The competition between Georgia Tech B-backs Marcus Marshall and Dedrick Mills is tight enough that coach Paul Johnson said he considered them as "1A and 1B."
In the Yellow Jackets’ preseason, the rest of the position group hasn’t done badly either. Johnson has liked what he has seen from backups KirVonte Benson, Marcus Allen and Quaide Weimerskirch.
“Marcus Allen has played, Quaide’s done some good things, there’s several guys in there,” Johnson said Monday following practice. “Last year, we were struggling to find guys. This year, there’s guys in there. So if you don’t practice and don’t play, somebody else will get their turn.”
Allen played as a backup to Marshall and Patrick Skov last year, with 35 carries for 166 yards. Weimerskirch is returning from a foot injury suffered in spring practice of 2015 when he was an early-enrollee freshman. Benson suffered a torn ACL as a high-school senior at Marietta High in 2014 and redshirted last season. Last week, Johnson described Benson as hard to tackle with good vision.
In eight seasons at Tech, Johnson has sometimes split up carries between two B-backs, as was the case in 2014 with Synjyn Days and Zach Laskey. Last season, while Skov and Marshall shared the starting role, Allen saw occasional playing time. Johnson will have to determine who he’ll play and how he’ll divide up snaps.
Weimerskirch has caught the notice of quarterbacks and B-backs coach Bryan Cook.
“He’s playing faster,” he said. “He’s playing aggressively, (showing) second effort that you didn’t see from in the spring. I think that’s probably just from being comfortable in what he needs to do.”
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