Quick Preview- Georgia Tech's Offense

Hi everyone. Unfortunately due to my ridiculous work travel schedule, I could not write a fresh preview of Georgia Tech. While Paul Johnson tweaks his system every year, his bread and butter is a triple option. The basic fundamentals remain the same. The center and play-side guard double team the defensive tackle and the guard will slide off to the backside linebacker. The playside offensive tackle will block gap-down-linebacker blocking rule. The A-Back (the wingback) to the play side will veer release outside of the defensive end and run to kick out the corner. The quarterback will create a mesh point with the B-Back (fullback) and read the defensive end. If the end crashes inside on the dive, the quarterback will keep. If he stays wide, the quarterback will give to the B-Back. If he crashes, the QB keeps.

Once the QB pulls the ball from the B-Back mesh point, he will read the play-side safety and create a pitch relationship with the other A-back, who will motion before the play to a position almost directly behind the B-Back. If the safety takes QB, the QB will pitch. If the safety goes to pitch, the QB will keep.

For the most part, Foster has crashed his defensive ends in an effort to take away the dive and keep the mike linebacker clean to scrape across and take the pitch. In most cases, this means that the QB gets a good number of big chunk gains. I believe his strategy is to let the QB take a bunch of hits, and then throw change ups periodically to surprise the QB and disrupt the timing of the offense. This has forced a bunch of turnovers and negative plays, and those plays have generally been the difference between wins and loses.

Paul Johnson will change things up. He can have the B-Back take a bigger belly step and run the dive outside of the defensive end, which takes away a defender to help slop play the keeper and the pitch. He can run counter option of the D starts slanting to motion. He has the quick pitch to try and get the corner quickly. And, the primary GT pass play is a post-wheel combo that looks exactly like the WR blocking scheme play-side UNTIL the WR behind you. A-Back Clinton Lynch has put up absurd yards per touch catching passes and running. The less he has the ball in his hands, especially with B-Back starter Dedrick Mills suspended, the better.

Here is a refresher on the GT offense. For the general fan, this is pretty much what you will see on Saturday. I will look for the quirky adjustments that Foster discussed this week and try to highlight them in my review.

http://www.thekeyplay.com/virginia-tech-football/2015/11/10880/death-tho...

Thanks everyone.

French