Georgia Tech’s Haynes King often spends nights at Bobby Dodd Stadium during preseason camp
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
It’s not uncommon for college football coaches, especially assistant coaches or graduate assistants, to find themselves sleeping in their office or somewhere inside the football stadium of the program that employs them. A cot or an air mattress, a mini fridge and a microwave, a shower in the team’s locker room — not much else is needed for the staff member who happens to be working late into the night before having to be up at dawn, or earlier, to do it all over again.
But for the team’s starting quarterback to pull that sort of lifestyle? Maybe not as typical.
“Haynes is leaving his house right now,” said Georgia Tech coach Brent Key on Saturday during his news conference when he caught a glimpse of Haynes King leaving Bobby Dodd Stadium.
The statement wasn’t wholly a metaphor. King, 24, has often been spending his nights at Bobby Dodd Stadium during Tech’s preseason practice, he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday.
He said after each season, he has taken a step back and looked for areas in which he can improve. This preseason, King said he felt one way to do that was to block out as much external noise as he could while increasing his focus on strengthening his game by spending as much time at the team facility as possible.
So after a full day of preseason work, when King finds himself studying film or the playbook late into the night, he’ll opt to find a spot to get some shut-eye inside the stadium instead of returning to his own residence.
“I always shy away a little bit from comparing to certain individual guys. Been very fortunate to coach a lot of good ones. I’ll say this, (King) is as dedicated of a quarterback that I’ve ever worked with,” Tech quarterbacks coach Chris Weinke said Monday.
“I think you have to fight human nature every day to be able to sustain and create consistency. This guy models that. He’s as a tough as they come. He works as hard as anybody that I’ve been around. It’s important to him and he’s always looking to improve. It’s a joy working with him.”
A third-year starter, King will play his 36th game Aug. 29 when Tech takes the field at Colorado. That will be his final season opener and the start of his opportunity to begin polishing his resume for a shot at the NFL.
King, from Longview, Texas, will begin the season inside Tech’s top 10 in passing yards (4,956), total offense (6,280 yards), touchdown passes (41) and touchdowns responsible for (62). His completion percentage of 72.9% in 2024 (an ACC record), and 37 touchdowns responsible for in 2023, are both single-season program records.
Now he’s trying to find the balancing act between taking each day as its own while champing at the bit to play inside Bobby Dodd Stadium again. And more mornings than not this preseason, he wakes up inside that stadium.
“I’ve been ready to play since our last game versus Vanderbilt (in December),” King said Monday. “But, at the end of the day, it is my last year, I’ve learned from my past, and it’s just best to take everything in and to just go have fun. That’s when everyone is playing their best, you’re not pressing, you’re not trying to be so perfect. How you be perfect is just give it your all.”
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