Everything From Georgia Tech Linebacker E.J. Lightsey After The Yellow Jackets' 9th Spring Practice

Georgia Tech's annual White and Gold Spring game is now nine days away, and practice rolled on today for the Yellow Jackets. Afterward, linebacker E.J. Lightsey had a chance to speak with the media about his group, and here is everything that he had to say.

1. On where he is now that he is healthy...

"So yeah, towards the end of the season, that's when I started back, getting my feet back onto me again, and start feeling like myself again. But it happened so late in the season so it kind of was like it wasn't really an advantage for me but now I'm just focused on just staying healthy. It's probably my first spring healthy since being in college football so my main goal is staying healthy so I can really prove myself and play my potential."

2. On being a more vocal leader...

"Yeah, I think it all comes down to like I've never really been a vocal person but I knew like playing like a position we play and playing at a high level you don't have to communicate a lot. You have to talk like you have to lead, lead the room and lead the defense So I say so far this spring. I've been, I've been I've been picking it up and getting better at it. I'm just gonna keep improving it."

3. On working with Coach Eubanks...

" It's been great to work with coach Eubanks. Just talking to him when he first got hired. I knew he was gonna be very transparent with each of the guys. Coach is hard, you're gonna make sure everybody's in the right spot. And My biggest thing, my biggest takeaway from him is like he care about you out the field too. Like just building that relationship and connection with him. It's been great. And it's just, yeah, just knowing that you have somebody like that coaching you, but also somebody you can talk to outside of football is where you want to like play harder for him and like, you can trust in him and listen to everything he's saying."

4. On playing for Blake Gideon...

"Oh, I like Coach Gideon. He's always juiced up, fired up. So like, it's been fun playing for him. You know, having that energy at the coaching position, at the coaching level, just always juice up and fire it up. So he definitely get the guys going. That's why I say it's been a great plan for him too."

5. On new transfer Melvin Jordan and how he is fitting in...

"Oh, both of those guys with flash, like you say, both of them have played a lot about what they came from, their previous schools. Melvin is doing very good at the mike position. He kinda can play like in the position you put him at. Came in very versatile, very athletic. He's been flashing, so one of those speedy guys, he just hit like 22 miles per hour like in the workout this week. So like both of them guys have been showing really pretty good flashing. I'm gonna stop and see what the future holds for them"

6. On progress from the defensive line...

" From day one of spring to now, I see a lot of improvement. You can definitely feel when the D -Line has improved, just playing linebacker. When you ain't got blockers in your face and stuff like that, when you stay clean and come free, you can definitely tell when the D-Line has improved. So I say they've been improving great. They keep getting better at what they do, and we'll be okay."

7. On overcoming his struggles to get on the field...

"Yeah, everything I went through, I just learned that you can't take for granted of the, you have to play the game, you know it can be taken away from you at any moment so just like for me it's been just like ever since I've been healthy it's been a great feeling just knowing that I can you know play in my potential and I feel good when I'm out there so like doing that you know just feel great and I just don't want to never take for granted of the time I got in the field."