Best defense

Techfan02

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Another thread made me wonder, what is the best defense that we’ve ever had?
 

KrazieJacket

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Geez, at which era? It’s not really an easy question as the era would matter quite a bit. With Tenuta we had some good games and coupled it into a few good streaks of games. Early 90’s lots of players but still questionable games. I believe in the 50’s and 20’s some streaks of other teams not scoring but is really hard to measure that against anything now.
 

RamblinWreck27

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Going completely off the top of my head, and going back to when I can remember first watching games as a kid (early 90s ), i’d say my first few years of undergrad 04-06 were consistently the best I have seen. The defensive line play from that time period of Johnson/Walker/Anaoi/Richards/Henderson and lbs Wheeler/Wilkinson/Guyton/Hall was really solid, no weak links. Landry and Scott in the secondary too. We’ve had some players before and since then that may have even been better than those guys individually, but not that level of depth across-the-board.
 
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Tampa Jacket

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Another thread made me wonder, what is the best defense that we’ve ever had?
Some of Tenuta’s were good. They had to be to go to a bowl every year despite Patrick Nix and Chan Gailey who are the only 2 coaches on the planet that could have managed to lose to Wake Forest in The ACC Championship having scored only 6 points with the best college WR to ever play the game. They could have lined Megatron up in The Wildcat and he would have averaged 5+ yds a carry. He was impossible to tackle.
 
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Techbert

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Some of Tenuta’s were good. They had to be to go to a bowl every year despite Patrick Nix and Chan Gailey who are the only 2 coaches on the planet that could have managed to lose to Wake Forest in The ACC Championship having scored only 6 points with the best college WR to ever play the game. They could have lined Megatron up in The Wildcat and he would have averaged 5+ yds a carry. He was impossible to tackle.
I was there, and I am totally convinced the game was fixed by the ACC. WF had a sob story and were the darlings of the league and the national media. They were able to move the ball on us because they figured out that holding would never be called against them, and they stopped us because they were pretty good and they would not have pass interference called on them.
 

ramblinwise1

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No doubt in my mind. The best I've seen in my lifetime of 65 years: 1970.

Bud carson defense with Rock Perondi, Smylie Gebhart, Jeff Ford, Bubba Hoats, and many more
Yep. Came here to post this. Carson was a defensive genius, just not much of a recruiter or offensive play caller. Also remember that Dodd's strategy was put the best players on the defense and not make unforced errors. Boring but effective. Personnel wise Ross's defensive was probably the best, but '98-00 was damn good too.
 

79tech

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1990 - 2005 defense was very good but 1990 defense won a national championship and coleman, rudolph, kimsey, tiggle, clay swilling and company were very tough group and had a good pash rush.
 

OptionJacket

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Yeah, 1990 was pretty stout. Those guys just made plays and it always wasn’t the Swillings and Coleman’s. That was a true team with brother picking up brother. Some of the defenses under O’Leary were outstanding as well. I’m really hoping these young bucks like Kennard, Ivey, etc get us back to that point. The problem for all schools is that the rules are so slanted now that even Saban has pivoted to an era where offense wins over defense.
 

coit

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Best defense is a good offense. Or is that the other way around?
 

aeromech

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I don't go back as far as Bud Carson; but defense in the mid-80's with Don Lindsey was good. George O'leary's defenses under Ross were pretty good too.
 

Flywheel

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2005. The Miami and Auburn games were masterpieces against elite teams, one of whom was on a 15-game win streak which we snapped. We allowed those two a combined three TDs and a field goal.

But man... researching this and seeing us go 7-5 and lose a bowl game despite CJ21 and the best defense we've known is a painful reminder why Chan got canned.
 

00Burdell

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Bud Carson and Don Lindsey were the best Defensive Coordinators in GT history.

I really don't know how to pick which one had the best defense.

If you put a gun to my head, I guess I have to go with Carson but damn it's close.

For those unfamiliar with Don Lindsey, here is a story for you.

I have it directly from two defensive linemen I was friends with on the 1985 team that against the dwags that year (the infamous "fog" game), we showed a different defensive alignment on every single offensive play that the dwags ran. I forget the numbers but I think I recall the dwags running about 61 plays. That means we had >60 different defensive alignments for the game.

That is unheard of in this day and age.
 
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JollyGoodFellow90GT#1

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The best Tech defense that I remember was the 1985 Black Watch team. Don Lindsey was our defensive coordinator. I wish we had him now! I was only 9 year's old, at the time, but I remember that team well. Some of the notable members of the Black Watch defense were linebacker Ted Roof, defensive back, Cleve Pounds, and the great defensive end, Pat Swilling.

In '85, most of our games were broadcast only on the radio. However, Tech played a night game that year on ESPN against Tennessee in Knoxville. We tied the Vols 6-6, but outplayed them and should have won. I don't remember Tennessee crossing the 50 yard line but maybe once, if that. One of their field goals was around 60 yards or more.


GO JACKETS!
 

BrentwoodJacket

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The best Tech defense that I remember was the 1985 Black Watch team. Don Lindsey was our defensive coordinator. I wish we had him now! I was only 9 year's old, at the time, but I remember that team well. Some of the notable members of the Black Watch defense were linebacker Ted Roof, defensive back, Cleve Pounds, and the great defensive end, Pat Swilling.

In '85, most of our games were broadcast only on the radio. However, Tech played a night game that year on ESPN against Tennessee in Knoxville. We tied the Vols 6-6, but outplayed them and should have won. I don't remember Tennessee crossing the 50 yard line but maybe once, if that. One of their field goals was around 60 yards or more.


GO JACKETS!
The best Tech defense that I remember was the 1985 Black Watch team. Don Lindsey was our defensive coordinator. I wish we had him now! I was only 9 year's old, at the time, but I remember that team well. Some of the notable members of the Black Watch defense were linebacker Ted Roof, defensive back, Cleve Pounds, and the great defensive end, Pat Swilling.

In '85, most of our games were broadcast only on the radio. However, Tech played a night game that year on ESPN against Tennessee in Knoxville. We tied the Vols 6-6, but outplayed them and should have won. I don't remember Tennessee crossing the 50 yard line but maybe once, if that. One of their field goals was around 60 yards or more.


GO JACKETS!
I was at the game in Knoxville. We should have won. Near the end with the score 6 to 3, UT went for it on fourth down with less than 2 minutess left. Reggie Rutland chose to intercept the ball rather than knocking it down. That cost us 20 plus yards of field position. We ended up punting and UT kicked a 55 yard field goal on the last play of the game. If we do not intercept, they are not in range for that kick. Tennessee was ranked 16th.
 
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IM79

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No doubt in my mind. The best I've seen in my lifetime of 65 years: 1970.

Bud carson defense with Rock Perondi, Smylie Gebhart, Jeff Ford, Bubba Hoats, and many more
I remember my 13 year old self listening to the 1970 N Dame game on the radio With Al C and being so disappointed about losing. Was that the ND game where Jeff Ford returned an interception 103 yards ?
 

Flywheel

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