ATLANTA- Georgia Tech continued preparations for the annual spring game on Wednesday with a two-hour practice session and after practice receivers coach Trent McKnight met with the media for the first time since arriving on the Flats and a trio of his receivers, Eric Singleton Jr., Chase Lane, and Malik Rutherford spoke as well.
"It has been a really good camp and it has been fun to work with this group of coaches and players. It is fun seeing guys get better and we've got a great receivers room that is hungry to go out there and get better," McKnight said. "It has been fun and I've been learning a lot with this offense."
McKnight was the offensive coordinator at Georgia State until Shawn Elliott quit in the middle of spring camp several weeks ago. That created a ripple effect that sent Dell McGee from Georgia to Georgia State and then Tech receivers coach Josh Crawford to UGA to replace McGee. McKnight was picked to replace Crawford on the Flats giving the new Tech coach a rare win for an assistant coach. He didn't have to move his family or anything to take another job. He simply had to pack up his office and move up the road to Tech.
"Well, it worked out great for me. I'm thrilled to do death to be over here," McKnight said when asked about the unusual timing of the move to Tech. "The thing I love most about being here is the people, from Coach (Brent) Key to the offensive staff to the receivers room and the entire team. It was a whirlwind of what happened over there, but the good Lord took care of us and got us over here. I've been lucky this is going on year eight living in Atlanta and we love living here. I was blessed with my kids, nothing has changed for them. Same schools, same baseball teams, same friends, and you are not always going to go through a transition like that. They just have to learn a bunch of new players here."
The small world of coaching helped McKnight land at Tech because he had connections to Buster Faulkner through the coaching world and knew Key a little from the road.
"I've known the staff from being right down the street from camps or whatnot and Buster and I have coached with some of the same people so that was part of the relationships and with Coach Key, I would see him on the road and get a chance to interact with him, but I think this always comes down to relationships and I think some of the success we had with receivers over there," McKnight said. "We've been at camps and other things where I've got to know them a little bit better, but it is a lot of fun to be where and work with this group on a daily basis."
