Scheme changes and staying healthy pays off for Tech WR Ryan King

Georgia Tech wide receiver Ryan King came to the Flats with big expectations as one of the top receivers in Georgia in the 2020 recruiting cycle. He came from the Grayson High School pipeline as well. King like much of the 2020 class saw some of his development thwarted by covid and the lack of normal offseason routines as well as untimely injuries.

The talented wideout had a solid spring, but a change at receivers coach and staying healthy for the first time started a change for him on the field and that has led him into the mix for significant playing time for the first time in his college career this fall.

The change from Kerry Dixon to Del Alexander as receivers coach has been a welcome one for King. Alexander's history as a receivers coach is more about big bodies like King has along with Chip Long's offense that is tailored for big receivers to go after 50/50 balls downfield.

"It is different coming from the type of guy coach Alexander is used to coaching. I think it is better for me to be a big receiver because he likes to coach big receivers," King said. "It is a clean slate in our room with Coach Del and coach Long too. He has a say in it as well so everybody got a clean slate to work with and to compete with."

Alexander said that King has really taken to the new offense and he understands what they expect from him and that has led to his success as well.

"Ryan is doing a lot of things well," Alexander said. "He understands our offense, he is giving great effort and he is trying to meet expectations like all the guys are. The thing that he can do better is to show us he can help us win during the tough times. When the game is on the line in the fourth quarter and overtime, I'm looking for grit and I've got to make sure that you are smart and understand what you are doing. So that is one of the things, getting tired, but being able to fight through that and be smart and understand the situations is something I'm asking him to do because if I overload him, he loses his concentration and we are just working on that."

Using his size to his advantage was an area where King really wanted to improve upon and that is where Alexander and the Tech offensive staff are really pushing him. The Jackets have not had a lot of success with receivers creating separation in games the last few seasons

"I feel like I'm doing well using my size now," he said. "I've learned to use my speed and my size to my advantage and use that to create separation on my routes."

King also had some setbacks with injuries early in his career and he created being fully healthy for an extended time with allowing his development to pick up.

"I feel like I've gotten a lot of time to develop being healthy. I went through an injury last season and my freshman season too so being healthy and being able to stay in the weight room and do strength and conditioning has helped me a lot."

In two seasons, King has played just 62 snaps on offense including a start at the end of the season against Georgia in one of the three games he played last year due to injuries after missing the first 10 weeks of the season. If he keeps working and progressing as he has in Tech's fall camp, King should easily pass that total snap number by week two against Western Carolina.