Zeek and Destroy – Football — Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Zeek & Destroy: At a position that prioritizes size, Zeek Biggers worked hard this offseason to make himself smaller (and his hair shorter). But it’s the weight off his shoulders that has allowed the senior to play his best ball of the year.

Inside The Chart | By Andy Demetra (The Voice of the Yellow Jackets)

Weston Franklin winced. Joe Fusile shook his head.

Brute confrontations are an everyday existence for an offensive lineman. They take pride in exerting their dominance and knocking defenders back. But asked to describe the experience of blocking Zeek Biggers, Georgia Tech’s 6-foot-6, 322-pound grizzly bear of a defensive tackle, his teammates on the other side of the trenches don’t mince words.

“It sucks,” Fusile said, laughing.

“It’s like trying to block a truck. That’s what it feels like. The problem is, he’s faster than a truck,” the all-ACC guard added.

Franklin notes that he’s battled Biggers in practice for four years. Blocking him for one Saturday feels like a spa day by comparison.

“It’s definitely not fun. He’s a big guy that’s hard to move,” Franklin said.

Defensive tackles aren’t box score darlings. They eat up double teams, cancel gaps, force ball carriers to slow down or redirect, and more often than not, allow a teammate to make the finishing tackle. Value and glory can have a frustratingly inverse relationship. But that immovability is important, even if they don’t get the individual payoff.

It took a while, but Biggers has to come understand that.

“At first I was like, ‘Dang, I want some stats.’ But as I got older, I realized it’s all about the team. It’s a bigger picture,” he said.

But when a defensive tackle has a big statistical day, like Biggers turned in against 12th-ranked Notre Dame? It’s worthy of praise. The senior from Salisbury, N.C., had arguably his most impactful game of the season against the Fighting Irish, finishing with a season-high five tackles and two tackles for loss.

And according to his head coach, he did it, ironically, by not trying to do too much.

“Consistently with Zeek, just [doing] your job. Don’t try to make plays. Let the plays come to you,” said Brent Key, adding that the Yellow Jackets’ defensive line played its best game of the season against Notre Dame.

An honorable-mention all-ACC performer in 2023, Biggers was considered the anchor of a defensive tackle group that faced its share of skepticism entering the year. But he says the Yellow Jackets’…