Georgia Tech Practice Notes and Quotes 8/17
ATLANTA- Georgia Tech football coach Brent Key continued to prepare his team for the final scrimmage of fall camp on Saturday with a two-plus hour practice session on Thursday. Following practice first-year receivers coach Josh Crawford and a trio of his players, Avery Boyd, Christian Leary and Malik Rutherford spoke to the media for the first time in camp.
Crawford has been tasked with rebuilding a receiver room with two returning members of the two-deep a year ago, Malik Rutherford and James BlackStrain healthy enough to practice. Star receiver Leo Blackburn continues to rehab his torn ACL the lone returning starter from 2022, so it will be a different look in that room.
Tech brought in transfers Leary (Alabama), Chase Lane (Texas A&M), Abdul Janneh (Duquesne) and Dominick Blaylock (Georgia) since Crawford was hired. Those new faces coupled with returning players like BlackStrain, Rutherford, D.J. Moore and Boyd and three freshmen Eric Singleton Jr., Bailey Stockton and Zion Taylor will aim to replace the production of Nate McCollum (UNC transfer), E.J. Jenkins, Malachi Carter and Blackburn.
It will likely be more of a receiver-by-committee approach according to Crawford once the season starts up rather than leaning on just a handful of players.
“The entire room I’m really excited about. If there is a theme in my room it is strength in numbers,” Crawford said. “A lot of these guys at different times have continued to make plays on a daily basis and we have a lot of guys that can run that can make plays on the ball so overall the depth of this room is pretty good right now. I feel good about it.”
Crawford said his goal is to push his players to compete snap to snap and not just jockey for depth chart spots.
“So in the receiver room, we talk about it all the time, we have the cheetah and gazelle mentality. So I never want them comfortable. They have to have the mindset of if I had a good day or even if I’m named the starter, I never want those guys to be comfortable in their position and think hey I won the starting job or maybe I’m going out with the first group so I can rest on my laurels,” he said. “If you’ve got good depth and talent in your room you are able to get pressure that you are able to create and I’m very fortunate to have a lot of guys that I feel like we can roll in. They know when they come to practice they have to be on their A-game.”
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