With multiple players out while recovering from injuries, Georgia Tech’s spring practice is awash in opportunity.
Four starters from the 2012 team — center Jay Finch, safety Isaiah Johnson and linebackers Brandon Watts and Jabari Hunt-Days — won’t practice as they recuperate. At center, for instance, that opens up practice time for redshirt freshman Freddie Burden and junior Catlin Alford, Finch’s backup last year. Alford started out with the first string in Monday’s first practice and Burden with the second.
“We run two groups (in practice), so Freddie’s going to get a ton (of practice repetitions),” coach Paul Johnson said. “We’ll find out a lot about him this spring, which is good.”
Only three scholarship wide receivers are available: Darren Waller, Corey Dennis and Micheal Summers. Jeff Greene is transferring after leaving the team, Jeremy Moore will not return for his senior season and Chris Jackson is graduating. Travin Henry and Anthony Autry are recovering from knee injuries.
Summers, a redshirt freshman, will “probably get to run in the first huddle, he and Darren and Corey Dennis,” Johnson said. “Those guys (Henry and Autry) will have a hard time beating him out when they get back in the fall.”
Jamal Golden, Chris Milton and Lynn Griffin are getting a lot of time at safety. Golden and Milton filled in there last season. Griffin redshirted after getting injured early.
Said defensive coordinator Ted Roof of Griffin, “I see a very willing guy, guy’s got a great attitude, he’s got a burst, just needs to get reps.”
Bohannon update: Johnson spoke with pride about former assistant Brian Bohannon, who Sunday was named Kennesaw State's first football coach. Johnson noted Bohannon's role in building up programs as an assistant to Johnson at Georgia Southern, Navy and Tech.
“I think he fit the criteria they were looking for. He’s a guy with local ties, from the state and I think he probably impressed the people who were in charge,” he said. “I think that Kennesaw looks and sees what Georgia Southern has done (with former Tech assistant Jeff Monken). They’d probably be a pretty good model to follow.”
Former Tech graduate assistant Craig Candeto, who played quarterback for Johnson at Navy and became the head coach at Division III Capital University in December, said the opportunity to replace Bohannon “would be definitely interesting for me, but the timing of it is something that I couldn’t do it.”
Navy offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Ivin Jasper, who played for Johnson at Hawaii and coached for him at Navy and Georgia Southern, declined comment through a spokesman.
Candeto was a grad assistant at Tech in 2010, working directly with Bohannon, before coaching quarterbacks and B-backs at the Citadel for two years.
Said Candeto, “I made a commitment and I want to carry that out.”
Perkins trying for return: B-back Charles Perkins practiced Monday in a gold (non-contact) jersey as he comes back from a season-ending shoulder injury. He'll test how much he can do when the team begins padded practices. He is competing with returning starter David Sims and backups Zach Laskey and Broderick Snoddy, along with walk-on Matt Connors.
“Charles has worked hard and we’ve always felt like he was a talented kid,” Johnson said. “Hopefully he can stay healthy and have a chance to contribute.”
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