Amid the death of hopes, dreams, and the term “plug-and-play” as Tech’s offense sputtered last season, one quiet bright spot was the collective improvement of the A-backs over the course of the season. Sure, they were never perfect—a unit relying heavily on freshmen can never expect to be mistake-free. But as time went on, the A-backs became better and better at finding running lanes and, more importantly, cutting down on missed blocking assignments. A group that looked utterly lost against Notre Dame in mid-September helped to pave the way for long drives against Florida State five weeks later.
There’s still plenty of growing to do, but as fall camp rolls on, the A-back corps seems to be benefiting from two things that were sorely lacking last offseason: in-game experience and (so far) top-to-bottom health.