Georgia Tech defense takes big leap in 1st season under Valley grad Tyler Santucci

After Georgia Tech finished with the ACC’s worst defense in 2023, coach Brent Key decided something needed to be done to improve that unit.

Andrew Thacker, who had been Tech’s defensive coordinator since 2019, already had been assigned a new role midway through the 2023 season. Kevin Sherrer, the Yellowjackets’ linebackers coach, was moved into the defensive coordinator’s role for the remainder of the season.

But in January 2024, Key hired Valley grad Tyler Santucci to become defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, and the program ultimately parted ways with Thacker and Sherrer. Santucci had spent the previous season at Duke, and while Georgia Tech’s defense struggled in 2023, the Blue Devils excelled under Santucci’s leadership.

Duke finished the 2023 season with the ACC’s best scoring defense (19.0 points per game) and ranked in the top 50 in the nation in several major categories. So successful was Santucci that he was nominated for the Broyles Award, which honors the top assistant coach in the country.

This season, the Yellowjackets defense made a marked improvement on its way to a 7-5 (5-3 ACC) record and a date with Vanderbilt on Friday in the Birmingham Bowl.

Georgia Tech went from last in total defense in the ACC (437.1 yards per game) to fifth (345.9). The rushing defense, also last in 2023 (221.3), jumped to sixth (120.2), and the Yellowjackets allowed five fewer points per game, rising from No. 16 in the 17-team league to ninth.

“I think, generally speaking, ‘improvement’ and ‘progress’ would be the first two words that come to my mind,” Santucci told TribLive. “It’s not where we want to be, but I do think we have taken a number of steps in a lot of different areas to become what we want to become in the future.”

Asked which area improved the most, Santucci immediately pointed to the defensive line. And there is proof to back up Santucci’s belief: redshirt junior defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg and senior defensive tackle Zeek Biggers were named All-ACC.

Van den Berg, a native of South Africa who appeared in 28 games over three seasons at Penn State before transferring to Georgia Tech, was named to the second team after registering 20 total tackles (five for loss), a sack and two fumble recoveries. Biggers (19 total tackles, three pass breakups, blocked kick) earned honorable mention for the second straight season.

“Zeek had been in this program for three years, and this is his final year,” Santucci said. “Just really appreciate him in trusting us with his final year of preparation at this school and preparing him for the next level and what’s next for him. I think he played his best football in the most meaningful games this year.

“And I think JJ van den Berg … I don’t want to say he was a surprise. We thought, getting him here last spring, that he had some traits and some tools that could really benefit him playing in this defense.”

Additionally, redshirt sophomore linebacker Kyle Efford was named third-team All-ACC after piling up a team-leading 64 total tackles (5¹⁄₂ for loss and three sacks) despite missing two games with an injury. That gave the GT defense three all-conference honorees after Biggers was the lone representative in 2023.

There were plenty of notable team moments as well, such as beating a pair of teams ranked in the AP top 15. Georgia Tech opened the season with a win over then-No. 10 Florida State in a game played in Dublin, Ireland.

Then, on Nov. 9, the Yellowjackets upset then-No. 13 Miami, 28-23. Georgia Tech not only held the nation’s top scoring offense in check — the Hurricanes finished the season with an average of 44.2 points — it put a big dent in Miami’s College Football Playoff hopes.

Of course, there also was the now-famous eight-overtime loss to in-state rival and current No. 2 Georgia in the regular-season finale. The final score of 44-42, at first glance, appears to be a defensive coordinator’s worst nightmare. But in regulation, which ended 27-27, Tech held Georgia a touchdown below its season scoring average.

“I think our kids understand now — and I think they really understood it all season — when we are at our best and we play our best, we can do anything we put our minds to,” Santucci said. “There’s been a stigma around this state — for obvious reasons — that Georgia is one thing and Georgia Tech is something else. I think it’s important for our kids to feel like, wow, we outplayed them.

“Yeah, we didn’t win, but that whole game we knew we were capable of winning. That’s the first step is believing.”

After all, he said, it could have been worse.

“You go into (eight) overtimes and give up 44 points, I don’t feel so bad about that compared to (2018) when I was (a defensive analyst) at Texas A&M. We played a seven-OT game and gave up 72. The eight-overtime 44 felt a little better.”

With a victory in the Birmingham Bowl on Friday, Georgia Tech will finish with eight wins for the first time since a 9-4 mark in 2016. Then a busy offseason lies ahead for Santucci and the Tech staff as they look to keep the program moving on an upward trajectory.

“First off, we have to replace a lot of seniors that are leaving due to graduation on our defense,” he said. “And every offseason, there are things you look at and say, ‘Wow, we were really poor,’ whether that be situational football in the red zone, two-minute, whatever it may be, my job is to put our players in the best position possible to have success.”