Everything From Georgia Tech QB Graham Knowles After the Yellow Jackets' 8th Spring Practice

Georgia Tech is 11 days away from its annual White and Gold spring game, and today, the Yellow Jackets completed their eighth spring practice. Afterward, quarterback Graham Knowles got a chance to speak with the media, and here is everything that he had to say:

1. On what his first year at Georgia Tech was like...

"Uh, you know, playing in Texas, uh, high school football was life, so certainly, uh, the competitiveness wasn't really a change, but it certainly, uh, it was tough to adapt, kind of, to all the new systems, the lifestyle, being away from home, you know, I'd always had my parents, kind of, as my people, and now I'm away from them, so it took a little bit of time to adjust to the college life, the schedule, the practice schedule, schedule, just learning to fall in love with the film room, fall in love with the weight room and you know Haynes (King) was really helpful in that obviously he'd been through it. He's a Texas guy so he was he kind of showed me the ropes per say and he made the transition a lot easier certainly just to have someone to ask questions. I mean I was the oldest child so I never really had an older brother so it kind of filled that role for me."

2. On his offseason training...

" I mean, going through last year, kind of just wanted to play my role, do the best thing I could to help the team. Got a lot of nice reps in the scout team, which, you know, got to go against our ones on defense. So it was nice to get to go against those guys, kind of learn the speed of what college football is like and how those guys play. So I kind of knew coming into this offseason, I wanted to kind of put on a little weight, I want to get a little faster, get a little stronger and just get a better understanding of the game and certainly feel like I'm playing faster. I certainly feel bigger. I gained like 20 pounds since the last season. So just trying to fill my shoes a little bit and certainly the game slowed down for me."

3. On what made him want to stay at Georgia Tech and not transfer...

"Obviously the guy that probably played the most effect on me was Coach Weinke and I remember coming here with no Power 5 offers yet. I'd only played like six games of high school football and he invited me up here for a visit and my mom my dad came and I remember sitting in his office, first now power four offer. And that was a really special moment. And just, he's also a big guy. He played the position at a high level. I feel like he can relate to how my play style. And he's certainly been super influential and me growing as a quarterback and me growing as a person. And then just our meeting with Coach Key and Coach Faulkner. I mean, Coach Faulkner is an offensive genius. I feel like he runs a great scheme with what he's given and he can just kind of make things work for the right bodies and then our meeting with Coach Key, my mom loved, he's just such a moral guy, he cares so much about us as players, like it's hard to find another place where you have the head guy that cares so much about all his players."

4. On being coached by Chris Weinke...

"There is certainly not a lot of tender love with Coach Weinke but you know, he's a little tough on us, but it makes us tougher. I'm used to it, my grandpa used to be pretty tough on me growing up. So he has moments where he loves up on us, but it's kind of, it's a stern leadership role. And obviously he's got a bunch of dumb kids that he's got in his room. So he's got to get us right and get us going and you know we all, the energy flows down from him to Haynes, Philo, Ben, myself, Brody and Pyron last year but you know we all kind of marched to his tone and he sets a great example for what being a professional is and how to succeed at the position we're in and the place we're in.

5. On being able to stay ready...

" I had a similar situation in high school where I was behind Quinn Ewers and then Kaden Anderson two great quarterbacks that went on to play the next level obviously and You know my coach always used to say you just got to be ready and it's tough because you know, I feel like I can be out there making plays I know I can be out there making plays, but also so can everyone else in our room we got a really great room and from the top down all of our quarterbacks can play pretty much anywhere. So my big thing is just knowing when my time comes I'll be ready to take my opportunity to help this team win games and that's what Coach Weinke helps me stay focused on because there's a lot of obviously nowadays a lot of talk all outside so it kind of keeps us tunnel visioned on what our mission and what our goal is and mine just to be ready for my opportunity to help this team win games."

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