With two triple-option opponents in Notre Dame’s first six games, head coach Brian Kelly knew he and his defensive staff needed to spend a large portion of the offseason game-planning for an offensive attack that’s traditionally given the Irish fits. Come this Saturday, we’ll see how his staff did, with Paul Johnson’s high-powered Georgia Tech team coming to South Bend.
A match-up of Top 15 opponents, Johnson’s Yellow Jackets are a super-powered version of his former Navy teams. And while we’ve seen Ken Niumatalolo and the Midshipmen continue to make things tough on Notre Dame, Saturday is the first meeting between the Irish and Georgia Tech since the Yellow Jackets kicked off the nightmarish 2007 season with a one-sided shellacking of Notre Dame.
This game has major ramifications for both teams. And to get us prepared for what Georgia Tech plans on bringing to South Bend, Benjamin Tankersley of From the Rumble Seat was kind enough to answer some questions for us before the afternoon showdown.
I hope you enjoy.
When we chatted back in June, there was some talk that Georgia Tech’s offense wasn’t necessarily going to be as scary as the unit that took the ACC by storm in 2014. That was before the Yellow Jackets started the season putting up 69 and 65 points. Obviously, Alcorn State and Tulane aren’t the toughest opponents, but have you learned anything about this offense in the season’s first two games?
The major thing that the Jackets have learned this season is that our A-backs and B-backs are a lot further along than anybody thought. Coming into the season, we had virtually no experience coming back so needless to say, everyone was worried. Two games in, though, we’ve seen glimpses of brilliance from the B-back position with the combo of Patrick Skov and Marcus Marshall. A-backs have also been pretty impressive, specific redshirt freshman Qua Searcy.
Justin Thomas has attempted a whopping 13 passes this season (coincidentally the same amount as DeShone Kizer, now the starting quarterback for the Irish). Thomas ran just twice against Alcorn, but did carry the ball 10 times for 72 yards against Tulane in the 55-point victory. What have you seen from him this season? How has his game changed since 2014?
Justin Thomas has shown himself to be flexible and efficient no matter what the defense gives him. In the opener against Alcorn State, the Braves did what they could to key in on stopping Thomas, allowing him to just hand it to Skov or Marshall. Conversely, against Tulane, the Green Wave keyed in on stopping the dive which gave Thomas more opportunities to keep the ball. The only way his game has changed is that he is bigger and stronger and smarter in how he runs the offense.
Passing the ball is never something that Tech is gonna do much while Paul Johnson is the coach. That’s evidenced in Thomas’ 13 passes this season. However, his completion percentage is sitting at 76.9 percent (51.3 percent career) with 151 yards and three touchdowns. It’s just Thomas showing that he is becoming more efficient.
So Notre Dame’s already gotten bit by the injury bug, losing their starting nose guard, starting running back, starting quarterback and starting tight end before the end of the season’s second game. How healthy will Georgia Tech be when they come to South Bend this weekend?
For the most part, Tech is healthy. Their biggest loss so far this year has been the knee injury to redshirt senior backup quarterback Tim Byerly. Mostly used in goaline situations and mop up duty, Byerly’s injury leaves the Jackets without much experience behind Justin Thomas. His replacement, Matthew Jordan moved back to quarterback after giving starting the season with the A-backs.
Georgia Tech’s defense welcomes back nine starters and Jabari Hunt-Days from academic ineligibility, making the Ramblin’ Wreck defense awfully similar to Notre Dame’s from a returning personnel perspective. Again, it might be hard to gather much in the two games you’ve seen, but can you give us an update on the defense’s improvement?
So far the aspect of defense that looks the most improved is the defensive line, something that was expected by a large portion of the fanbase. Ted Roof has been able to get good pressure on opposing quarterbacks, whether it be with the blitz or just four. We’ll get a real idea of just how good this seemingly improved pass rush is this weekend against the Irish.
Paul Johnson did his best to downplay his rivalrywith defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder, who pulled the option offense from Georgia Southern in his brief time as head coach there. But between his time at Navy, his disdain for VanGorder’s decision and the importance of this game, do you get the sense that this game means more for Johnson than most?
This game absolutely means the world to Paul Johnson. Johnson can downplay it all he wants, and he will because that’s the guy he is, but I guarantee he’s had this game circled on his calendar for a while.
During the offseason, Notre Dame committed a veteran assistant (Bobby Elliott, a member of the past two coaching staffs and now one of the team’s analysts) to going out and studying the option. Brian Kelly recruiting a walk-on quarterback, who could pilot the scout team option so the Irish could get ready for Georgia Tech and Navy. Do you think it will help?
We’ll find out Saturday. I do think it’s funny that people will often refer to Tech’s offense as a “high school offense” and then things like this happen. One thing I do know is that even having a walk-on who played quarterback in an option offense in high school won’t be enough to adequately mimic the speed at which Tech runs their offense. There’s a reason that he’s a scout team quarterback. He’s not quite Justin Thomas.
The thought of committing a coach to study a teams offense to learn how to stop it scares me a little bit. Well it would if Paul Johnson wasn’t the head coach. This man knows his offense better than any coach in the country and is easily one of the best at making in-game adjustments.
You’ve watched a ton of option football. How have the defenses that slowed down the Yellow Jackets done it? What does Notre Dame have to do to slow down this Georgia Tech offense?
Different people do it different ways. It takes a good athletic defense that will play to their man and if Notre Dame wants to win, that’s exactly what they’re going to have to do.
We touched briefly on the critical injuries to the Irish. We’ve talked about the lack of challenges on Georgia Tech’s early schedule. How do you see this weekend playing out, and who do you ultimately think walks out of Notre Dame Stadium undefeated?
Coming into the season, I had this game down as a loss for Tech because I thought the offense would take a larger step back than they have. They didn’t and now Notre Dame has lost a ton of people to injuries. This doesn’t bode well for the Irish and I think Tech wins 38-24.
