Everything From Georgia Tech OL Coach Allen Mogridge After Tuesday's Fall Camp Practice

Fall camp continued for Georgia Tech on Tuesday, and the Yellow Jackets are just 23 days away from their season-opening game against Colorado.

After practice today, offensive line coach Allen Mogridge spoke with the media and here is everything that he had to say.

1. On the guards...

"You know what? The best part about our room is they're a group that wants to come get better, right? They spend a lot of time, working their craft. You know what I mean? Like, like don't mistake that. Like it is a new guard box, but these are You know what I mean? Some, there are some names you're going to see in there that are very much part of this program. Level one, square one, what Georgia tech is. And then we're interjecting a few guys that are kind of of the mold of Coach Key and his ideals and what he wants. You know what I mean?

And like Malachi Carney has played a lot of football guys. Like, he's played a lot of ball, and that's a big, powerful athlete. So him moving inside and then Kevin Peay, who's been here in the program and he's been in that weight room and he understands the core values and what it means to be here to this interlock in GT and what Coach Key built here. And he bought into that a couple of years back. Fortunately, I was here to watch that process as well. You know, and then a Joe Ionata coming over. Right. You know what I mean? And Joe Ionata, who's a blue-collar kid from down in Tampa. Dad was an O-Lineman. Brother's an O-Lineman. Joe goes to Alabama for the culture and the program there and then decides, you know what? I kind of want to be around this type of environment. Right. Talking about that middle.

So you've got a group of kids. They're hungry. They're competitive. You got Will Reed banging around in there. A journeyman from over at Princeton. You know what I mean? And kind of come in and he's played a lot of ball, had one of the best off seasons he could have going into this thing healthy. I'm trying to think. I don't want to miss anybody. You got the Mountains from East Coweta playing in there. You know, the two giants, those young kids, and they learn every single day. You've got (Xavier) Canales in there working, you know, so I'm excited.

What they're bringing to the room, the thing that probably excites me the most is where I think they can go, you know what I mean, like where i think they can go and because they're learning like every day that's the best part about it right sometimes you know like the people here in the fan base I mean there's someone like Joe Fusile and Red (Keylan Rutledge), like you talk about amount of snaps played like holy crap like Joe Fusile was like the furniture here you know what I mean I mean he was the guys the guy played forever you know and it was like you talk about a glue guy and a guy that brings it all together and then and then and then Red with just his his talent his edge and all of that and then now don't forget now Malachi played right beside him last year you know what I mean and then we got Markell Samuel who, you know, journeyman himself, kind of been all over the country, and he's landed in here.

And I really think, you know, through spring in here, I mean, he's working towards double digits of reps at guard as well. So the thing that's really cool about it is it's competitive. You know what I mean? And so guys come in with an edge, and they're all working towards it. Like, is that kind of what you're looking for there on the inside, right?"

2. On cross-training up front...

"Every day you have to cross train because everybody, like when you come to this level and you play at this level, right? Everyone talks about the next step. I want to go to the league. I want to go to the league. I want to go to the league. Well, the next lineman that goes in in the NFL plays whatever position they put you into play because you're the sixth best lineman. So now it's about creating more value for yourself. Like the best example we can give anybody in this state and certainly in our program, but across the state of Georgia is this guy named Red, right?

Rutledge. who didn't play center here and is going to play center in the NFL. So you don't think that guy cross-trained every day, right? Rick Trickett, way back in the day, told me a story about when he was younger at West Virginia. I think there was a game where he went through six centers for sure. Now, it may be like, who's got a bigger fish? But it might have been eight by the time the story's been told 20,000 times. But that's why Coach Trickett and me as a young coach, knowing Coach Trickett recruiting the Orlando area, like, and every day, the guy that I work for, the best O-Line coach I've been around, you know what I mean?

Hey, who's going to CQ today? Because you better train them, right? And then you take them to Indy and you put a ball in their hand. And, I mean, let's just be real. Like, I played four positions in college. Before I got an opportunity to go to the next level, I finally had to wind up as a tackle to get that shot. So the ability to cross train and create more value for yourself, because it is it's a very competitive environment, even at this level right now. Right. It's very competitive in every room across the country. So the more value you can bring, the better.

Right. Like you want to train a guy on the right and the left. And it's hard now. I mean, it is, you know, I mean. You switch sides and you've learned an assignment. So that's why you've got to understand concept football as well. You've got to understand the concept of what we're trying to do because then you can interchange from one side to the other and from another position to the next. So the ability to snap a football, the play guard, how much more value can you create for yourself in today's market and in today's environment? But that's really what it means."

3. On Jameson Riggs...

" I think Riggs just comes to work every day. And I do think we've been able to spend a lot of time, I think. Our staff in the room with these guys have helped a lot. Because outside of myself, we have Brandon Torrey, who works with us, who is a long time. I mean, he played at that level for a long time. And he works with us here. And then Robbie Bell, right? He works with us in the O-line room. And then Brent Key also. You know, I mean, Coach Key is involved in our offensive line play. I know that. And I know I'm not talking about Riggs right now and his pass game.

Riggs has begun developing every aspect of his game, right? And that is, I mean, he has. What we've tried to do is just train him, right? Train him a little more in those things. Hey, when we say this word, what does that mean to you? Right. When we're working in this protection, like everything's not the same. Our system allows for different kind of sets, different kind of techniques. And maybe you train a guy to what his strengths are. Some guys have really long arms. Some guys have really short arms. Some guys are stiff. Some guys bend really easy.

You got to figure out, build a relationship and be able to have honest communication of, hey, man, you're deficient here. And so you take ownership of it. You figure out why they're deficient. And then what you do is you develop them and you get them to just kind of keep grinding it out. Right. So it's just been a lot of work, I think would be the best thing I would say to help him get there. But it's also been a lot of thinking, thinking outside the box and looking at this thing a different way. Hey, man, maybe your hand carriage isn't quite right. Maybe you're out of system with your set.

Maybe you're. Balance isn't there. So just being able to learn kind of the trade a little bit. You know what I mean? Not to, because we are all linemen that line up in five different places, right? And somebody, this guy out here on the edge, his toolbox is a little different than the dudes in the middle. And the dude with the ball in his hand. He's got a whole big tool set. I mean, he's got like one of those. What is that? That Mac box in the garage is red and stuff like that guy's got a lot of tools. Right. I mean, he's got a lot of stuff to use.

But Riggs is just grinding. He's working. You know what I mean? He's spending time. And really what what kind of young people don't get. And you learn this when you go to the NFL is just the the amount of tape and what you can learn from grinding out. the film and writing the notes and studying your game as well as other games. One thing we like to do is we like to kind of, we like to kind of find guys that look like us. Hey man, did you know that this guy right here is six foot five, 312 pounds and happens to be the starting right tackle for team one of 32? Why don't we study him?

Last time I checked, really good doctors, they usually go to really good hospitals and learn from the people there to be even better. So why wouldn't we study things on the next level or within our peer group as well? You know what I mean? But you've got to kind of arrive there, right? One of my favorite things about Riggs is I think he's sick of it. I don't know what category that goes in. I think my guy wants to go play. And I think he's figuring out how to grid it out and how to do hard things and how to show up every day and how to just freaking punt comfort as far away as you can and just keep punching the rock until you break it and take the coaching. Right. We all we all have defense mechanisms. Right.

So I think. Those are all the things Riggs is doing. I think Riggs is just, Riggs is grinding and Riggs is definitely improving in a lot of ways, right? And there's still so much, so many things like are running through my head right now that he's still got to improve on. And a couple of things I'm kind of pissed about, but we'll talk about those later and I'm just holding it in, right? And that's the same thing with all these guys because you caught me coming right off the grass. You know what I mean? And just... They're a good group. They're blue collar. They're a group that likes to come in and just go to work. You know what I mean?"

4. On Josh Petty being ahead of schedule with his recovery...

"Well, part of the challenges is with anybody with an injury like that, right? When you have an injury, it's just constantly reminding him like, hey, dude. you're going to be playing football really soon. So how do you keep them ingrained in the group? Because one of the hard things across athletics, right, whatever sport you're dealing with is when all of a sudden when you have an injury and something where you miss time is the idea that we're also here and we're all in and I feel great. And now all of a sudden I'm hurt. And so instead of being here, all of a sudden I drift away and I'm not part.

So I think. One of the things that our room's doing a great job of with Josh is making sure he's with us all the time. And one of the things Josh is doing is figuring out how to do the things that maybe it takes time to learn how to do. Does that make sense? I don't know that true freshmen know what this takes and what it is all the time. And now we've got... we've got it like he's here with us all the time. Right. And that's one of the things he's here. He's here with us.

He's ingrained and just constantly reminding him. And it goes back to with all of these kids, with the relationship that we have with them. You know what I mean? Because it's got to be relational. Right. Everybody talks about like, oh, it's becoming transactional. It's this. It's that. Well, you better have a relationship with guys, especially at the position that I get the opportunity to coach here. which is the best position in the world, right? Because this is a group of selfless dudes that do work that a lot of people wouldn't want to do. It gets grimy in there.

It gets hard, right? It's thankless because the adversity never goes away, right? And we try to make sure that we put a little more on them, that we try to stress them a little bit more, that we try to strain them just a little bit more because there's going to come a point where that's going to be the difference, right? And with Josh Petty, Like just constantly reminding him, dude, you're playing football this season. So your actions better match a guy that's going to play football. Like your grind better be the same as all these other guys.

Like you, Big Floyd, like all these guys, Big Jordan Floyd, like everybody that's in here, right? And all the guys, like, and so I guess, and then just, he's doing a great job with the rehab. And, you know what I mean? I guess, you know, he's moving at a pace. Thank God for genetics. You know what I mean? Like, he's getting healthy and he's working and doing those things. So, yeah, good dude, working his tail off. You know what I mean? And just constantly, constantly bringing him with, if that makes sense. Like, hey, dude, get in here with us, if that makes sense. You know what I mean?"

5. On Ethan Mackenny...

"That guy right there, like, he is continuing to stack. Right. He is stacking. He's cutting his own wood. He's stacking that wood and he's carrying wherever he wants to take it right now. Like, I am so proud of not like it's not like, hey, oh, man, you did this. I'm just you should see his work. You should see his process. you know what i mean and that's what's really cool like like watching this dude like understand how his rhythms and his processes have to work right and it just it it's it's just it's yeah Ethan, Ethan's a great dude to be around you talk about a grinder you know he's learning to bring with, bring guys with him you know what I mean?

Which the leadership role is starting to step up there. But, but Ethan is I have so much respect for his process and how he's been able to find his routine, find his rhythm and continue to grow. You know what I mean? Because he's doing that. And then Big Floyd, Big Jordan, you talk about a guy that's kind of been here a while. Right. And I alluded to it with Riggs. Right. I said, like, I think Riggs is a little pissed off. It's kind of time. I want to go. Big Jordan Floyd. He's ready. He's ready to hit that grass now.

I mean, and that's how he's working. So when you talk about a selfless dude and he's got a tool set, I mean, he is. is a big human. And again, another dude, I just respect the work. I respect your process. I respect how you're going about your day to day to continue to stack because in life, that's all we're really trying to do, right? It's all really trying to do. And you say like in athletics, can you leave every session you've had, whatever it is, and be a little bit better? Can you just stack?

Can you just stack something on top of what you have and find a way to be better in that moment than you were in the moment before. You know what I mean? Can you just find a way to stack, just lift it a little more and get it stacked up on the next one. And then you know what we'll do? We're going to come back in here. We're going to stack some more tomorrow. So can you keep coming in? Can you keep coming in and can you keep just punching that rock? Just punching that rock all the time. Now I get bored with the details. Right. That's the hardest thing in line because it's all the same.

One misstep. One one footwork problem. Right. One footwork problem might get your name called on national television. Right. One lack of focus, man. And you might be the only dude moving. Right. So, again, your process and your rhythms and how do you work every single day? Like, how do you show up? Did you find your way? What works for you? But Big Jordan, Big Jordan's, you know. Again, working his tail off. And he's continued to be on a steady climb.

I'm very happy to get to be part of his story, number one. And he's awesome. He's got great waves in his hair. He's got great waves."

6. On the depth across the line...

"I think we're all naive if we think five guys are going to play 12 games in this level of college football. You know what I mean? I think if you don't have depth, it'll get exposed. I think if we're not developing offensive linemen and we're not developing the depth and we're not. And at the end of that is, as you develop depth, they earn trust, right? They earn my trust. I earn theirs, right? The head coach, all of that goes into it as well. But I think we're all naive if we think we can make it through a season only playing five guys, right?

I mean, that's one of the things across my career. Now that I'm getting a little older, I'm very grateful for as a younger coach because I was forced to. Right. Because you get in your rhythms as a coach and you're like, no way. These are my guys. I know these guys will do it right. But if we don't put them out there, how are we going to know? How are we going to know and how are they going to grow? Right. Because that's one of the scariest things in the world. Right. Is you have no no statistical analysis. No. Data, nothing supports it.

I can't turn on the film and see him go play in a game under the lights. So there's only one way to find that out. And it's to do the grind now and to continue to develop and to earn trust on both sides of it. Right. So to answer your question, I think, yeah, I think you've got to have depth. And I think you've got to you've got to kind of force guys to play. Right. Because it'll change your practice habits. You know what I mean? It'll change your practice habits. Like I've been in rooms where when I again, when I worked for Butch Davis and I mean, he was like third drive of the game, this guy's going in and this guy's going in.

And that's not your decision. I'm telling you that's happening. So do you think my sense of urgency as a coach changed? All of a sudden at these, you know what I mean? And I'm not saying that I was slacking. But all of a sudden, it got real important for that dude he was putting in for me to make sure it was tight. And I needed his practice habits to match the practice habits of the dude who was in front of him. And then all of a sudden, the dude who's in front of him starts looking behind him. And all of a sudden, his practice habits change.

And then homeboy over here goes, wait a minute. If he can play there, he can sure as hell play here. I better get my, then all of a sudden you've got a room where you walk in and there's a whole room full of dudes just all of a sudden grind tape watching it because they know, right? They know. So I think competition breeds competition, right? And if you know that you've got a guy that goes back to like that catfishing thing, constantly nipping at you, trying to get you a little better.

So I think you have to have it. I think you have to have. enough in the room but also and again I'm grateful for the position I coach because you can't have an ego with that either hey dude the third drive of the game you're going you know what I mean like I was told he's going in and it you could be playing lights out but we're going to do this because this is how we believe as a program so yeah i think that's what training camp's for that's what those 15 days of spring was for quite frankly that's what off-season jacket drills are for right.

That's when you, that's when you figure out who you can trust and who's going to step up and, and the teammates you figure out, like you as a player, you're like, all of a sudden you're like, okay, dog, you're here with me. Right. And now all of a sudden it just translates into, into those Saturdays and what it needs to look like. Right. And how it needs to go, because you have to have depth.

You're not going to make it through the, uh, the grind of this, of this season that we're getting ready to. to jump into. You know what I mean? It's a long physical season, right? And if you don't have quality players, like, I want to recruit the best players in the country. That's what I want to do. And I want to develop the best players in the country into what they should be. That's what I want to do. That's why I'm here, right? I'm going to love them hard. I'm going to push them hard.

But I'm going to help them grow every single day. And every dream they have or they say, we're going to help them meet it. And we've got an unbelievable facility. And we've got an unbelievable head coach who sees the program and the game through the offensive line's eyes. Right? Blessing and a curse for me every day. Right? You know what I mean? Because he knows what he wants it to look like. And we all get to be part of that. You know what I'm saying? But that's how it is. We're going to develop you.

We're going to have you ready to play. And when your number's cold, you're not going to blink. Right? And we're also going to say, hey, dude, we're not afraid. If you're ready to go, we're not afraid to put you out there. You know? And let you go. But it goes back to, like I told you, you were talking about Ethan. Somebody brought up Ethan. Bro, Ethan's an original. You know what I mean? Like, like Ethan was one, he's a ground level guy here.

You know what I mean? Like he's been here. He got here when it was, you know what I mean? Right. He's, he's the, you know what I mean? And it's, and it's awesome to watch him be able to take this role and bring guys with him and this and that. But, but make no mistake about it. Like we're here to, we're here to go. We're here to go get, go get the guys that we. think are elite and that we want in the program and our task is to develop them and have them ready to go, right? Have them ready to go."

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