The first public viewing of the competition between Georgia Tech backup quarterbacks Synjyn Days and Vad Lee provided evidence of both players’ potential. It also showed there’s still distance between them and starter Tevin Washington.
“He’s in a place where he makes pretty good decisions, and that’s where I’d like to get the next two, in that same spot,” quarterbacks and B-backs coach Brian Bohannon said of Washington following the Yellow Jackets’ Saturday morning scrimmage at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
Washington opened the scrimmage by leading the first-team offense on a 10-play, 70-yard drive against the first-string defense, punctuated by A-back Robert Godhigh’s 8-yard touchdown run. As planned, Washington yielded most of the remainder of the roughly 100 plays to Days and Lee. Each took about 35 snaps.
Days showed toughness running for hard yards, generally made good decisions when protection broke down and avoided the ball-security problems that have been his undoing in the past. However, several botched center-quarterback exchanges plagued him and center Catlin Alford, who is working at the position for the first time. Days led the offense to one touchdown and a missed field-goal try.
Days’ highlights included a 25-yard pass to Godhigh and a 27-yard keeper off a shotgun snap to convert a third down. Coach Paul Johnson said he thought Days improved from the first scrimmage March 31, particularly with his decision-making.
“I think I did pretty good outside of the center-QB [exchanges],” Days said. “That’s something we can work on.”
Lee led the offense to two touchdowns. He showed command on his final possession, a six-play, 70-yard drive run out of the shotgun that he finished with a 47-yard tackle-breaking run down the sideline. The play before, he threw a catchable deep ball to wide receiver Jeff Greene that he couldn’t secure.
“You could see at the end when he ran with the [first string] there, he’s got a lot of ability, and he did some things, but he had the ball on the ground way too much,” Johnson said. “He’s still getting the nuts and bolts of the running game.”
Defense vexes Groh
Defensive coordinator Al Groh graded his unit’s performance as “collectively, a subpar effort.” Unofficially, the defense forced at least five fumbles, not counting the center-quarterback exchanges, but didn’t tackle well.
There were “a lot of plays that could have been stopped for less yardage had the tackling been a lot better,” Groh said.
Defensive end Anthony Williams stood out with his play, disrupting run plays before they could start.
“He’s really quick off the ball,” Johnson said.
Etc.
New special-teams coordinator David Walkosky ran about five punt and kick returns. Among the returners were B.J. Bostic, Jamal Golden and Tony Zenon, who broke one punt return into the clear. ... The offense sprinkled in some plays out of the shotgun and went to it for the final two possessions, one each for Days and Lee. The team had prepared it for the Sun Bowl, but didn’t use it much, and has continued working on it this spring. ... B-back David Sims ran hard, breaking tackles to extend runs. Bostic also made plays running and catching out of the A-back spot. ... Johnson said he thought the pass protection by the first-string offensive line was improved, but “the second group is a fiasco.” ... Kicker Justin Moore made his only field-goal try of the day, from about 36 yards. ... Greene and cornerback Rod Sweeting briefly scuffled on one play before being pulled away from each other. ... Tech will have another scrimmage open to the public next Saturday morning (time to be determined) and will conclude spring practice with its spring game at 7:45 p.m. April 20. The event will have pregame and postgame concerts and a fireworks show.
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