FSU football: Georgia Tech's defense improving over 2023 effort?

FSU football will face the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in less than two weeks, so I thought I'd check in to see what some of the news was coming out of their camp. The Yellow Jackets held their second scrimmage of fall camps on Saturday, like FSU. One of the main takeaways from Head Coach Brent Key was the defensive improvement.

“I thought the defense came out and played with their hair on fire. It was very encouraging to see the energy they played with, the physicality they played with, and the ability to not just stop a run but get after the quarterback.”

Georgia Tech's defense improved on its first scrimmage which was full of penalties(16 total). They only had five in the second one, 11 tackles for a loss, and six sacks. Georgia Tech's defense ranked No. 77 via FEI advanced metrics in 2023. They allowed 29.5 points per game and were awful against the run, allowing 5.38 yards per rush. They struggled to get off the field on third down (43.53 percent conversions allowed) and only had 60 tackles for a loss with 21 sacks.

However, Key hired new defensive coordinator Tyler Santucci and added some players from the transfer portal. FSU is familiar with Santucci who was the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Duke last year. Duke's defense had a lot of veteran players and finished No. 27 nationally in FEI. Mike Norvell wants to establish the run, so we'll learn how much Georgia Tech's run defense has improved in the season opener. They'll face an FSU offensive line full of veteran players, and one of the deepest stable of running backs in the ACC.