ATLANTA – With its next game still 10 days away, the Georgia Tech football team returned to practice Wednesday for the first time since last Saturdays 42-28 win over North Carolina. Tech (3-2 overall, 1-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) next plays Oct. 14 against Wake Forest at Bobby Dodd Stadium/Grant Field. Kickoff time for the Homecoming contest will be finalized Monday, Oct. 9 but will be either 12 noon or 1 p.m. The Deacons (0-4, 0-3 ACC) host Vanderbilt this week.
“That was a major win,” said Tech head coach George O’Leary of the victory over UNC. “With two losses in the conference already, you cant afford a third if you have any intentions of staying in the hunt. It wasn’t already pretty, and we gave up way too many big plays on defense, but when we had to make plays, we made them. It really was a team win in all phases, offense, defense and special teams. A game that we needed to have.”
O’Leary is pleased with the timing of the off week, which comes almost at the mid-point of the schedule.
“We’ve been going since Aug. 1, and the kids really need a chance to get their legs back,” he said. “Plus, it gives us a chance to get some nicks and bruises healed but still get some work done in the areas we need to improve. The break comes at a good time, because the last six games will be critical, every one of them.
“We went against ourselves today and worked on some specialty areas, like red zone. Tomorrow will be similar, and we’ll also start to get some things done on Wake Forest.”
Practice concluded with the varsity watching while the redshirts and scout team players scrimmaged against each other.
“I like to scrimmage them at midseason and get a glimpse of whats coming up next year,” said O’Leary. “They dont know what they’re doing yet, but you can see the athletic ability.”
OLeary said that his squad will work on timing on offense and playing the ball in the air on defense, among other things.
“Offensively, weve really improved our running game as far as establishing the line of scrimmage, but I think weve got to get sharper in some of the things we’re doing in the passing game. We’re getting better in the red zone, which is something youve always got to work on.
“Defensively, it’s really playing the ball as far as coverage. We’ve got people there but we’re not playing the ball, we’re playing the man, and they’re coming up with the ball and we’re not. That’s something we worked hard on today and we’ll continue to work on because that has to improve.”
