Georgia Tech Football: Kicking Off Spring Practice

Update 3/23

Georgia Tech announced today that it would be delaying the beginning of its Spring Practices.

According to the release, the team is still planning to make use of its 15 practices as soon as they are able to do so safely. We at FTRS wish those affected a quick and speedy recovery.

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Well after several months of nothing but basketball and non-rev sports to carry us, football is back! Sort of, at least. Today is the official start of spring practice for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, and it will be the first full spring practice for all of last year’s freshmen, as well as the early enrollees this year.

Now, we’ll be taking a deeper dive into specifics over the next couple weeks, but let’s take a quick look at some bigger picture stuff!

Who are the new guys?

Georgia Tech is welcoming 13 new players to the team this spring, a nice mixture of freshmen and incoming transfers. Let’s take a quick look at each of these guys as they appear in the video in the tweet above:

WR Kyric McGowan | Grad transfer from Northwestern

LB Ayinde Eley | Transfer from Maryland

DL Kevin Harris | Transfer from Alabama

DB Kenyatta Watson II | Transfer from Texas

QB Chayden Peery

DB Kaleb Edwards

DL Josh Robinson

LB Trenilyas Tatum

DL Grey Carroll

OL Nick Pendley | Transfer from Mississippi State

OL Weston Franklin

OL Jakiah Leftwich

OL Devin Cochran | Transfer from Vanderbilt

DL Makius Scott | Transfer from South Carolina

There are a lot of pretty exciting names, but what excites me the most is to see how all of these linemen find their spots. The Yellow Jackets has eight new linemen coming in this spring (four on the OL, four on the DL), and having them come in during the Spring will help them get up to speed a lot quicker.

Specifically, I’m really excited about the two transfers on the offensive line: Devin Cochran and Nick Pendley. Cochran is more than likely going to be starting at one of the tackle positions this season. He was regularly one of the top offensive linemen in the SEC during his time at Vandy, and Tech didn’t exactly have a great line last year. As for Pendley, I think it’s entirely possible he wins one of the guard positions this year.

Other roster updates

Georgia Tech didn’t just add a whole bunch of people this spring; they also moved a couple players around and changed a lot of numbers.

Going through the roster, the first notable position change I see is Demetrius Knight, who is moving back to quarterback after spending his first couple seasons at linebacker. Originally recruited as a quarterback by Paul Johnson, he moved to linebacker when the quarterback room was a bit more crowded. With both James Graham and Tucker Gleason transferring out, it will be nice to have another player with some experience in the quarterback room.

The other big changes are all numbers. At the time of writing this, the official roster has been updated, and we have a few new guys wearing single digits. Before I get to those, I do also want to note that Georgia Tech did give out both No. 7 and No. 90, neither of which were worn last season due to the losses of Bryce Gowdy and Brandon Adams, respectively. Malachi Carter and Zamari Walton will both be sporting No. 7, and Makius Scott will be donning No. 90.

Now let’s look at the single digits, which are normally reserved for the playmakers of the team, or the ones who earn it:

0 - Djimon Brooks

1 - Jahmyr Gibbs* and Juanyeh Thomas

2 - Kyric McGowan* and Tariq Carpenter

3 - Tre Swilling

4 - Dontae Smith* and Quez Jackson*

5 - TK Chimedza*

6 - Jamious Griffin*

7 - Malachi Carter* and Zamari Walton* (Bryce Gowdy is also listed on the roster as No. 7)

8 - Nate McCollum* and Tobias Oliver

9 - Avery Boyd* and Anntoneous Clayton

So a couple things stand out to me here. First of all, Jahmyr Gibbs is wearing No. 1, and I can’t think of a better option than that. Second, there are a lot of offensive weapons here. We have three running backs in Gibbs, Dontae Smith and Jamious Girffin, and four receivers in Kyric McGowan, Malachi Carter, Nate McCollum and Avery Boyd.

Important story lines to keep an eye on

Looking at the offense, the big story lines are along the offensive line and at wide receiver. They have two big transfers coming in on a line that was not great last year and four receivers all wearing single digits, despite losing both Jalen Camp and Ahmarean Brown. It should be fun to see how they all mesh this Spring.

Davey P is a guy that I was a little skeptical when he was first hired, but he grew on me a lot this last year, and honestly, I think he’s set up to have Tech’s offense take a pretty big step this season. He’s got a young base in Sims and Gibbs and now has some experienced receivers in Carter and McCowan. Add in some legitimate OL options now, and I think Tech’s offense can make some serious strides.

On defense, I want to see how the secondary bounces back. The secondary was probably the most disappointing part of the team last year. They had some pretty high expectations, and they were honestly pretty bad most of the season. There is some serious talent there, and there is no reason they shouldn’t bounce back this season.

Spring Game information

We will all have our chance to see how the team is doing come April 23, which is when Tech is holding their Spring Game. The game will be held at 6 p.m. at Bobby Dodd Stadium. I have not seen an announced capacity for the game, but I’m sure that will be announced sooner rather than later. The game will also be aired on ACC Network for everyone to be able to watch.

Personally, I’m just excited that we are this close to being back to football season.

What are you hoping to see this Spring?