The Secret Key To A College Football Playoff Run For Georgia Tech

Georgia Tech has been pinning over taking that next jump the past few seasons and has continued to inch towards putting itself in position to make a playoff run. The defense has been competent and has carried in games at times for the Yellow Jackets but it is one key area on defense that if the Yellow Jackets master, it could be major for the prospects in 2026. They made a big move to help with that.

One of the big moves they made in the offseason was getting a new defensive coordinator in Jason Semore, who has a vast amount of experience coaching defenses and has them play at a high level. He specializes in the one area in which the Yellow Jackets have lacked consistency. Here is head coach Brent Key on the turnover margin, havoc rate and what the Yellow Jackets can do to improve it.

“We talked about it on Sunday when I showed them those numbers, and you know we've improved, but the improvement's still this. From the first game to now, yeah, if you want to look at it like that as a whole yeah, there's improvement. It’s not every week you're going to get lower lower higher higher higher. They're going in the right direction. A lot of it depends on the plays played right well, that's as a percentage. That's why it's not just total. That's the thing I like about it and why I like using it because whether you play 60 plays in the game, 55 plays in the game, or, you know, 95 plays in the game, it's going to give you a true look at that. I look at that in production on defense, production on offense, too,” said Key.

“I don't care how many, you know, TFLS somebody has or many pass breakups. Well, how many plays are they playing? You know, what's the percentage of time they're out there that they're actually impacting the game? Then we put it all together in the offense, defense, havoc, and the margin of error. We've improved on it. think that's pretty obvious by the turnovers in the games. We've improved on our turnovers, but we've got to continue to improve on the takeaways because we're looking at the overall margin turnover margin for a team. It's not just one side of the ball that you win games with. I don't believe in that. It's complimentary football. It's playing a full game in all three phases. We've got to continue to work on that, you know, getting our hands on the football. Getting takeaways, getting the ball out, protecting the ball on offense.”

It is pretty simple for Georgia Tech; they need more explosive plays on defense and to create negative plays for the opposing offense. Sacks, tackles for loss, pass deflections, and turnovers are the formula. In the past, they have been too hot and cold with it.

“We're still kind of hot and cold with the TFLs. The TFLs are what really increase or decrease that number because you can look there and say, Okay, well, you know, on offense, we didn't give up a sack this game, but we had, you know, five or six TFLs." Well, that category is the same. It's sacks and TFLs combined. It's plays made behind the line of scrimmage. You might have two or three sacks in a game, but you don't get any TFLs, right? It's about getting those guys to go the other way and us not going that way on offense. So, you know, they've improved over the year. I think you probably guessed I'm never going to be satisfied with it until it's consistently zero,” said Key.

They have the talent that matches up, and now feel like they finally have the coaching that can allow them to take that next jump as a defense and compete at a high level. With the familiarity with the program that Semore brings, the potential is through the roof. With more negative plays and winning that turnover margin along with the havoc rate, they can get the offense more opportunities. It may be a case in 2026 where the defense has to carry the offense for some games while they figure it out and try to gel together. Will the Yellow Jackets be up to the challenge? If they are, they could make the College Football Playoff next season.

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