By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

ATLANTA — Here’s a stat for you.

Georgia Tech’s Zeek Biggers was credited with 21 run stops in 2023, a stat which ranks him among the top 10 interior lineman returning to college football this season at the Power 4 schools.

This will be a huge season — no pun intended — for the 6-foot-6 Biggers, a defensive tackle who has trimmed down to 322 pounds with careful meals and lots of cardio. With another productive and healthy season for the Yellow Jackets, the West Rowan graduate could hear his name called when the 2025 NFL Draft unfolds in Green Bay in late April.

One 2025 draft list currently ranks Biggers 28th among the defensive tackles who are expected to be available. Another list ranks him 35th. Biggers will have a chance to revise those lists.

The powerful senior been visible in the preseason as a representative of Georgia Tech, both the school and the football team. He was one of the three Yellow Jackets players who made the trip to the ACC Football Kickoff, a media day held in Charlotte.

It’s a new-look Biggers, still wide as an ocean in the shoulders, but trimmer in the middle. His haircut has changed from long and free to short and tight. In a conservative blue suit, he looks like an extra-extra large businessman.

Biggers is so large that it’s easy to forget that he moves around rather gracefully, but West Rowan fans will remember him as being quite an athlete. He was a very good basketball player for a terrific team his senior year with the Falcons.

Biggers explained to reporters this summer that he’s lost 50 pounds since he reported to Georgia Tech. His fitness level improved some more this summer as he shed 10 pounds from the weight he played at last season.

He still retains massive size and Superman strength, but he’ll be quicker this year. Quicker off the ball and quicker laterally. He was an under-rated run-stopper last season, but this time he could add more attention-grabbing stats.

Because of his physical dimensions, expectations for Biggers have always been through the roof. Each year, he’s come a little closer to reaching his vast potential.

Biggers has made a steady progression with the Yellow Jackets. He played in nine games as a true freshman. As a sophomore, he played in 12 games and had a six-tackle game against Ole Miss.

As a junior, he was in on 40 tackles. He had four tackles for loss, three pass knockdowns, a sack, a fumble recovery and a blocked kick playing a position where it’s not easy to pile up stats. His job usually is to force a double-team, so someone else gets a stat.

He was Honorable Mention All-ACC as a junior, finishing the season with five tackles in a Gasparilla Bowl win against UCF.

Biggers wasn’t voted to the media’s official preseason All-ACC team for the upcoming season, but he did make the preseason All-ACC second team announced by College Football News.

Georgia Tech opens the season on Aug. 24 with a game against Florida State that will be played in Dublin, Ireland. The game is a sellout and will be attended by 47,000 fans. They probably all will be excited by the big guy wearing No. 88 for Georgia Tech.

It’s a true story that when Biggers was 14 years old he went on a class trip to the Dominican Republic and the locals were certain he was an NFL player.

This time next year, he could be an NFL player for real.