Georgia Tech QB Haynes King continues to take dream start in stride
They’re trying to do what now?
“Virginia Tech, they’re playing really good ball right now. They had a tough break early on. Now, I’d say, they’re a really dangerous team. They’re coming in here, you could say, almost with nothing to lose. They’re gonna come in here, play hard, let it rip, not a lot of pressure on ‘em and just gonna try to, pretty much, piss in our cornflakes. So we know they’re gonna play hard.”
The words of Georgia Tech quarterback Haynes King, speaking with Eric Mac Lain on the “Gramlich and Mac Lain” podcast earlier this week. King said he thinks he may have gotten that one-liner from former Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher.
And speaking of Texas A&M, Ross Bjork was the athletic director there in 2021 when King, playing for the Aggies against Colorado in Denver, broke his ankle. Bjork went to the A&M sideline to check on King, who said, “I swear the doctors are wrong. Tape it up and put me back out there.”
Bjork, now the AD at Ohio State, told that story to Tech athletic director Ryan Alpert during a conference in Columbus, Ohio, last week.
Seems like everyone in college football circles is wanting to talk about, and talk to, King.
“That’s always good,” King said Wednesday. “And just goes to show you’re doing something right. When you’re getting a lot of attention, a lot of exposure, you’re doing something right. Obviously, so far, we are.”
King and the Yellow Jackets are 5-0 and ranked No. 13 in the nation ahead of a 3:30 p.m. matchup Saturday with Virginia Tech (2-2, 1-1 ACC). The more the Jackets have won, the more eyeballs have been watching and learning about King, a 6-foot-3, 215-pound Texan on a mission to play until he’s dragged off the field.
He’s played in 18 Tech wins since his arrival in Atlanta in the winter of 2023, not an entirely impressive total but significant if one considers Tech as a program won only 14 games between 2019-22. King doesn’t deserve all the credit, nor would he take it, but his value to the Jackets’ recent run of success is immeasurable.
Former Texas A&M offensive coordinator Darrell Dickey saw that value years ago, and according to an article published by The Athletic, Dickey gave King the nickname “Jimmy Chitwood” in reference to the star player in the classic movie “Hoosiers.” Chitwood led Hickory High School to a miraculous state championship.
King, who said he’s had nicknames ranging from “White Lightning” to “Pony Boy” to others he can’t repeat publicly, hasn’t led Tech to any sort of championship. Not yet, anyway.
“This is what we wanted. This is what we prepared for. The motivation pretty much just stays itself,” King said of the mounting pressure of being part of one of college football’s few unbeaten teams. “If you prepare like every game is the national championship, if you practice like every practice is leading up to that national championship, your standard is gonna stay at this level. No matter who you play or how you’re playing, you’re going to find a way to elevate and try to continue to keep getting better.”
King has completed 68.5% of his passes in four games (down from 72.9 in 11 games in 2024) this season for 758 yards and thrown three touchdowns. He has crossed the goal line as a runner seven times and is averaging 5.2 yards per carry on 73 attempts.
Alpert, speaking at Tuesday’s board of trustees meeting, showcased the organic social media movement to get King involved in consideration for the Heisman Trophy. King’s odds are +4000, according to FanDuel, to win the award, and there are 16 players with better odds.
“There’s no one man that deserves the accreditation and the recognition as much as he does,” Alpert said.
Tech was off last weekend, which gave King a chance to return home to Longview, Texas, and see his father, John King. A longtime coach of the Longview High School football team, John King was diagnosed with mouth cancer in August and hasn’t been able to coach the Lobos this season or attend any of his son’s games.
Both Haynes and his dad were able to travel to Rockwall High School to watch Longview win 35-21.
Returning to campus this week, King has shifted his focus back to Virginia Tech, the final seven games of Tech’s regular season and the second half of his final stretch of college football games. Those battles will be juxtaposed with the ever-present internal one of not allowing all the pats on the back derail Tech’s season — and King’s legacy.
“The main deal (Tech quarterbacks coach Chris Weinke) tries to preach to us every day is you gotta fight human nature,” King said. “When you’re having success, how are you gonna fight human nature to keep working, to keep trying to get better, to elevate yourself, elevate your practice, your preparation and the way you play? Just fight human nature and find ways to keep improving.”
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