Every now and then, cornerback Tre Swilling finds himself moseying over to crash the wide receivers’ meetings as they go over route progressions and techniques. Georgia Tech may live by the mantra that competition is king, but when it comes to understanding a player’s role on the team, that competition gives way to a collective understanding.
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For any college football player, it isn’t enough to just know your own role within your selected position or unit. Instead, to have the best grip on the game itself, knowledge — and the sharing of it — reigns supreme.
That is precisely why Swilling — Georgia Tech’s cornerstone at cornerback — made sure he was soaking in what the wide receivers are being taught. Unlike many players on Georgia Tech’s roster who have been splitting time between offensive and defensive reps at various positions, Swilling is very much locked into playing cornerback this season. But that means it’s important for Swilling to listen in on the receivers’ meetings now that the role of the Georgia Tech receivers has changed.
“Whenever (coaches) meet with a receiver I always try to go in as much as I can and steal some things and come back out and use it on them,” Swilling said. “Everybody’s trying to get better. We are competing against ourselves (in the spring), but in a couple of months, we will be going against some of the best players in the country.”
Swilling and the rest of the Georgia Tech cornerbacks are learning a new system and techniques in their own right under cornerbacks coach Jeff Popovich. Under the new leadership, cornerbacks will be implementing a more aggressive and physical press-man coverage.
Swilling spent 2018 back-peddling and reacting to the moves of opposing receivers. This season, Swilling will play a more active role in his coverage, and he explained the change in coverage has sped up the game. Instead of reacting to receivers’ decisions, he is proactively dissecting possible routes and progressions before the ball is snapped on each down.
That means being in on the receivers’ meetings has become crucial to his understanding of what he is supposed to do. There, Swilling says he can see how he is going to be attacked. And Swilling is just one another example of a defensive player capitalizing on the transition the offense is making.
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“I think it’s going to make us better because now we get to actually see the same routes that we are seeing in the games now at practice,” Swilling said.
This give-and-take of information from secondary to receivers is something that Popovich has encouraged. He says football is 80 to 90 percent mental, so sharing the information while helping the mental preparation is key to all positions.
“Any time you can try to gain an understanding of how you are going to be attacked and what offenses are trying to do to defenses and then vice versa for our receivers learning how the defense will play them, I think that is always very valuable,” Popovich said. “Knowledge is huge.”
Since Geoff Collins took over at Georgia Tech, a major part of the transition has been the implementation of the coaches teaching from a global concept. This means there is a certain cohesiveness from offense to defense and to special teams.
For many programs, this really wouldn’t be that a drastic change. It is at Georgia Tech, however, because of where the program is coming from. Before, Georgia Tech defenses saw the option day in and day out at practice, and what the defense needed to see about it opponents was provided through looks from the scout team.
Now, there is more give-and-take happening that could have a lasting payoff: A better understanding of a player’s role can come through his own knowledge but also from his teammates on the other side of the ball.
What’s interesting about this global concept of sharing ideas, attacks and techniques is the basis of communication that comes through it.
“The way we teach schematically is from a global concept so that everybody can be integral in what we do,” Collins said. “What we call defenses from an offensive perspective is exactly what we call it on the defensive side.”
Tre Swilling, right, says he is learning plenty from Georgia Tech’s wide receivers in addition to his work and knowledge at cornerback. (Georgia Tech Athletics)
Collins used Jahaziel Lee as an example of this global concept of communication and why it’s so important within the scope of this transition.
For years, Lee has been rotating in as an offensive lineman under Paul Johnson. But when circ*mstances showed Georgia Tech’s new coaches they needed more experienced bodies on the defensive line, Lee was one of the first players to volunteer to make the move. During the final couple of weeks of spring practice, Lee bounced from offensive line to defensive line, sometimes in a matter of minutes. Whether Lee finds a permanent spot on the defensive line will be decided during the summer as coaches work to figure out where best he fits.
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In the meantime, Lee needed to prepare on both sides of the line. If Georgia Tech’s terminology varied from unit to unit, that would create an uphill battle when trying to learn both, especially when considering that both units were putting in new schemes with a new coaching staff.
“Whenever there is a crossover like when Jahaziel Lee comes over and is asked to run one of our base calls, well, when he is playing offensive line, he has heard coach (Brent) Key use that verbiage when we are looking at the defensive line,” Collins said.
Through each example, it seems the players are benefitting from this concept of teaching globally. But offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude says this type of teaching is at the core of putting his schemes in place.
“A great offense is going to be when the combination of your offensive understanding and your defensive understanding meet,” Patenaude said.
Like Collins, Patenaude used the example of what is going on in real time with current players on the roster. The easiest example of this is through the work Patenaude does with the quarterbacks.
“For a quarterback, once he understands what the defense is trying to do and what they are trying to take away, it’s really easy for him to manipulate the defense,” Patenaude said. “He has to have an unbelievable understanding of what we do but an even deeper understanding of defenses so that he knows where to go with the ball.”
At the core of what the coaches are doing at Georgia Tech are the teachings of both offensive and defensive philosophies, techniques and attacks. Those are seen in just about every facet of their teachings: Patenaude’s work with the quarterbacks, players like Lee taking reps at different positions, Swilling crashing the wide receiver meetings.
“It all comes down to communication,” Patenaude said. “We all have to talk. It has to be one band, one sound. And we echo that from defense to offense to special teams; we’re all communicating. And once that communication becomes concise, then you can be really physical, because you’re not unsure anymore.”
(Top photo of Tre Swilling: Rich von Biberstein / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
