If you want proof that context matters in NFL Draft evaluation, look no further than Christen Miller’s career arc at Georgia. He arrived in Athens as a four-star recruit and spent his first two years buried behind first-round picks Jordan Davis, Devonte Wyatt, and Jalen Carter — three players who all heard their names called on Day 1.
Georgia
Where Did Georgia Tech Land In the Final SP+ Rankings Before The 2024 Season?
Georgia Tech is less than two weeks away from kicking off their 2024 season with a huge overseas matchup against defending ACC Champion Florida State. The Seminoles are favored heading into that game, but Georgia Tech has a huge opportunity for an upset and to show they could be contenders in the ACC.
One of the best power rating and predictive ranking systems out there is ESPN College Football analyst Bill Connelly’s SP+. Today, Connelly released the final SP+ rankings heading into the 2024 season and Georgia Tech is going to start the season ranked No. 58, with the No. 33 projected offense, the No. 94 projected defense, and the No. 68 projected special teams unit. I think it is obvious that if Georgia Tech’s offense remains at this projected level and there is a serious improvement on defense, this ranking is going to go up during the season. Head coach Brent Key has been very complementary of the defensive line so far during fall camp and it appears they are making needed progress. They will have to show it on the field though.
What exactly is SP+? Here is how Connelly himself describes it:
“As always, these are based on three primary factors: returning production (final rankings for which you can find at the bottom of this piece), recent recruiting and recent history. How good have you been recently? Whom do you have coming back? How good are the players replacing those you don’t have coming back? That’s loosely what we ask when we’re setting expectations for a team; it’s also what these projections attempt to do objectively.
As always: SP+ is a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. It is a predictive measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football, not a résumé ranking, and, along those same lines, these projections aren’t intended to be a guess at what the AP Top 25 will look like at the end of the year. These are simply early offseason power rankings based on the information we have been able to gather to date.”
Here is how the ACC ranks in SP+ heading into the season:
1. Florida State (No. 12 Nationally)
2. Clemson (16)
3. Miami (19)
4. SMU (27)
5. NC State (29)
6. Louisville (31)
7. Virginia Tech (36)
8. North Carolina (40)
9. Duke (51)
10. Cal (52)
11. Georgia Tech (58)
12. Pitt (66)
13. Syracuse (67)
14. Boston College (73)
15. Wake Forest (74)
16. Stanford (77)
17. Virginia (78)
I would argue that Georgia Tech belongs above Cal, North Carolina, Duke, and SMU. I think the Mustangs are ranked way too high based off of their success in a lower conference and could struggle in their first year in the ACC. Duke has a chance to be one of the worst team’s in the ACC in the first year under Manny Diaz, Cal has questions when it comes to their passing game, and North Carolina has big questions at quarterback and on defense.
Here is how Georgia Tech’s opponents rank in SP+ heading into 2024:
1. Georgia (1st Nationally)
2. Notre Dame (9th)
3. Florida State (12th)
4. Miami (19th)
5. NC State (29th)
6. Louisville (31st)
7. Virginia Tech (36th)
8. North Carolina (40th)
9. Duke (51st)
10. Syracuse (67th)
11. Georgia State (106th)
VMI is of course not listed.
As if you needed any more confirmation that Georgia Tech has a tough schedule, only two of their 11 opponents ranked in SP+ are ranked lower than they are. You can certainly argue that teams like North Carolina and Duke should not be ranked above them and teams like NC State and Louisville are not far ahead of Georgia Tech. Still, this team is projected to face eight top 40 opponents according to SP+. The Yellow Jackets have their work cut out for them when it comes to making another bowl game.
Wildfires burning across the south-eastern US intensified on Wednesday across parts of south-east Georgia, where 50 homes were destroyed, and across north-east Florida, forcing evacuations and school closures in some communities.
The Georgia forestry commission issued its first mandatory burn ban in the state’s history, effective across 91 counties in the lower half of the state, due to worsening drought conditions and rising wildfire activity.
“My office and I are working closely with the Georgia Forestry Commission to respond to the increasing threat of wildfires in South Georgia,” Governor Brian Kemp wrote on X. ”If you are in a directly affected area, please adhere to guidance from your local officials to keep you and your family safe.”
Smoke from the fires drifted to Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia, as well as Jacksonville, Florida, while air quality in parts of south Georgia declined to the unhealthy category.
Smoky conditions were expected to linger in the Atlanta area throughout the day, according to the Atlanta-Fulton county emergency management agency, as the worst blazes burned more than 200 miles from the city.
Some of the biggest blazes are reported to be along Georgia’s coast and around Jacksonville, Florida. They have been exacerbated by a long drought, low humidity and strong winds in the area.
Georgia’s two biggest wildfires together have burned more than 31 sq miles, and at least four other smaller fires have been reported.
Drought in the contiguous US has reached record levels for this time of year. More than 61% of the lower 48 states are in moderate to exceptional drought – including 97% of the south-east and two-thirds of the west – according to the US Drought Monitor. It’s the highest level of drought for this time of year since the drought monitor began in 2000.
Florida, the area where the worst fires are burning, is in exceptional or extreme drought, according to the monitor. Firefighters are battling 131 wildfires that had burned 34 sq miles, mostly in the state’s northern half.
Firefighting equipment was being staged across the state so resources are closer to the fires, the Florida commissioner of agriculture, Wilton Simpson, said.
“Florida has got one of the worst fire seasons in maybe the last 30 or 40 years or it’s turning out to be that way,” Simpson said. “We’ve been in drought for 18 months now all across the state.”
The fast-moving Brantley county fire in south-east Georgia is threatening more homes on Wednesday after destroying 47 a day earlier, according to the county manager, Joey Cason, who said the fire grew roughly six times in size over a half day. Nearly two dozen fire agencies called in to help fight the blaze, Cason said at a news conference. At least 800 evacuations have taken place in the county and five shelters have opened, as the fire threatens 300 more homes, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said.
The Brantley county sheriff, Len Davis, warned residents to be ready to evacuate, noting that the winds could shift rapidly and unexpectedly.
Another large fire that started in Clinch county had also forced evacuations, which were underway in multiple communities, the Georgia forestry association said.
“This is a serious and evolving situation,” said Tim Lowrimore, president & CEO of the association.
(WSAV) — The man accused of shooting and killing three people in Dekalb County April 13 was found dead in his jail cell, officials confirmed Monday night.
Olaolukitan Adon-Abel was found unresponsive in his jail cell at 6:48 p.m., a Dekalb County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said. Life-saving measures were performed, according to officials.
He was pronounced dead at 7:17 p.m.
Adon-Abel was charged with malice murder, aggravated assault and firearms counts in connection to the shooting deaths of Prianna Weathers, Tony Mathews and Lauren Bullis.
In 2025, Adon-Abel plead guilty in Chatham County Recorder’s Court to multiple misdemeanor counts of sexual battery for groping women in Chatham County under the name Adon Olaolukitan.
According to court documents, he was banned from Savannah for four years and ordered to undergo a psychosexual evaluation.
The official cause will be determined by the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office, and a standard internal review has been launched, according to officials.
At this time, the sheriff’s office said there are no indications of foul play. No additional details were released.
The defensive tackle assembly line at Georgia is nothing short of extraordinary, and Miller patiently waited his turn. By 2024, his turn had arrived, and what NFL scouts saw was a prototypically built interior defender who carries his 321-pound frame with impressive athleticism and natural leverage.
Miller’s greatest asset is his run defense. He is a solid anchor — quick to press his hands into blockers, disciplined about maintaining gap integrity, and stout enough to hold the point of attack against double teams that would cave lesser prospects — but he’s not dominant.
His lateral mobility is a genuine differentiator for a man his size; he can scrape down the line to close on outside runs or loop inside on stunts without losing his footing or pad level.
That combination of power and movement is why Georgia trusted him on the field for passing downs, and it’s why scouts project him as an immediate contributor against the run at the NFL level.
The legitimate questions surrounding Miller center on his pass-rush production and his still-developing anticipation skills. Over his entire collegiate career, he accumulated only four sacks — never cracking two in a single season.
Still, Miller’s athleticism stands out immediately — he carries his size well and shows the lateral quickness you don’t always find at his frame. His hands have some pop, and he’s flashed the ability to jolt interior linemen off their spot. But he’s a prospect defined more by his floor than his ceiling.
No single trait rises above average, which means his pass-rush production will hinge on technique and motor rather than any physical advantage. He also needs to improve as a finisher — getting close isn’t enough at the next level.
The traits for pass-rush development are present: he has good first-step quickness, flashes as a one-gap penetrator, and showed enough in stunt packages to keep offensive linemen honest. But he has yet to build a consistent, go-to counter move when his initial rush is neutralized. Against better competition, his reaction time to the snap can be late, and he can drift out of his gap assignment when he tries to freelance for a big play.
What Miller offers any franchise is a high floor with a realistic upside trajectory. He comes from one of college football’s most technically demanding defensive line programs, coached by coaches who regularly develop NFL talent.
He plays with a motor that never stops. He competed in SEC trenches for two-plus seasons and was named to the All-SEC First Team as a senior. The experience and winning culture he brings — two state championships in high school, a national championship at Georgia — will matter to coaches who value locker-room character.
The ceiling here isn’t flashy, but it’s tangible: a reliable, two-down starting defensive tackle who keeps blocks clean and lets linebackers run free. In a league that increasingly prizes versatile, multi-technique interior linemen, Miller’s ability to play the nose or the B-gap makes him a schematic asset for even-front and two-gap systems. Don’t sleep on him because his sack totals are modest — evaluating him solely by that metric would miss the forest for the trees.
Miller’s fit in Green Bay is an interesting one. The Packers are switching to a 3-4 base defense under new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, and they lack a proven run-stuffing nose tackle while being long overdue for a meaningful investment on the defensive interior — which is exactly the profile Miller fits.
The team brought him in for a pre-draft visit, signaling genuine interest, and his skill set maps cleanly onto what Green Bay needs. His calling card — an elite run defense grade that ranked second among all FBS defensive tackles — translates directly to what Gannon will ask of his interior linemen, and his versatility to play nose in an odd front or kick out to three-technique in sub packages only adds to the appeal.
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