The road to Georgia Tech’s 3-7 record in 2020 was paved with its 89 penalties, which ranked third most in FBS and included 26 false starts.
Coach Geoff Collins has sought to address the issue, bringing in officials during spring practice to call penalties and doing that now in the preseason. Asked about false starts Friday, offensive-line coach Brent Key did not say specifically that his players were improving in that area, but he also did not fume on the topic, something of an indication of progress.
“You guys have all heard the saying – you’re either coaching it or allowing it,” Key said. “And you’re damn sure I’m not going to allow it out there with those guys. We’ve worked really hard. But it’s a credit to those guys that they’re taking (accountability), too.”
Center Mikey Minihan said that cadence issues with freshman quarterback Jeff Sims were part of the problem. Over the offseason, two have worked on it together.
“There was a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that was just me and Jeff working on it, me and the other centers and quarterbacks doing stuff,” Minihan said.
Last year, of Tech’s 26 false starts, three were on fourth down when the Jackets were punting. Of the other 23, on first, second or third down or on a fourth down when Tech was going for a first down, the Jackets were able to overcome the penalty and gain a first down only seven times, 30.4%.
“We’ve got to control the amount of times that we have self-inflicted errors,” Key said. “Because those do end up costing you football games. They cost you field position; they cost you games.”
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