Everything From Georgia Tech QB Coach Chris Weinke After Tuesday's Practice

Georgia Tech quarterbacks coach Chris Weinke talked to the media for the first, and here is all he had to say.

On the quarterback competition and what he has seen…

“Yeah, so right now it's early, right? And so it's the ever-changing landscape of college football where staff changes, player changes, right? It's almost like you've got to take it year to year. So, you really look at our situation, we're putting a whole new offense in. And the best analogy that I use, especially with the quarterback, is early on, a couple of them were struggling, right? Just learning new offense, learning the verbiage. I said, did you ever take a foreign language in high school? And they all said yes. And I said, well, could you fluently speak the language after one week, right? So when you think about what we're doing, this is high-level, pro style offense with a lot of verbiage. There's a lot more on the quarterback's plate. So we have to be very conscious of that as we evaluate these guys, especially early in spring. We're in no position right now to concern ourselves with, hey, where are we at? You know, it is a process, and we'll go through it. uh This is truly 15 days of installation. So we're continuing to install, put more on their plate as we go through the summer and then lead into training camp, we'll have a better idea. But I've been very pleased with the work ethic, the time that they're spending. And then again, we're going to make mistakes. And that's all part of the process. And the challenge is that we don't make the same mistake twice. So, where we sit now, I have a really good room.
This is the fun part of coaching. You get back to the basic fundamentals, the teaching of the position, all with new guys that don't have, in essence, don't have any experience. You're installing a new offense, so it's been a lot of fun.”

On the two returning quarterbacks, Grady Adamson and Graham Knowles…

“So that's an interesting question because what happens is they got comfortable in our old offense. So really everybody goes back to the starting block, right? And so everybody was starting from ground zero in a brand new offense. You look at the two guys that were here, they were continuing to progress, they were developing the way you would want them to. And then you bring a new guy in, and then you have a young freshman, right? So at the end of the day, all four guys walk in. The guy with the most college experience is Alberto, and in terms of his understanding, he comes from where he came from. I think at the end of the day, it's a continuous process of, hey, are we getting better every day? I think that I'm seeing that from each and every guy. The challenge is that we don't take any steps backwards and continue to move forward, stay positive with them knowing that we're gonna make some mistakes and those guys have all done a good job with that.”

On what stands out about Alberto Mendoza…

“There were a lot of unknowns when he got here, right? And so you never know. But I do know this, that he's a high-level thinker. He can process information, and that's what we're looking for, especially in this offense with a lot of the adjustments we're gonna have to make at the line of scrimmage with the quarterback. He, in essence, lives in this building; he loves football. I think because of that gives him an opportunity to have success in an offense like this. Uh, he's a gym rat. He loves the game, asks a lot of questions, and doesn't feel comfortable going to practice unless he has the answer. So elite release gets the ball out quickly and processes information. Better athlete than maybe most people would give him credit for, moves around really well, sees the field. So he's uh been a lot of fun to work with. He's one of those guys that challenges coaches, right? It makes us make sure that we're crossing all our T's and dotting all our I's, but he's got a chance to be a high-level player.”

On Grady Adamson…

“Really liked recruiting them coming out of high school, loved them in high school. You know, I always say that every, every quarterback that's recruited out of high school is, is recruited based on potential, right? So you don't know what they're going to turn into. He is who I thought he was in terms of his work ethic. He's strong. He's an unbelievable athlete, quick release, really strong arm. Again, falls into that category of starting to feel really comfortable in our old offense. And now we put a new offense on them. So, each and every guy has their bumps and bruises along the way. Uh, he doesn't let it bother him, which I appreciate as a coach, right? He's a coachable kid that's really smart, and he'll continue to go through this process, and I think he's had a chance to be really good.”

On what he is looking for in a starter…

“Yeah, I think we're looking for consistency, right? A guy that can operate our offense. So a lot of changes, right? So it's gonna be a high level offense where we're a lot more detailed in terms of what we're gonna do schematically. We're gonna ask the quarterback to do a lot more than we did in the past. Obviously, these guys are different from what we were accustomed to the last three years with Haynes (King). I call Haynes the eraser, right? He could get you out oh of a bad play and make an explosive play. For us right now, I think the biggest thing is that you have to create consistency. The only way you create consistency is you get reps, right? With us installing new things every single day, there's limited reps on those concepts. So as we finish spring and those guys then flow into summer, they're gonna get a ton of reps. Then, as we go into camp, it's gonna be, hey, who can consistently operate this offense at all levels? That'll be our guy that is under center of the first game.”

On having guys with not a lot of experience compared to last year...

“Yeah, the biggest difference is the comfort level of really everybody, right? So what happens is when you get a bunch of new faces, and then you got a bunch of new faces in the quarterback room, the comfort level is everybody's kind of looking around like, hey, who's going to take that leadership role? I mean, at the end of the day, Haynes was the leader of this football team. Obviously, he had a lot of success, but the success he had started in that locker room. So now...
Hey, who's gonna take the bull by the horns? I think that's the biggest difference. As a staff, you know what Haynes was capable of. Right now, today, we don't know what we're capable of. So I think there's a little bit of unknown. Whereas you go into a season last year where you've had a guy that was starting for two years, you know what you're gonna get from the guy. Right now as we sit here after 12 practices in spring, we have an idea, but we don't know.”

On an example of high-level thinking at the quarterback spot and Mendoza’s consistency…

“First of all, he's a guy that every single day we install, right? So there's a teaching progression, right? So they'll get the script, okay? They'll come into meetings, we'll show them pictures, right? We'll go through the reads, right? Okay. He will never ever miss a detail in a picture. So if it's supposed to be four scat and it says five scat on the page, he'll call us out. Right? So he's very detailed. It's really important to him. Then, when you start having conversations, and you start watching a film with him, he can see things that other guys can't. Right? He can see what they're trying to do defensively. He's probably the most comfortable at the line of scrimmage, changing the protection, knowing what's going to happen before it happens. I think high-level thinkers do that. Right? You have the answers to the test before the test, and he's one of those guys.

On working with offensive coordinator George Godsey…

“Yeah, it's been awesome. You know, obviously, here's a guy that's been in the National Football League for 15 years, a very well-respected coach, has had a lot of success. I knew of him but didn't really know him. Didn't really have a relationship, but we knew of each other because we played against each other. But kind of knew what we're gonna get when he came in, just because I know people that obviously have worked with them. Talk about smart, he's really smart, okay? And he knows how to put an offense together. He's much like Alberto in terms of being able to see it. We're out of practice in the middle of practice, and he can see everything that's going on, and he'll all of a sudden make a quick change there just based on what the defense is trying to do to us. His work ethic is unbelievable. He's a grinder. But for me, it's been a little bit of, for lack of a better term, refreshing because I grew up in old pro style offense, right? So a lot of the language that he's speaking is the language that I spoke most of my career, right? Then you adapt to new things that transpire when you get into different offenses. But man, he's been awesome to work with. I think as we move forward, the players are gonna see and understand. Okay, he's gonna try to put us in a position to be successful and have all the answers to the test.”

On if Mendoza gets unfairly judged based off his last name....

“I always say that expectations are on the outside, standards on the inside. We have a standard in our room. That stuff that is said outside is irrelevant to us. Naturally, we understand that because of the success that his brother had, he's gonna be put in a different category, right? He loves it. I can tell that he loves it because he's competitive as hell. I can promise you, okay, I don't know how much higher you can get than his brother, gonna be the number one pick and won the Heisman, somehow, someway, he wants to find a way. So at the end of the day, he knows it, he understands it, but he's a level-headed kid. He doesn't concern himself with those exterior things. He knows that every single day he's got a job to do. He does it at a high level every day.”

On Haynes King and why he will be successful at the next level...

“Yeah, just I mean having the opportunity to work with them and then knowing what it takes to be successful at that level. The guy's gonna walk in the locker room, everybody's gonna like him. He has natural leadership skills. Athleticism speaks for itself, but I think what happens in the National Football League is that the guys that have high football IQs stick around for a long time. They carry themselves the right way. He's well respected by everybody in the building. It's gonna happen wherever he ends up. The challenge he has is, Who's gonna draft them, right? I always say it doesn't matter where you get drafted, you wanna get drafted to the right place. I've had numerous phone calls from coaches, GMs, scouts, everybody's excited about them. It'll be interesting to see who pulls the trigger and whoever does is getting a hell of a football player and a great man.”

On the wide receiver room and the chemistry with the quarterbacks…

“The issue we're having right now, we got some guys out, right? So we're at limited numbers at the receiver position. I think the biggest challenge for the quarterback is not to get frustrated with that, right? We've got limited guys out there. I think we've got four guys now that aren't practicing. I think it was maybe five today. So we don't let that affect us in the way we practice. But the guys that are out there working have done a great job, and the quarterbacks are comfortable with them. They kind of know what they can do, what they can't do. They've allowed that to be able to use that as a driving force, right? Hey, continue to challenge those guys. Our quarterbacks are great communicators with the receivers, right? So if something transpires that they didn't expect to happen, they're gonna communicate with them. As we continue to get more reps and everybody gets more comfortable, I think by the time we hit training camp, we're gonna be very excited about that group.”

On what he wants to see from the quarterback room at the end of spring and on Cole Bergeron…

“Yeah, so I had a relationship early on with Cole and recruited him and you know, like I said, we live in this landscape of college football where you don't know who's coming and who's going, and Cole was a guy that was high on our board. I think he's got a bright future. He can spin it as good as anybody I've been around. You know, as we go into this scrimmage Saturday. I don't know that it's gonna be exactly the same as all of our scrimmages in the past. think the one thing I'm looking for is, who can operate the offense? There are a lot of things that go into that. There are variables that come into play that no one in the stands is ever gonna know. Hey, are we getting the call? Are we making the right call? Is the cadence good? Are we changing the protection? All operationally, I'm not right now concerned about the result, right? I'm talking about the operation to make sure that they can run this offense at a high level from a communication standpoint. If they can do that, and they can protect the football, I'm good.

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