Georgia Tech’s B-backs will all likely receive playing time in the Thursday opener against Alcorn State, although coach Paul Johnson didn’t commit himself to a set rotation.
“I’ll just rotate them by how I want to do it, however we put them in,” he said.
Graduate transfer Patrick Skov will start, but backups Marcus Marshall and Marcus Allen will play, also. Skov won the starting job in the preseason after arriving over the summer from Stanford. Marshall is a first-year freshman. Allen is a junior who came to Tech as a B-back but switched positions twice before returning to B-back in the spring. They are both listed as second on the depth chart behind Skov.
“I think that we’ll have a better idea after we play a couple games how that rotation unfolds and where it sits,” he said.
While none of the three have played a snap at the position in an actual game, Johnson repeated on his radio show Monday night his assurance that the position will gain 1,000 yards. B-backs typically receive roughly 35 percent of the carries in the offense. It is often the position that defenses try to slow down first.
Johnson also said on his radio show that another B-back, first-year freshman Quaide Weimerskirch, will be cleared for practice Tuesday and “should be ready to go full speed” after the Alcorn State game. Weimerskirch, an early enrollee, suffered a foot injury in spring practice that required surgery.
Johnson said a decision to redshirt or play him this season won’t happen for two or three more weeks. He acknowledged that with the depth at the position, Weimerskirch will have to “be a home run” in order to play, barring injuries to the players on the depth chart.
At his news conference, Johnson referred to Allen and Marshall as “Marcus squared. You can yell for Marcus, you’re going to get one of them.”
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