One quarterback battle that has flown under the radar this season has been the one going on in Atlanta at Georgia Tech. Zach Pyron, Haynes King, and Zach Gibson have been battling all of fall camp for the job, and at the end of preseason camp, no starter has been named and it is unclear when that is going to happen.
After today's scrimmage, Head coach Brent Key spoke to the media and when asked about the quarterback competition, making a decision, and how he is going to approach it and here is what he had to say:
"I tell the coaches all the time and I tell the players as well that everyone in the program needs to know where they stand. That is the number one thing about being a football coach. Whether it be the head coach or the assistant coach. If you're playing, you better know why you are playing and if you are not playing, you need to know why you are not playing. There is no grey area in this program, it is my job to eliminate grey.
Now when it comes down to who is the starter or who is not the starter, that will be determined when we continue to go through our evaluation, just like we have since January 6th about what is best for this football team and once we know what is best for this football team, we will make a decision and you guys will know after that."
Key said that they ran about 80 plays in today's scrimmage, which was a lot less than the nearly 150 plays they ran last week.
Going back to the beginning of fall camp, Key has reiterated that no decision is going to be made soon regarding the quarterback position:
"With the quarterback situation, we have a great battle between three guys that have college experience, college game experience, big-time game experience. We are as fortunate as any team in the country in terms of the depth we have at that position and right now it is a lot of installation and a lot of routes on air, those kinds of things, getting timing down.
Like I have said before, it is different when you have the helmets on and the cleats as opposed in the summer and doing 7-on-7's. Every day is an evaluation of those guys, how they do in team periods, how they do off the field, how they transition from one play to the other. We have a good thing to have right now and that is experience and that is probably the same answer that I am going to give for the next three weeks. Don't plan on an announcement coming anytime soon"
Offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner has also made similar statements, but did note that the starter has to be the toughest guy in the room:
"First of all, he has to be the toughest guy in the building. In this day and age with the media and everything else, you have a lot to handle. Tough, a great leader... the beautiful thing about Coach (Chris) Weinke and I, we see it the same way. We did not know each other seven months ago and then we talked about quarterbacks and it was spot on, so we are aligned as far as that goes.
As far as the race, we are going to have all three guys getting reps, all three are getting an opportunity to play and whoever come out on top, you guys will know when we know or maybe even the first play of the game, but we are in no hurry to announce it, that is for sure."
Georgia Tech is going to be back next week to start preparing for the season opener against Louisville. There could be a decision made then or Key could wait until game week, or even the day of. This coaching staff has kept this quarterback battle quiet, but Sept. 1st is getting closer and a decision will need to be made soon. s
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