FSU football: Top 5 things FSU defense must do to limit Georgia Tech offense
By Kelvin Hunt
Contain Haynes King Run Game
Georgia Tech's head coach is a former offensive lineman who wants to establish the run game. The Yellow Jackets ran the ball 56 percent of its plays in 2023, with its quarterback as the second leading rusher. Haynes King had 120 rushes for 737 yards, averaging 6.14 ypc, and scoring 10 rushing touchdowns. Georgia Tech will use the read option and jet sweep motions to keep defenses guessing. King isn't the same caliber of a scrambler as Jayden Daniels, but he's capable of escaping the pocket and doing some damage in the open field. FSU faced several dual-threat quarterbacks last year.
The key is maintaining rushing lanes while avoiding the defensive ends running themselves out of the play and opening huge running lanes around the edge. The defensive ends must set the edges and force the ball toward the teeth of the defense. We could see FSU mush rushing sometimes, though I'm not a huge fan of it. Mush rushing is not rushing the quarterback too aggressively, hoping to clog up running lanes. Whatever it takes to force Haynes to give the ball to the running back in the run game.