Everything From Georgia Tech Tight End J.T. Byrne 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, tight end J.T. Byrne had a chance to speak with the media about his group, and here is everything that he had to say.

1. On what brought him to Georgia Tech...

"Yeah, absolutely. So I'm from Carmel by the Sea, California. So I about 2 % of people know where that is out here. So grew up there with Carmel High School and then started my college career at Oregon State. I did two seasons there and then came back home to UC Berkeley and I graduated there in December. So I'm a grad transfer now to Tech. So I got one year of eligibility And I'm really excited to be here."

2. On what he brings to the offense...

"Yeah, I think, you know, I think the first thing for me is like controlling what I can control. And those two things are attitude and effort. And I know for a fact that I'm gonna go out there and give the best attitude and the best effort I can on a daily basis and, and then, uh, obviously, uh, coming from Cal, I had a lot of, uh, good time like in line and, uh, you know, at the point of attack, but also believe that I can expand that to, you know, secure in the edge, um, being a really reliable target, um, in the pass game and, and getting yards after catch."

3. On being coached by Nathan Brock...

"Yeah, no he's awesome. It's been great working with him. He obviously has that run game mindset, which is great. And, you know, kind of picking his brain and having, you know, intelligent conversations about the run game, something that's really fun for me. And I really enjoy that. And just kind of how he sees it, you know, with hand placement, your steps, we can really, you know, watch film and kind of go in depth about that, which I really like, and then obviously we got a lot of guys in the room that do it at a very high level as well, and then obviously watching Jackson (Hawes) last year and seeing what he did, he did that at such a high level. So it's been great, he's been around as well, so it's been great to pick his brain and kind of see, you know, how he went about stuff and how he learned the offense in such a quick time. But obviously with Coach Brock, he knows, he knows ball really well. He loves the run game, he knows the run game, And he's got the mentality that you want as a coach, you know, to go out there and be physical every day."

4. On what sold him on coming to Georgia Tech...

"Yeah, so it's funny. I tell everyone here, you know, I, being at Cal, we played, I think like four or five teams right after GT. So our install, like our crossover tape was all Georgia Tech. And I had no idea who Hawes was, but I was like, this guy, who is this guy? Like he's moving dudes, loved his mentality, loved what he was doing. And so when I got reached out to by Coach Brock at the portal, I was really excited. And you know, you can tell on film who people are based on film. And I remember telling Coach Key that as well, like you guys had an identity on film and it speaks to who you are as people and I was just really fortunate and grateful that they they wanted me to be a part of that and I was so excited to just to be a part of this culture that wants to win. They're all really good people and it's the teammates are great and so I have nothing but great things to say about you know transitioning over here and was very just I feel very fortunate to be here. You know, my first time in Georgia was my visit. So, and it was hilarious. I packed, so my first visit was in Arizona. So I was going like, literally like, got back to California and then went back. And I was in, I think I had shorts, flip -flops, a t -shirt, and it was like December 28th here. So I was freezing. That was a little bit of adjustment at first you know getting to the cold but I just want now it's getting super humid which is totally different as well but love in the south love Midtown love campus it's been it's been a great experience being here."

5. On learning the playbook...

"It's been a blast, to be honest. But I think at the same time, it's been great. You know, at Oregon State, it was complete pro style offense and at Cal, it was kind of a complete spread. So here it's a little bit of a combination of both. So kind of applying both of those systems and it's like we're literally doing both of that. So it's been so much fun, just lining up all over the, you know, trying different things, trying to expand my game, um, you know, and having the coaches and the rest of the team kind of believe that we can all get that job done, um, especially from the tight end position. And so it's great. It's been great kind of learning from guys who've done it, you know, like obviously Josh has done it for a while, Brett's done it for a while. Talking to those guys who have played in the system here in the game and learn from those guys and having a good understanding of, you know, what needs to be accomplished on a given play."

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