Thoughts and takeaways after first week of fall camp for Georgia Tech
Week one of fall camp is officially in the books for Georgia Tech.
The Yellow Jackets are less than four weeks away from their season opener against Louisville in Mercedes Benz Stadium on Sept.1st (7:30 p.m., ESPN) and there are plenty of questions this team has to try to sort out before they take the field against the Cardinals.
So what are the takeaways from the first week of practice at Georgia Tech?
1. The quarterback battle is not going to be decided anytime soon
Who will be Georgia Tech's starting quarterback in 2023?
The biggest takeaway from the first week of practice is that this quarterback battle between Zach Pyron, Zach Gibson, and Haynes King is not close to be decided. Head coach Brent Key, offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner, and quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator Chris Weinke have all said this week to not expect an announcement anytime soon and that all three quarterbacks are being given a shot. Another point that all three coaches have made is that they are glad to have three quarterbacks that have game experience.
Here is what Key said earlier in the week about his three quarterbacks:
"With the quarterback situation, we have a great battle between three guys that have college experience, college game experience, big-time game experience. We are as fortunate as any team in the country in terms of the depth we have at that position and right now it is a lot of installation and a lot of routes on air, those kinds of things, getting timing down.
Like I have said before, it is different when you have the helmets on and the cleats as opposed in the summer and doing 7-on-7's. Every day is an evaluation of those guys, how they do in team periods, how they do off the field, how they transition from one play to the other. We have a good thing to have right now and that is experience and that is probably the same answer that I am going to give for the next three weeks. Don't plan on an announcement coming anytime soon"
Faulkner echoed those points while also saying that the quarterback has to be the toughest guy in the room:
"First of all, he has to be the toughest guy in the building. In this day and age with the media and everything else, you have a lot to handle. Tough, a great leader... the beautiful thing about Coach (Chris) Weinke and I, we see it the same way. We did not know each other seven months ago and then we talked about quarterbacks and it was spot on, so we are aligned as far as that goes.
As far as the race, we are going to have all three guys getting reps, all three are getting an opportunity to play and whoever come out on top, you guys will know when we know or maybe even the first play of the game, but we are in no hurry to announce it, that is for sure.
Weinke broke down all three quarterbacks and shared their similarities and differences:
"I think the unique thing is that each one of them has played a college football game before and when you look at the experience of Haynes King, he played and started a lot of games in the SEC, obviously he battled and was challenged with some injuries and he has overcome those. His football IQ is off the charts. He is the son of a high school football coach, it is really important to him and there is no doubt that he has toughness.
Zach Pyron comes in last year as a true freshman after being our scout team guy and the guy won with his heart. I would never expect a freshman to know all of the intricacies of playing successful football at a high level as a true freshman, at this position it is too hard. What you saw on the field from him was that competitive character.
Zach Gibson gets thrown into the battle and at the end of the day goes and wins a big game against North Carolina and I was proud of the way that he played against Georgia.
So at the end of the day, they are all a little bit different but there are some similarities. I can say that the toughness is part of all three of them. The skill level and talent are a little bit different, Haynes and Zach (Pyron) are going to be able to run a little bit better and I think Zach Gibson brings the ability to layer the football and has good touch, good accuracy. So they are all a little bit different and that is why this is so fun."
Georgia Tech has to figure out the most important position on the field if they hope to have a winning season. There is still three weeks to do so and for the Yellow Jackets, hopefully, a clear starter will emerge before fall camp is over.
2. The defensive line could be a position of strength
D'Quan Douse could start again for Georgia Tech this season
While Georgia Tech is losing Keion White to the NFL and Akelo Stone transferred to Ole Miss, the rest of the defensive line is returning. The Yellow Jackets have experience up front, but they are still going to need someone to emerge, especially when it comes to the pass rush.
Defensive coordinator Andrew Thacker spoke this week about the potential depth this group could have and some breakout players that might emerge this season:
""It is hard to talk about one player, but it is more of a collective. We feel like we are starting to get more size and depth at the position and (defensive line coach) Marco Coleman has done a great job with that group. Brian Baker is a great mentor and help for us to be in that room and to give Marco some advice and I am really happy with their progress.
But to that point, it will take me some time to talk through those things. On the interior, we feel like we have some guys that look like Zeek Biggers and Horace Lockett, who look like power five defensive tackles that will allow us to be a little sturdier in there. We have a lot of experience with guys like Makius Scott and D'Quan Douse who were our two starting defensive tackles this past season. They have quite the amount of experience and then we even have a young man like Jason Moore, who has been in real matches and played against North Carolina and got a sack for the inside.
Working outside, we have three defensive ends at the rush end or boundary end as we call it. They have all played and have all started if my memory serves, but Kyle Kennard probably the most experienced of the group and Noah Collins and Kevin Harris to give us some depth there and we have a little bit of a new flavor at the end position. Sylvain Yondjouen played a bunch of downs for us this past season and usually he would be behind Keion White and play relief pitcher for him but certainly played some great football for us at times. Two other names, Etinosa (Reuben) came this past spring and is really starting to improve.
Josh Robinson has been around for a while and Paul Moala and Eddie Kelly are two guys that we got post-spring practice as far as roster management from the portal but I am really excited about Eddie Kelly, he played this past season at South Florida. Again, first day of pads but the talent and the mentality and the coachability is there so I am really excited about his fit. Those guys are cross-trained, we'll put them in a position for a depth chart. We will see as we really move forward the things that people like to talk about, the pass rush ability that those guys have."
The new transfers seem to be making an impression on the coaching staff early and they are players to watch this season. Being strong up front is important for any defense and Georgia Tech might have the ingredients to be better than they have recently, but they have to show it on the field.
3. Brent Key and the team could care less about outside expectations
Brent Key does not care about the expectations for his team
The ACC preseason media poll was released last week and the Yellow Jackets were picked to finish 12th in the league. When asked about his thoughts on where his team was picked, Key was clear about what he thought"
"I could care less, they could less, I could care less. Games are played on the field and I know it is that time of year when it is exciting to see the rankings and see those things and have a lot of good talking points for the next three or four weeks and that is what makes college football a passion and that is what it is, its the passion for the people that cover it, it is a passion for you guys, it's what yall do and helps you put information together but it means nothing to me. If I was not coaching I would be right there with you guys, reading them all and making the predictions, but not for us. Those external things have zero factor on how we come out and practice every day."
I think this team can be better than No. 12 and outplay their preseason expectations set on them. It is up to them to show it on the field though and that is how Key wants them to do it.
4. The coaches love their depth at the safety position
Georgia Tech feels good about the safety position
Georgia Tech has quite a few position battles going on, but one spot they feel good about is the safety position.
LaMiles Brooks is a potential All-ACC player, Jaylon King is back from injury that shortened his season, and Clayton Powell-Lee had a tremendous freshman season.
Thacker had a chance to talk about this potentially loaded group the Yellow Jackets might have and how he can get the best players on the field for the defense:
"Cross training. Specifically with LaMiles cross-training strong safety to nickel, Powell-Lee cross-trains from strong safety to free safety, King stays anchored to the free safety spot and when we get into sub package, King would be the free safety or the dime in some packages so all of those guys are cross-trained.
We would feel like in the framework of a game that those guys would have a rotation. Now, who will start? That will require some humility out of those guys, whatever final decision is made. They have great relationships and I don't see that being an obstacle for us, the ego thing.
I think one of the things coaches are always anxious about, what could go wrong. That is just the nature of us, but with that being said, those guys give me enough confidence. The thing they probably give me the most confidence in, you feel more confident are communicating on defense and defense these days, specifically Buster (Faulkner) and the offense does a great job is presnap communication is at a premium and I thought we were able to eliminate, get out of plays defensively or eliminate explosives because those guys have a great grasp of the game, as much as their physical talents, they are really cerebral in the back end and they do a great job of pre and post snap communication which gives the whole defense confidence they have a really good grasp of what they are doing.
I take a lot of pride in that group and the progress"
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