Hokie Hitter: Georgia Tech

This week the Hokies did not play their best game and were still able to come out on top.  While Tech was inefficient for most of the game, the defense and special teams played well against a depleted GT team and the Hokies came out with the victory.  There was a pivotal sequence in the game that occurred at the end of the first quarter and the beginning of the second quarter where the tide began to turn in the Hokies favor.  Tech gets a great stop on third down by Keonta Jenkins and has a prototypical Bowen drive, that used some gadgetry and crazy alignments that led to the Hokies taking an early, what turned into an insurmountable lead against the Yellow Jackets.

Hokie fans have seen the Hokies struggle the past few years with “filling” gaps in the defensive run scheme.  Tech has made great strides over this season in fixing a lot of these issues.  This play is a great example of how the Hokies have improved.  On this play, GT lines their receivers outside the numbers of the field, a key indicator of a run play.  The Hokies are lined up in a 3-3 Stack look with cover 1 (man- free) behind it.  When the play begins, the GT o-line is able to take care of the three down linemen and the playside linebackers.  Jenkins, who is playing the Star position but in this formation is playing the right outside linebacker, reads the QB and the line moving away from him and instantly begins to scrape and fill the gaps in the zone scheme. Jenkins makes the play deep in the backfield because he diagnosed the play early and committed to his read. Great job of scheme and diagnosing the play and an outstanding individual effort by Jenkins.

This is yet another example of Bowen and Co. moving personnel around and confusing the opponent’s defense.  This is a quick play after a long pass to Benji Gosnell on the previous play. When the Hokies get quickly set on the line, Parker Clements moves to the left tackle spot and hides between Schick and Garrett. Benji Gosnell lines up as tight end in the traditional right tackle spot. The GT defense centers over the right guard and the safety responsible for the tight end lines up over Johnny Garrett and ignores Gosnell.  At the snap, the bubble screens on the outside freeze the secondary, and Gosnell is able to freely release upfield for the easy throw and catch for the touchdown! Great use of scheme and creativity by the Tech offense to get the first touchdown, and what ended up being the game winning score.