4-3 Virginia Tech at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg (Noon ET, Georgia Tech Sports Network). Hokies running back Bayshul Tuten broke a school record with 266 rushing yards against Boston College last week, and his 124 rushing yards per game ranks seventh nationally.
But if the Hokies need a scouting report on the gargantuan, gap-stuffing defensive tackle who will look to keep the Yellow Jackets’ run defense humming, just listen to Biggers’ teammates.
Warned offensive tackle Corey Robinson II: “You better drop your pads and come with it if you want to move Zeek.”
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