Scott Morgan was making sure to bring his pillow and blanket. The soon-to-be Georgia Tech freshman has already heard that sleep can be fleeting at his new school.
“You won’t get much of it,” the defensive lineman from Woodstock said. “You might as well enjoy it while it lasts.”
Christian Campbell, a quarterback from Ponchatoula, La., is bringing his car.
“A Buick Regal 2011,” he said. “Very good car.”
B-back Mikell Lands-Davis, from Douglasville, plans to decorate his dorm room with his Fathead poster of NFL running back LeSean McCoy.
“I’ve had it since I was about 14,” he said.
Eager, hopeful and perhaps a little bit nervous, Georgia Tech’s freshman class will report Tuesday morning to begin a summer of orientation, classes and participation in workouts. The freshmen will offer reinforcement to the Yellow Jackets after losing a slew of key seniors off of the Orange Bowl championship team.
If history is a guide, chances are that, five years from now, the large majority of the class will be Tech graduates. A few will have transferred. Perhaps a third will have signed NFL contracts. All will have been on a team that played in the ACC championship game, as has been the case for each of Johnson’s first seven classes.
Of the 27-member class, four enrolled in January – offensive lineman Will Bryan, defensive tackle Kyle Cerge-Henderson, wide receiver Harland Howell and B-back Quaide Weimerskirch. Two more, running back KirVonte Benson and quarterback Jaylend Ratliffe, are enrolling in January 2016. Ratliffe is recovering from a skull fracture suffered in an ATV accident last July. Benson tore his ACL late in his senior season at Marietta High and is giving himself more time to rehabilitate the injury before beginning his five-year eligibility window.
The freshmen are scheduled to be joined later in the week by graduate transfer Patrick Skov, who received his degree in international relations from Stanford on Sunday and is now eligible to enroll at Tech. The B-back will have one season of eligibility and will begin camp as the No. 2 B-back behind Marcus Allen, a welcome addition after injuries to B-backs C.J. Leggett and Quaide Weimerskirch. Leggett is out for the season with a torn ACL suffered in spring practice. Coach Paul Johnson said recently that Weimerskirch, who suffered a foot injury in the spring, should be able to return after preseason camp.
Skov, 6-foot-1 and 235 pounds, played three seasons for Stanford at fullback, largely in a blocking capacity. As a junior, he had 12 carries for 18 yards and four touchdowns.
Incoming B-backs Lands-Davis and Marcus Marshall, from Raleigh, N.C., will have a clear path to the playing field if they can perform once preseason camp begins at the end of July. Both have high ambition.
Said Lands-Davis, “My goal is to start, but my main goal is to win.”
Marshall, also a candidate at A-back, said he wants to help the team win as best he can and also “break any freshman rushing records.”
A-back and wide receiver are two other positions where the depth chart is receptive to Tuesday’s arrivals.
“I’ve talked to some of the guys,” said A-back TaQuon Marshall, from Harris County. “We’re ready to come in and put in the work and get the system down as best we can.”
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