Technical Tidbits 4/20: Life, Death, and Ted Roof Simplifying His Defense

The Tidbits this morning hopes everyone enjoys their “random” workplace drug testing tomorrow. It surely came out of nowhere and caught all of you by surprise. Anyway...

Ted Roof is simplifying the defense, this time at the beginning of the season.

As surely as the sun rises, about half way through the season, after Tech has gotten torched by one of the 3-4 offenses that torch them per annual tradition, the defensive coaches talk about what they’re going to do to fix their side of the ball. It’s inevitably simplification. Every friggin year. They’ll go back to basics. Start from day 1. They’ll teach tackling drills and where to line up. The defense is being simplified, you see, so that the players can think less and play more. Earlier in the season, some of the players were thinking too much, especially the younger guys. Now, they can just play. They can run downhill, play faster.

It remains to be seen if simplifying the defense during camp instead of half way through the season will pay any dividends, but anything is worth a shot at this point. About ¹⁄₃ of the way thru the season, say (and I’m just blindly guessing here), the UNC game on September 30th, when the coaches say all of this again, and simplify their simplification, please remember these words in this Technical Tidbits. It’s sure to not come back to haunt you... say around the afternoon of September 30th.

Justin Thomas Recieves Endorsement From Former NFL GM

After working out a myriad of positions at Tech’s Pro Day and then playing as a CB in the Senior Bowl, Phil Savage thinks JT5 would be a steal as an undrafted free agent. There’s no doubting that Thomas possesses the physical abilities to play with anyone at the professional level, and he could conceivably find a spot as a slot receiver or defensive back on an NFL roster. He also ran a blinding 40 in front of the scouts at Pro Day, clocking in at 4.33 seconds. He deserves a shot, and it wouldn’t shock any of us here at FTRS to see him picked up by an NFL team in the later rounds.

Elsewhere...

Kentucky football players received their bowl participation rings this week. You may remember them almost getting doubled up in their loss to Georgia Tech in the illustrious Taxslayer Bowl. What an occasion to commemorate.

I’m actually hoping these rings aren’t personalized and that every ring just says STOOPS in block letters on it. I also enjoy that it reminds them, for no apparent reason, that they play in the SEC East... not that they won the East or anything... just that they play in it. Go Cats.

Smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.