Nearly 365 days ago, Clemson escaped against Georgia Tech after the Yellow Jackets put together a defensive game plan the Tigers never saw coming.
Of all the things Clemson saw on tape from Tech’s defense ahead of the teams’ mid-September matchup last season, routinely dropping eight defenders into coverage wasn’t one of them. Yet that’s exactly what Tech defensive coordinator Andrew Thacker drew up more often than not, which played a part in Tech holding Clemson to just two touchdowns in the Tigers’ 14-8 victory at Memorial Stadium.
Quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei had one of his more efficient outings of the season by completing 18 of 25 passes. But those completions amounted to just 126 yards as the Yellow Jackets kept everything in front and made Clemson try to beat them primarily on the ground, something passing-game coordinator turned offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter remembers well. Clemson finished that game with just 284 total yards.
“They did a handful of things last year that were different than what we saw on film,” Streeter said. “Andrew does a great job obviously. He threw in a wrench for us last year.”
When the teams meet again Monday night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, it’s possible the Yellow Jackets implement a similar game plan against a Clemson offense looking to prove last season was an outlier after struggling for most of the year. Or Thacker could decide to mix things up a little more out of Tech’s 4-2-5 base defense.
“Good question,” Streeter said when asked what he expects Tech’s defensive approach to be this time around.
But Streeter said Clemson is better prepared for whatever the Yellow Jackets come up with, though it has little to do with what the Tigers saw from Tech a season ago. While it helps to have that on film, Streeter pointed to the defense his group goes up against every day as to why he believes there’s nothing Tech can throw at Clemson that will catch the offense off guard this time around.
“Fortunately we go against a defense that does a lot of things, so we are prepared for really everything you can think of,” Streeter said. “That’s what’s special about going against our defense. We’ve seen it all. We’ve seen every type of front that you can think of. We’ve seen every kind of coverage. So it really prepares our guys to be ready for these types of games when you’re really not 100% sure what they’re going to get.
“It’s important for us to just cover our bases, make sure we understand our game plan, know exactly what we want to do and then go execute it.”
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