ATLANTA- Quarterbacks and their statuses going into the North Carolina game were the primary topics of Georgia Tech interim football coach Brent Key’s Tuesday press conference. Key updated the status of freshman quarterback Zach Pyron publicly and announced that starting quarterback Jeff Sims who was the emergency quarterback the last few weeks is not with the team currently and is shut down to focus on his rehab.
Key said he met with Sims and the decision was made for the quarterback to step away from the team to focus on improving his injured foot through rehab.
“Jeff won’t be with the football team indefinitely,” Key said. “I had meetings with Jeff, the doctors, and the medical professional and came to the determination that it would be best for Jeff not to be in meetings or be at practice, but to be in treatment and rehab now and moving forward. Decisions that are made are in the best interest of the team, Georgia Tech, and for the health and safety of our players.”
Sims had been cleared to play but did not feel comfortable going into the game or playing the last few weeks despite practicing Key said.
“It is easy to be medically cleared, but that doesn’t always mean at that point you feel great. Just because on paper you medically can play, I mean every day you wake up and feel a bit different, so the ability to go out there and be the person he wants to be on the field didn’t present itself at that time.”
When pressed about Sims’ status within the team moving ahead, Key said he is with the training staff.
“We have a travel list for this weekend, now he is in training where he works in the training room for the time being,” Key said. “He is frustrated that he has an injury that is preventing him from being full speed.”
After playing in every game as a freshman, Sims has missed eight games over the last two years and that will end up at ten games missed due to injury by the end of the 2022 season.
Pyron who had filled in well for Sims after moving ahead of Zach Gibson over the last three games is also out for the rest of the season.
“Unfortunately Zach broke his collarbone in the game,” Key said. “It was in the third quarter he ran up the middle, it wasn’t a crazy thing, he went down to get a couple of extra yards with his competitive nature and youthfulness and not knowing when to and when not to,” Key said. “What a great kid, he was devastated that he let everyone down.”
Key said that Pyron will have surgery on Thursday to repair the break and he will be back in time for spring football.
“It should be a 100 percent recovery for him and we look forward to having him back in the springtime,” Key said of Pyron.
The Jackets’ remaining options at quarterback this season consist of Gibson, Taisun Phommachanh a transfer from Clemson who has not played this season, and walk-on Brody Rhodes who is the signaler for the offense on the sideline in games.
With all the adversity facing the team this season during Key’s audition for the full-time coaching job one could expect some down feelings, but the Jackets’ interim coach says that is not how he views it.
“I hate it for the kids, that is the number one thing,” he said of the QB injuries. “Injuries are part of the game and we understand that when we get in this profession and when we start to play the game of football. Injuries are a part of it and to sit around and complain or sit around and be pissed about, you are just wasting time to get better, to get the next person ready, and to have a better plan moving forward. We’ve got a chance to play football this weekend. These kids have a chance to play a dadgum good football team at their place and everyone is excited about that.”
