Georgia Tech Football: Can Yellow Jackets make progress in 2021?

Defense hopes to make major improvements in year three under Collins

When Georgia Tech hired Geoff Collins away from Temple, he was known as a defensive-minded coach and he always had Temple playing hard on that side of the ball. So far though, the Yellow Jackets have not been able to get consistently good on defense just yet.

The Yellow Jackets are hoping to fix their pass rush and they seem to be able to have the right guys to do so. Jordan Domineck led the team in sacks last season and he will be joined by Antonneous Clayton on the other side. Look for freshman Sylvain Yondjouen, Jared Ivey and Kyle Kennard who are going to be looking to make an impact on the field, as well as Alabama transfer Kevin Harris and Old Dominion transfer Keion White to help out as well. Djimon Brooks and Mike Lockhart are going to be back on the interior this season.

Quez Jackson is the lone returning starter at linebacker and he will be joined by Maryland transfer Ayinde Eley on the other side. The linebackers have talent, but look to be more consistent this season.

In the secondary, safeties Juanyeh Thomas and Tariq Carpenter are looking to bounce back after having disappointing seasons a year ago. Both players are talented, but struggled most of the season in 2020. At corner, Tre Swilling is back for another season as the starter and he will be joined by Zamari Walton and Wesley Walker.

This defense has talent, but has not found any consistency and will be counting on young players and transfers to get the Yellow Jackets defense up to Collins standard.