Georgia Tech's Young Defensive Linemen Impress During First Fall Camp Scrimmage

"Christian Garrett showed up with multiple sacks out there. Christian's been playing end and three technique, playing both of those positions. I think he can be a force, you know, he's got, you know, for side the size and strength that he has and the athletic ability and the quick twitch. I mean, you talk about a matchup nightmare when you move him inside, you know, but he's, you know, it's like all of them. He's got a ways to go, but he's starting to flash and show the real signs of what we've thought he thought he was. You know, at the end by Jordan Boyd, who missed some springtime. He was a freshman last year, played a little bit, played a lot on teams, but he's really starting to show up out there. You know, played with power and quickness and juice off the edge.

Then two guys inside, I thought Blake Belin and Derry Norris showed up a lot inside. So, you know, really increasing that depth and not just the depth, not just to have a body there, but have depth that, you know, can play when it is their time, when they're right, and that's what we want. We want all freshmen to come with the mindset and attitude that they're they're coming into play as a freshman because if you don't have that mindset, you're never gonna play right. So you always have to be thinking that way.

Some of the other guys, I thought Elgin Sessions showed up today, as far as another young guy, Dalen Penson. I thought Tae Harris was around the ball a lot today. One thing we asked our team was to make sure they take care of each other, right? Make sure you go out and you gotta play physical, gotta play fast, but we wanna take care of each other too. At the end of the day, we're all teammates, and there are the QBs.

Now, they did. There were some times that it was piled up, and there were three, four guys on the tackle, and they could have dumped a guy or flown in, and they didn't. So that shows a sign of maturity on the team, that's a positive sign. A.J. Hoffler missed some springtime, but he showed up today. So I was really pleased with the defensive end spot, and that's what I'm really, and that's not saying anything negative on the other side of the ball, like I said, I think it was a pretty balanced scrimmage across the board."

Now, doing this in a scrimmage is different than doing it in an actual game, but these are encouraging updates to hear on Georgia Tech's defense.

Garrett, Harris, Penson, Norris, Belin, and Sessions are all going to have a chance to play right away this season for the Yellow Jackets and while there are a lot of other things that will need to happen for this defense to be better, getting a couple of impact guys from the group would go a long way.

Earlier in the week, defensive line coach Jess Simpson praised Garrett and the other defensive linemen in the group:

"Yeah, and that's the thing when we recruited him, we felt like he'd be a base in with three technique flags or even vice versa, depending on how his body changed and how he grew, you know, has some real twitch about him, got some natural pass rush, got some bend to him. So he's done a nice job along with Derry Norris. I was really, I think Derry probably had his best day of the summer today. I mean, these young guys, Blake, they got miles to go, but spent so much over spring, over summer, one week of camp to just see the small improvements every day. They've been very intentional and they're young, they're gonna have hard days too. They've had a few of them already, but man, they've made a little bit of progress the last few days. So that's the funnest part being a coach, watching to get improved. And I think the old guys take pride in that. Those old hats that you talked about, coach those young guys as much as I do. And I enjoy listening and watching and seeing their investment in them as well."

There is still quite a way to go for this defense and for the young players fighting for reps, but yesterday sounded like a good start for the next wave of Yellow Jacket defenders.