Georgia Tech Football: Meet the Newcomers - Edge

As a football team, there are a few things that you absolutely have to have (in more cases than not): a good quarterback, some protection for that quarterback, and someone to get to the quarterback. And with that last one, well, I’m one to believe that you can never have too many people to get to the quarterback.

In this year’s recruiting class, Geoff Collins and Co. appeared to believe that as well, adding four new edge players: Joshua Robinson, Noah Collins, Keion White, and Kevin Harris, the last two of which are transfers.

Joshua Robinson

Robinson announced his commitment to Georgia Tech last May on Twitter, committing over other reported offers from several other Power 5 schools, such as Florida, Michigan and Notre Dame, but Rivals reported that Duke, Stanford and Vanderbilt were the other major players for Robinson. He was rated as a three-star recruit by both Rivals (5.7) and the 247 Sports Composite (0.8700)

Now let’s take a look at some film!

From the start, the thing that stands out to me is Robinson’s vision. He is able to find the ballcarrier with ease, and there’s even a play around 1:05 that’s an option play that does not fool Robinson. Standing at 6-4, 235 pounds, Robinson is already pretty big and has a good frame to get bigger. He is a little stiff, but there’s some serious potential here.

Noah Collins

Just a few days after Robinson’s commitment, Noah Collins announced that he was flipping from UCF to commit to Georgia Tech.

Collins is rated a little lower than Robinson, but is still a three-star by Rivals (5.6) and the 247 Sports Composite (0.8588). He also has a different body type, standing at 6-4, 218, so he is a little longer. Let’s take a look at how that shows on film.

While not completely reliant on it, Collins mostly acted as a speed rusher. Grayson lined him up on both sides of the line, which is nice to see, but I would like to see him take a year or two and bulk up a little bit and develop more as a pass rusher. There’s definitely a lot to like here though.

Kevin Harris

In the first part of December, Georgia Tech picked up the first of its two edge additions via transfer in Kevin Harris, who transferred from Alabama. Formerly a four-star recruit, Harris’ addition continues to grow the Grayson pipeline that Collins has been building. In his two seasons with the Crimson Tide, Harris did not see any playing time, so I only have his high school film to work with.

Harris has an incredible motor and just bulldozes over everyone he’s lined up against. Among the players on this list, I think he has the most raw talent, so I’m curious to see how he has developed over the last two years. He shows great speed and power. I also like that there was a play where it looks like the QB is going to throw it before Harris can get to him, so he stops and puts his hands up to try to tip the pass. It was a good eye for him.

Keion White

Joining Harris in December, Georgia Tech got its final edge addition via transfer in the form of Keion White of Old Dominion. In an interview with Rivals, White mentioned there were a number of schools interested in him:

“It was a hectic time.” said White in a brief interview with JOL. “I had coaches from all over the country trying to reach out to me. This recruiting process was crazy for me, because I was not heavily recruited out of high school. This time around, the flood gates opened when all of the coaches from every conference started reaching out.”

In the end, after hearing from schools such as Auburn, NC State, South Carolina, Tennessee, Duke, Mississippi State, and Missouri among several others, White quickly started to narrow things down.

Of the players listed here, White is probably the one I am the most excited about. He brings really good size at 6-4, 267, and has demonstrated success against Power 5 schools. In 2019, as part of his 19 TFL campaign, White had a combined 14 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks against two Power 5 schools. The two schools? Virginia and Virginia Tech. In looking for clips, I actually found the video below of someone breaking down his film from that Virginia game:

Conclusion

I said this at the beginning, and I will say this again. You can never have too many guys trying to get to the quarterback. And Georgia Tech added four pretty good options here. Looking specifically at this year, I think Keion White will definitely be playing this year, if he isn’t the starter. I think Harris will also be given his chances too.

How are you feeling about Tech’s edge additions?