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Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009

Morgan continues to shine on Tech line

ATLANTA — Throughout his football career, Giff Smith has seen a lot of good defensive linemen.

Having been a three-time All-America standout at the position himself in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he knows exactly what the best ones possess: speed, power, size and an uncanny knack for devouring ballcarriers in the backfield.

After three seasons of being Georgia Tech’s recruiting coordinator, five as its defensive line coach and another five commanding Tulane’s line, he has finally encountered a coach’s dream in Derrick Morgan.

“He’s the best one I’ve ever coached,” Smith said without flinching. “He’s the best defensive linemen, in general, I’ve coached. There’s not a weakness to his game.”

In the waning days of Morgan’s junior campaign, very few would argue.

A leading All-America, Lombardi Award and Hendricks Award candidate, Morgan has been the most consistent component within Georgia Tech’s ever-changing defensive line. A 6-foot-4, 272-pound defensive end, he has led the Yellow Jackets (7-1, 5-1 ACC) in sacks and tackles for loss this season, while helping his team storm to one of its better starts in recent history.

But regardless how strong the team’s start may look now, Morgan knows that without certain key changes a couple of weeks ago, it could have all been for naught.

“I’m never satisfied (with myself),” Morgan said. “I feel like there are a lot of plays out there that I left out on the field. There may be a couple of plays that I could have made. So I’m not satisfied with my own performance (so far). I know I could get a lot better.”

Some of that talk is the byproduct of events three weeks ago, when the Yellow Jackets’ defense gave up 539 total yards to Florida State, forcing the Georgia Tech offense to score 49 points for a narrow five-point win.

It wasn’t, however, the only moment the defense struggled.

Yellow Jackets defenders appeared outhustled during Georgia Tech’s 33-17 loss to Miami and looked much the same two games later during a 42-31 win over Mississippi State.

Following each performance, coaches and players fielded their share of criticism before stepping back and searching for alternatives to try to play even better.

“I voiced my opinion by just saying, ‘We know what we’ve got to do. We’re trying to get to the championship, and we’ve just got to play a lot better. We can’t have our offense scoring all these points and us giving up all these points on defense, so we’ve just got to go out there and play our game,’ ” Morgan said.

Joining Morgan in bringing added focus and ownership into the defense were fellow team leaders Brad Jefferson and safety Morgan Burnett. A linebacker, Jefferson charged himself for holding his unit accountable for playing better, as did Burnett with the secondary.

“The great teams that I’ve been around, that’s normally how it’s handled — is when your peers call you out,” Smith said. “Sometimes it has a lot more effect than when a coach does it because you never want to let your teammates down, and that’s why leadership in the game of football is so important.”

In the two games since the Yellow Jackets’ dramatic victory over Florida State, Morgan has had six tackles, including a pair of crucial sacks. The sacks came at the end of the third quarter of both games and helped preserve late-game leads.

While those numbers may not sound overly spectacular — especially when held next to his 15-tackle, five-sack performance after the first two games — they have come as opposing offenses have thrown a full arsenal into stopping him.

Getting double- and triple-teamed by offensive linemen, Morgan has been the focus of most offensive lines this season. It has forced the Yellow Jackets to become crafty with how they use him.

“We move him around,” Smith said. “He’ll play on the left or right sides, or we’ll bring him from some different areas. We try not to isolate him to where they know where he’s going to be all the time. Now, obviously, they could check at the line of scrimmage, but we just try to do some different stuff to try to take advantage of them trying to set some protections against him.”

Miami was the first to fully commit to stopping Morgan — the sole returning member of the Yellow Jackets’ dominant line from a year ago. Following his 10-tackle effort the week before against Clemson, the junior went on to amass just seven tackles during his next three games, with none for loss.

“Well you know the three seniors we had last year had so much publicity going into the season, but we knew Derrick was a heck of a football player,” Smith said. “He was a little bit media-wise under the shadow, but I think if you talk to a lot of coaches around the league they knew awfully a lot about No. 91.

“And that’s one of the things we visited with him a lot on this offseason is, ‘You’re the guy. Everybody is going to know you, you’ll have three unknowns beside you, how are you going to handle it?’ ”

As expected, Smith said, Morgan has handled it well.

“He’s been a great bell-cow for me and having an opportunity to coach a (player) like Derrick Morgan doesn’t come around very often and I feel very fortunate for that,” Smith said. “And to see him grow within that just makes you feel good as a coach.”