Ever since Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key made the decision to hire Buster Faulkner as the new offensive coordinator for the Yellow Jackets, Georgia Tech has been one of the most dynamic offenses in the league. The run game and offensive line play have been fantastic, and Faulkner has gotten the most out of quarterback Haynes King. Georgia Tech looks like it has a star in the making with redshirt freshman Aaron Philo. His work at Georgia Tech has made him a national name, and in a recent ranking on ESPN of college football’s next big-time college coaches, analyst Adam Rittenberg made sure to mention Faulkner:
“His innovative system, especially with the run scheme, has helped Georgia Tech to several marquee wins under coach Brent Key. Faulkner, 43, coached Stetson Bennett as Georgia’s quarterbacks coach when the team won two national titles. He also has made stops at Southern Miss, Arkansas State, and Middle Tennessee. Faulkner drew interest from Southern Miss before Charles Huff became available, and should be a candidate for any Group of 5 job in the South or Southeast. He also could move to a higher-profile coordinator gig.”
This season has a chance to be Faulkner’s best with Georgia Tech if they can find some answers to a couple of questions.
King and Philo are back at the quarterback spot, Jamal Haynes is back to lead a talented running back room, Malik Rutherford and FIU transfer Eric Rivers can be explosive weapons at receiver, and first team All-ACC guard Keylan Rutledge is back to lead the offensive line, along with veteran left guard Joe Fusile. The big questions for Georgia Tech are going to be the depth at wide receiver and who will be the new starters at center and right tackle.
As good as Faulkner has been at Georgia Tech, what is the next step for this offense this year to be even better? Faulkner went into detail about that during spring practice:
“I think the biggest, you know you’d look back ten years ago this, you’d say this is year three and you’re kind of picking up where you left off and we’re really kind of back to square one with all the new pieces so the really the biggest thing with us just offensively when you look at overall is we got to be better fundamentally across the board we’ve relied a lot on scheme and we’ve got to get back to the basics and being really good You know, fundamentally at every position. So that’s something we’re really hammering this spring. Cut down a lot of offense to try to be better at that. So the kids aren’t thinking as much. And then also, obviously, we’ve got a lot of new guys.
So the next progression, though, for us offensively is we’ve done a good job of running the football the last two years statistically. I want to see us be more consistent across the board. And we’ve had games where it’s 260, and then we’re right around 100. I’d rather be at 190 every week. And then I want to see the passing game take off, right? That’s got to be the next step. Did a lot of study in this offseason and critical evaluations of us as an offense and also positionally. And then you really look across college football and it’s not exact. But they basically took the four best records in each league, right? And kind of where were they passing in their league. And for the most part, everybody was in the top six, record-wise and passing. So that’s something that you got to be able to throw and catch. It creates explosive plays. We’ve got those guys on our roster and that’s where we’ve got to take the next step.”
Georgia Tech has a chance this season to be one of the darkhorse contenders for the ACC and with Faulkner calling plays, the offense will still be dangerous.
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