Mark Bradley, bless his heart, tries to help the genius sell his newest, latest, greatest defense. It’s pretty heavy lifting.
“This defense is set up to make some negative plays,” Johnson said Friday. Indeed, the first three snaps of Tech’s spring game – with the No. 1 offense, minus quarterback TaQuon Marshall, who had strep throat, working against the No. 1 defense – went thusly: touch-sack (no hitting the QB this night), fumble in the backfield, interception. There’s your third-down stop plus a takeaway on the opening series of this defense’s public debut. Can world domination be far off?
Allow reality to retort.
That being said, linebacker Brant Mitchell finished the game with five tackles for loss, contributing to eight total for the Blue-team (first-string) defense…
Time for grains of salt: The first-string defense had nine tackles for loss in last year’s spring game and went on to record 4.3 per game last season, lowest in the ACC. Also, the first-string offensive line was absent its two best players and was using a center (Jahaziel Lee) who had never played the position before this week.
Yes, that smells like dominance. And it wouldn’t be a Tech spring game without a touch of comedic relief.
One is sophomore-to-be Jaquan Henderson of Covington’s Newton High. Asked what he liked about Woody’s defense, Henderson said: “There’s no thinking. We’re trying to make plays. I don’t like to think out there.”
That explains a lot.
Mark has his work cut out for him.