Georgia Tech running back Dontae Smith on new offense: "We are going to score a lot of points"

Smith is heading into his final season with Georgia Tech

Georgia Tech hopes to see a significant improvement on offense after being one of the worst in the country in 2022. The Yellow Jackets were 125th in the country in scoring offense, 109th in passing offense, and 91st in rushing offense. Things have not been kind to Georgia Tech on that side of the ball for the past four seasons, but there is hope for a brighter future ahead. 

Running back Dontae Smith is heading into his last season on The Flats and he is going to be a leader of the offense this season and in the locker room. He spoke to the media on Tuesday after practice and when asked about what the fans can expect from this new offense, Smith seemed confident in his answer: 

"We are going to score a lot of points, that is as simple as I can put it. We are going to score a lot of points and I don't think we have done that in the past a lot. I think this offense that we are running with Coach (Buster) Faulkner, I think we are going to score a lot of points. 

As a collective we have been doing a good job. We have receivers that can play, we got freshmen who are developing extremely fast so the depth is there, the plays are there, we just have to go and execute and that is what we have been working on this spring and summer and we have been doing really well at it so we just have to translate that to the season as well." 

Dontae Smith will be a leader for Georgia Tech this season / Lee Luther Jr.-USA TODAY Sports

Georgia Tech has nowhere to go but up in terms of being able to score points and one reason they might is the depth they have at the running back position, which running backs coach Norval McKenzie likes heading into the season:

"I think collectively the young guys are doing well. We always talk about practice and it starts in the meeting room when those guys are learning material and then we talk about that material transferring over to team and it has been good, they are learning a lot in the classroom and they are applying it on the field and I would say those young guys are coming along. Jamie (Felix) is having a good camp, Jamal Haynes has done a good job switching over from wide receiver, he has done a great job.

I am very excited about those guys' growth and extremely excited about where they are going and their trajectory is going upward."

McKenzie was asked about how many of these guys he could trust in a game right now and he felt very confident that all of them could handle it:

"Right now I would say all of them and that is just in terms of preparation. We always talk about how preparation leads to performance, we talk about owning your reps and I challenge these guys... we have 120 snaps that each individual took 120 snaps and while you may not have gotten all of them physically, you got all of them mentally.

For us, we talk about the game being played from the neck up, its a mental game, you have to prepare like you are the starter and that is part of my job and part of my responsibility to prepare and I have confidence that if I put them in they can own their rep and they can go do their jobs."

Smith finished with 420 yards and five touchdowns on 80 carries, averaging 4.8 per carry. Smith is explosive when he is healthy and can catch the ball out of the backfield and I would think that he will be the starting back entering the spring. I recently wrote about how Georgia Tech needed to get more explosive in the passing game and that can include Smith. He is a legitimate home run threat when he has the ball in his hands and that will give the Yellow Jackets offense a different dimension that they lacked last year.

The Doak Walker Award Watch List was revealed yesterday and on that list was none other than Smith.

The Doak Walker Award is handed out at the end of the season to the top running back in the nation and Smith is on that shortlist. He opted to come back for one more season at Georgia Tech and help guide the Yellow Jackets to a winning record. Smith is one of 75 running backs to make the watch list. Smith also made the list last season. 

Georgia Tech opens its 2023 season against Louisville on Sept. 1st at 7:30 on ESPN. 

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