One of Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson’s favorite aspects of his team’s first practice Thursday might be shared by Yellow Jackets fans everywhere — no red jerseys.
The reason for Johnson’s pleasure might differ, though. At Tech practices, red jerseys are worn by players who are recovering from injury and are being held out from practice. On Alexander Rose Bowl Field, Johnson said, all were wearing white (offense) or blue (defense).
“For the first time I can remember in a long time, we didn’t have a red shirt out there today, and that’s saying something when you’ve got 105 guys and they’re all practicing,” he said.
It wasn’t the case last year, as Tech began the preseason with B-backs C.J. Leggett and Quaide Weimerskirch sidelined from spring-practice injuries that kept them out all season. Including 2015, at least the past four preseason camps began with at least one player not cleared to fully participate.
The clean health is not necessarily a promise of greatness and can obviously change in an instant, but it beats the alternative. Tech’s string of injuries to A-backs last season (including Nate Cottrell, Qua Searcy and Broderick Snoddy) is a testament to that. There’s no saying that having any one or more of those players for the full season would have turned the season around, but it’s hardly unreasonable to think that they could have made a difference in some of the six losses by eight points or fewer.
Johnson is hopeful that the number of healthy players and the depth in certain areas — quarterback, A-back, offensive line and wide receiver are particularly stocked — will be beneficial. Last year, for example, there were five scholarship wide receivers. There’s nine on this year’s roster.
“I mean, just watching practice, there’s more numbers,” he said. “For the first time in a long time, I’m looking, we’ve got 10 wide receivers. There was eight quarterbacks out there, which includes a couple walk-on guys, two or three, but you’ve got some numbers.
“We’ve got enough (offensive) linemen to practice. There’ve been times where we didn’t have two groups of guys to practice, so that part of it is better.”
The depth isn’t necessarily loaded with experience. On the offensive line, for instance, of the 13 offensive linemen (not including Michael Muns, a senior walk-on who was awarded a scholarship Wednesday), there’s one senior, four juniors, three sophomores, two redshirt freshmen and three freshmen. But, again, having everyone available to compete is a good start.
The next step is developing the talent. Johnson will accept the challenge.
“Now, can we transition that to being way better on the field?” Johnson asked. “We’ll see. I think we can, but we’ll see. We haven’t played a game yet.”
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