Georgia Tech quarterback Justin Thomas gave updates on a few teammates and offered a glimpse into his management of the summer passing workouts in an interview following Monday's practice.
Thomas was encouraged about what he had seen from redshirt freshman quarterback Matthew Jordan and first-year freshman quarterback Christian Campbell. He said that Jordan had improved a great deal since last season and was improving with each practice.
“He’s kind of like me, the more time throwing it, the better he’s going to get at it,” Thomas said.
Campbell, as of Monday, was “getting it slowly. You can see he’s getting better,” he said. “It’s a matter of time. Got to take baby steps.”
(Whenever I hear the phrase “baby steps,” it reminds me of "What About Bob?" a highly underrated movie.)
On Michael Summers
Wide receiver Micheal Summers had shown “major improvement” from his work over the summer. Thomas and Summers worked a lot over the summer in seven-on-seven and also in throwing routes, in particular improving how he comes back to the ball, comes off the line and reads coverages. There will be more about this in a story I write for myajc and Sunday’s paper about Summers and the wide receivers.
Summer workouts
In talking further about the summer workouts and his leadership of them, Thomas gave a little glimpse into his relationship with his receivers. I made the observation to him that he must be paying fairly close attention if he’s able to diagnose players’ habits.
“You’re throwing to the guys, so you can see different guys catch the ball different ways,” he said. “They have their own knacks and ways they do things. You can kind of get the feel for each individual. That’s why in the offseason, you’ve got to throw to everybody. They all have their own way of doing things You have to adjust to the different ones.”
He said, even last summer, he was willing to correct veterans Darren Waller and DeAndre Smelter and communicate his own preferences to them.
“We had to be on the same page,” he said. “We can’t just do our own thing. … We were just working together to get on the same page. A lot of it has to do with communication. I told these guys who are new, ‘Communicate with me. If you see the defense doing something, how they’re playing you, just tell me so I’ll know next time.’”
Last 20
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For a change, depth for Tech on defensive line
Justin Thomas to take part in contact drills
Heat challenges Jackets, who go in full pads next
Summers, Jeune holding lead at wide receiver
Johnson 'excited' by B-back competition
Shamire Devine, All-ACC candidate and MomoCon fan
Tech faces mandate to improve defense (myajc)
Eubanks and Young knocked out of Atlanta Open
Energy high as Jackets open preseason
Justin Thomas: No looking back to ’14 season
Jabari Hunt-Days eligible to play
Leg healed, Broderick Snoddy ready for camp
Georgia Tech’s Shamire Devine ‘close-ish’ on weight goal
Lamont Simmons: ‘Prototypical corner’
Tech starts No. 17 in coaches poll
Ollie Schniederjans: Kind of a big deal
New in ’15: Walker one more burner in freshman class
ACC, Tech players nonchalant about impending stipends (myajc)
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