Georgia Tech coach Brent Key isn’t tipping his hand when it comes to who will start at quarterback for the Yellow Jackets when they open the season Sept. 1 against Louisville at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
But Key does know exactly what type of quarterback he wants that person to be.
“The No. 1 thing, not just myself, but what everyone looks for is the toughness,” Key told radio station The Fan on Monday. “We want to build a tough, physical football team. The quarterback is the leader of that team. How that quarterback carries himself, how that quarterback goes is how your team is going to play.”
Key has five quarterbacks on the current roster and, realistically, three of those five will be vying to take the first step when the Jackets meet the Cardinals in the opener.
Zach Pyron, a redshirt freshman, played in three games in 2022 and went 49-for-82 passing for 565 yards, throwing three touchdowns and three picks. He also ran for 127 yards and two scores before a broken clavicle in November ended his debut campaign.
“When you look back at last year you kind of see the elevation of Zach Pyron playing like a linebacker playing quarterback, lowering his shoulder, he’s giving himself up,” Key said. “In turn, you look at how the team played. So the team does go as the quarterback goes. The toughness that he’s able to lead us with is important, his command of the team, his respect from everyone.
“Is he a guy that is going to go in the huddle and we got a minute left in the game and 97 yards to go versus that team from up north and everyone believes he’s going to do it? And you go kick the field goal to tie the game. Then you go to overtime and you win the game.”
Junior Zach Gibson, from Johns Creek High, played six of Tech’s final seven games last season and threw for 589 yards. But Gibson completed only one TD pass and didn’t provide much of a threat with his legs.
Then there is Haynes King.
King played in six games for Texas A&M in 2022 and five games combined in the previous two seasons. The 6-foot-3, 205-pound Texan was a four-star prospect coming out of high school in 2020.
In a win over Sam Houston State in September, King threw for 364 yards and three scores. He threw for 252 and two touchdowns in a four-point loss at Alabama in October. King also has thrown 10 career interceptions.
Pyron, Gibson and King all got extensive snaps during Tech’s spring game in April. Which one of those three can’t step forward and take the Yellow Jackets by the reins over the next two months will have a leg up this fall.
“Leadership is hard. It’s uncomfortable. It’s not natural. You have to develop it in everyone. No one is just born a natural leader, I don’t believe,” Key said. “It’s how you’re influenced, it’s the people around you, it’s the things that have happened around you in your life that you allow you to be a leader.
“For someone to walk in and be able to command the locker room, I don’t care if you’ve been there for three years or three days, some people have the knack of influencing others. You have to get people that have a natural confidence in themselves to lead and I think Haynes is in that mold.”
Tech will begin preseason camp Aug. 1, so right now Key said he and his staff are taking a bit of a break during a recruiting dead period. The first-year coach said the program had nearly 4,000 campers on campus during June and hosted more than 40 prospects on official recruiting visits so a “tired” staff is recharging the batteries.
Key also said he was told there was “one terabyte” of tape of current commits, 2024 and 2025 prospects waiting for him so he and his coaches have their work cut out for them when they get back into the film room.
Then, when the Jackets return to campus, Key said he’ll hand them a substantial workload to have them ready to compete in September and beyond.
“We have smart kids at Georgia Tech. Football is important to them, and they can take a large volume, and that should be an advantage we carry every week, to be able to carry volume and to be able to be multiple with what we do on offense, defense and special teams,” he added. “The guys that we have in place that are running the offense, defense and special teams are doing an outstanding job of leading and leading their staffs and leading their side of the ball and then collectively coming together as a team.
“It doesn’t change the toughness, the discipline, the commitment, the execution. Those are the four most critical things when it comes to building a successful football team.”
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