D-Line & coaching going into 2023

TromboneJacket

Ramblin' Wreck
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I’ve been thinking about next season and the roster we’ll have. The transfers at LB will go a long way towards shoring up that group, and the guys returning in the secondary should make it a strength of the team. That being said, I think the DL will be an area of concern. Scott and Douse stepped up at DT and have some talent behind them in Biggers and Stone, but it seems to me that with Keion White and Sylvain Yondjouen leaving, we’ll be weak at DE.

I keep waiting for the guys we have at WDE to have breakout seasons, and it just hasn’t happened. And we don’t seem to have much if any depth at SDE to replace the guys leaving. Do we have any 3-tech players who might be able to move outside to SDE? Do we have anyone we expect to break out or come in and produce at WDE? What are y’all’s thoughts?
 

5277hike

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
230
I’ve been thinking about next season and the roster we’ll have. The transfers at LB will go a long way towards shoring up that group, and the guys returning in the secondary should make it a strength of the team. That being said, I think the DL will be an area of concern. Scott and Douse stepped up at DT and have some talent behind them in Biggers and Stone, but it seems to me that with Keion White and Sylvain Yondjouen leaving, we’ll be weak at DE.

I keep waiting for the guys we have at WDE to have breakout seasons, and it just hasn’t happened. And we don’t seem to have much if any depth at SDE to replace the guys leaving. Do we have any 3-tech players who might be able to move outside to SDE? Do we have anyone we expect to break out or come in and produce at WDE? What are y’all’s thoughts?
Has Yondjouen said for sure he is not coming back? If so, I missed it. He really came on at the end of last year (as several others did after the coaching change) and I think could be a force next season. I do share your concern though.
 

Ibeeballin

Im a 3*
Messages
6,079
Y’all always talking about development but never let anyone grow into their position

Kennard, Collins, Josh Robinson have logged major snaps and have been productive. Grey Carroll will have been in the program 3yrs. Time for them step up
 
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slugboy

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Here's our 2022 roster from ESPN, sorted by class, and filtered to just the DL. It doesn't split out the DEs/EDGE/DTs/NTs from each other. It hasn't been updated for graduation or the transfer portal. We have some freshmen coming in, but I think our DL next year is mostly our DL this year without Keion White.

Keion White was special this year, and he'll be missed.

Sylvain Yondjouen graduated, and I don't know if he's staying for another year. So far he doesn't seem to be in the transfer portal. There are some good names in the Freshmen and Sophomores on this list. Even if Yondjouen is gone, there are 19 players on this list for next season--that's nearly 4 deep.

Grey Carroll is listed as a R-Freshman. I don't know how much COVID factors into the class for each player.

Note: Hey, just supplying what the DL roster kind of looks like so that y'all can look at it, see who we have, and start to have an idea of what we can do with it. We stayed pretty true to the 4-2-5 last season, but maybe LB is stronger in 2023 and we use more 3-3-5 than this past season.

This is the first offseason that the defensive coaches can get together without TFG and figure out what they want to do with their players. Maybe they add some tweaks. We were much more interesting on the DL in 2022 than we were the year before.

If a total stud or two want to transfer here and wreak havoc, I'd be glad to have them, but I think we have some good-looking players here.

Also, I can probably dig up a lot of 2021 posts about how disappointing White and Yondjouen were, and how we'd be terrible after our best two DL transferred out. We could have used them, but I think our defensive coaching staff is good.


NAMEPOSHTWTCLASSBIRTHPLACE

Christian Burkhalter 31
DL6' 4"236 lbsFRMobile, AL

Grey Carroll 49
DL6' 3"255 lbsFRAlcoa, TN

Horace Lockett 55
DL6' 6"337 lbsFRAtlanta, GA

Jalen McDonald 91
DL6' 1"220 lbsFRFayetteville, NC

K.J. Miles 56
DL6' 4"280 lbsFROrange, NJ

Jason Moore 95
DL6' 2"291 lbsFRHampton, GA

Jaaymen Rochell 93
DL6' 4"290 lbsFRDuluth, GA

Chase Sippola 94
DL5' 10"259 lbsFRCarrollton, GA

Akelo Stone 97
DL6' 2"280 lbsFRSavannah, GA

Ty Thompson 92
DL5' 11"224 lbsFRAcworth, GA

Zeek Biggers 88
DL6' 6"341 lbsSOSalisbury, NC

Noah Collins 43
DL6' 5"243 lbsSOLoganville, GA

D'Quan Douse 99
DL6' 2"282 lbsSOSavannah, GA

Kevin Harris 11
DL6' 4"241 lbsSOLoganville, GA

Kyle Kennard 9
DL6' 5"240 lbsSOAtlanta, GA

Josh Robinson 27
DL6' 6"259 lbsSODouglasville, GA

Makius Scott 8
DL6' 4"295 lbsSOGainesville, GA

Daniel Carson 90
DL6' 4"287 lbsJRKansas City, MO

T.K. Chimedza 5
DL6' 3"335 lbsJRDacula, GA

Sylvain Yondjouen 32
DL6' 4"257 lbsJRRuisbroek, Belgium

Keion White 6
DL6' 5"286 lbsSRGarner, NC
 
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iceeater1969

Helluva Engineer
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Wasn't there a non scholy player named" Moore"? who got a few good rushes. Iirc was said to be one of strongest in weight room.

Opps - there he is 95!
 

slugboy

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11,431
Just for grins, here are some raw stats on tackles and turnovers. We're losing our top three producers, but seniors are often top performers and they tend to graduate.

Assuming Yondjouen doesn't come back, we're losing about 38% of our tackles from last year and keeping about 62%. The lion's share of that is from Eley and Thomas. We're losing a 53% of our tackles for loss and 56% of our sacks. Eley and Thomas were responsible for 27% of our tackles for loss and 20% of our sacks.

Honestly, I expect our defense to be as good or better next season. It's a challenge for our defensive coaches and our players, but I think we can get better.

Now, our OFFENSE was a train wreck last year. I'm trying to figure out how we turn that around.

I'm less worried about defense, but I'd really like to see us pull in more highly regarded (4*, 5*) players that we like there.

TacklesDef IntFumbles
RkPlayerGSoloAstTotLossSkIntYdsAvgTDPDFRYdsTDFF
1Ayinde Eley1257611189.53.532004
2Charlie Thomas12714111210.52.022814.002211402
3Keion White1229255414.07.51
4Miles Brooks123418522.50.033712.3171000
5Clayton Powell-Lee123117481.00.0111.0023000
6KJ Wallace112817452.01.0100.001
7Myles Sims122815431.00.0111.003
8Zamari Walton122412360.00.01-8-8.006
9Kyle Kennard121917364.52.0
10Jaylon King51913321.50.01-4-4.0011
11Zeek Biggers121913321.00.01
12Trenilyas Tatum121813312.51.01
13Derrik Allen121415290.00.0100.001
14DQuan Douse121016265.53.52
15Sylvain Yondjouen121112235.02.51
16Makius Scott12517222.51.51000
17Noah Collins11106162.50.012000
18Kenan Johnson1176130.00.01
19Akelo Stone1248124.01.01
20Kaleb Edwards938110.00.01
21Jason Moore104592.52.011
22Demetrius Knight II45490.00.0
23Rodney Shelley104370.00.0
24Kenyatta Watson II104370.00.0
25Sirad Bryant85161.00.0




Provided by CFB at Sports Reference: View Original Table
Generated 1/2/2023.
 
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g0lftime

Helluva Engineer
Messages
5,864
I’ve been thinking about next season and the roster we’ll have. The transfers at LB will go a long way towards shoring up that group, and the guys returning in the secondary should make it a strength of the team. That being said, I think the DL will be an area of concern. Scott and Douse stepped up at DT and have some talent behind them in Biggers and Stone, but it seems to me that with Keion White and Sylvain Yondjouen leaving, we’ll be weak at DE.

I keep waiting for the guys we have at WDE to have breakout seasons, and it just hasn’t happened. And we don’t seem to have much if any depth at SDE to replace the guys leaving. Do we have any 3-tech players who might be able to move outside to SDE? Do we have anyone we expect to break out or come in and produce at WDE? What are y’all’s thoughts?
Next year we will find out if Thacker is a decent DC or not.
 

swarmer

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
699
I think we’ll look for a DE transfer after spring ball. Otherwise I like the D. We have depth and experience at DT for the first time in forever, retooled at LB, and what should be our best and most experienced secondary on quite a while.
 

AUFC

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Honestly, I expect our defense to be as good or better next season. It's a challenge for our defensive coaches and our players, but I think we can get better.
That's ambitious. Our defense statistically performed pretty well last year, and that's after you account for the fact that the offense/special teams went 3 and out or put the defense in a short field a good chunk of the time. We've lost the 3 best players from that squad.

I thought the same thing about our MBB team casting the underclassmen into the fire after losing Mike Devoe and Jordan Usher this season but it hasn't come to be at all. Their presence on the floor and ability to create opportunities for the younger guys has been sorely missed. Maybe guys will step into Eley/Thomas/White's roles well, but if not, expect less hurry-ups, knockdowns, and sacks and more time in the pocket for QBs next season. That should translate into more passing yards allowed.

Those 3 guys were special and each were gamechangers/will be hard to replace. One of the most fun GT defenses I've ever rooted for.
 

GT33

Helluva Engineer
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It's a very important year for Thacker. Another good showing under his belt and he can blame 100% of the poor results on C & Thacker comes out of this smelling like a rose. If that happens he should start to make inroads recruiting wise and that half of the ball should be a strength going forward. Not many were guessing that would be the case, but here we are. It will also make Key's job easier only having to fix the offense and special teams instead of all 3.
 

stinger 1957

Helluva Engineer
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Listening to our DL coaches over the last 12 mos or so, the one that seems to have the biggest upside but it hasn't materialized seems to be Noah Collins.
Just wonder if we're not looking for a DL in the portal that has the potential to be a wrecker, but then so is everyone else looking for that same guy.
 

slugboy

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Staff member
Messages
11,431
That's ambitious. Our defense statistically performed pretty well last year, and that's after you account for the fact that the offense/special teams went 3 and out or put the defense in a short field a good chunk of the time. We've lost the 3 best players from that squad.

I thought the same thing about our MBB team casting the underclassmen into the fire after losing Mike Devoe and Jordan Usher this season but it hasn't come to be at all. Their presence on the floor and ability to create opportunities for the younger guys has been sorely missed. Maybe guys will step into Eley/Thomas/White's roles well, but if not, expect less hurry-ups, knockdowns, and sacks and more time in the pocket for QBs next season. That should translate into more passing yards allowed.

Those 3 guys were special and each were gamechangers/will be hard to replace. One of the most fun GT defenses I've ever rooted for.
All three of those guys were special in 2022. But here's our top 12 from 2021. We lost 2 of our top 3 and we lost 8(?) of our top 12 from 2021, and we got better. (I used 12 instead of 10 because I saw Djimon Brooks and felt bad about leaving him off the list, but 11 is a weird number). Keion White had two tackles in 2021. College football teams lose players.

Losing production hurts. Do we have players that can step up? On the DL, I think we're pretty good. At LB, it's more interesting since we lose two seniors, but I think we've got a good coach and some younger players.

Code:
Rk            Player
1       Quez Jackson
2        Ayinde Eley
3     Juanyeh Thomas
4     Charlie Thomas
5    Tariq Carpenter
6      Wesley Walker
7    Jordan Domineck
8       Tre Swilling
9         Jared Ivey
10       Jaylon King
11     Djimon Brooks
12        Myles Sims

Provided by CFB at Sports Reference: View Original Table
Generated 1/2/2023.

Edit: we can absolutely get worse. With a good defense , there’s more room to regress than to improve. We don’t have any incoming star players.
We do have an off-season to put together a good defense with who we have, though
 
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GTRambler

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I’m very hopeful that the new strength and conditioning staff will greatly improve the physicality of the D-Linemen next year.

And the O-Linemen, too.
 

GTBandit22

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Keion will be tough to replace. Not only did he get home, but his pressures and moving the QB around can’t be quantified on a stat sheet.
The other side looks better. We have guys at rush end that should be ready to break out. Just need that war daddy on the other side
 

iceeater1969

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Keion will be tough to replace. Not only did he get home, but his pressures and moving the QB around can’t be quantified on a stat sheet.
The other side looks better. We have guys at rush end that should be ready to break out. Just need that war daddy on the other side
For the 5th time I apologize to Larry Knight. Little real DL coaching experience and lastvguy on staff. Some how we are deep - even with NIL cheap engr
 

SOWEGA Jacket

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I never understand the thought process of “these guys gotta step up“ when you are talking about guys who don’t get snaps. How can you produce if you don‘t get snaps? White was a solid player who produced. He produced because he was in the game. If he had gotten hurt early everyone would be saying he was a transfer who was a bust. We have ballers but only a few can play each snap. It’s like the McCollum thread. McCollum was a best offensive producer because he rarely came off the field. Whoever plays the slot will also produce because the only way you catch a pass is to be targeted on a play. We are losing our 2 starting LB’s. But that doesn’t mean our LB’s will stink next year because we lost 95% of production. If you havent noticed LB’s make tackles by the nature of the position so whoever is there will make tackles. Curry did it for years then Thomas did it. We will be fine. Our 2023 season depends on what we get from our OLine and the QB. That’s it. If we score more points we’ll win more games. Defense matters very little in this era. The top 4 teams in the country had to score 40plus to win so the days of defense are over.
 
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