Everything From Georgia Tech Quarterback's Coach Chris Weinke After Tuesday's Practice

Weinke spoke with the media after Tuesday's practice

Dec 22, 2023; Tampa, FL, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets quarterback Haynes King (10) talks with head coach Brent Key during the second half of the Gasparilla Bowl against the UCF Knights at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports / Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

Fall Camp rolled on today for Georgia Tech and today, the pads came on for the first time. After practice, quarterbacks coach Chris Weinke spoke with the media for the first time since the spring and here is everything he had to say:

1. On how fast they have been able to go in the first week of camp...

"Yeah, well, I think first and foremost, the luxury of having some veteran quarterbacks, right? Guys that have been in our system makes life a little bit easier in terms of what we can do offensively. And I think the fortunate part for me is the two young guys have fallen right in behind those guys. They're wired the right way. Haynes and Zach obviously set the expectation in the room and the two young guys are following them. And so when you have two veteran guys that go about their business the right way. It's easy for those younger guys to see what they do. But I think most importantly, you know, you're limited, I think, in a first year, new staff, new offense in terms of what you can do. And when you look at across the board offensively, starting with our quarterback, it allows you to be creative. It allows you to be exotic. It allows you to attack people in a lot of different ways because the foundation of the offense is now understood by everybody and the trigger man is obviously running the show."

2. On finding out who the third quarterback will be...

"Yeah, so we're lucky because we are in fields. We have a lot more depth than we have in the past, which allows us to get some more reps. And regardless of what those reps are, there's no substitute for experience. And I think our guys are evaluated on every single thing that they do every day. They have plenty of opportunities. I never worry about that early in camp. You know, What I tell them is go to work every day, okay, and put it on film, and we'll evaluate you. So right now, with the first two implanted, right, with two veteran guys, those other guys are going to sit there and battle it out, and by the end of camp, we'll know who is in position to be that third guy."

3. On Haynes King interning with him this summer...

"Well, I think he is a football junkie. And I think, you know, he's a kid that graduated from Texas A &M and transferred here. He's taking graduate classes, which allows him the ability to be able to do some internships. And, you know, it's so fun working with these guys. And, you know, you start talking about a guy like Haynes, who's the son of a long time, very successful high school football coach. But it's in his blood. He can't get enough of it. And it's hard to find those kids these days. And he is old school. He loves the game. He can articulate it. He can speak about the game at a high level, which makes it a lot of fun for me. So his internship consisted of studying football."

4. On coaching against Florida State in the first game...

"Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to sit here and say it's not exciting for me, right? That's my alma mater. I'm proud of where I went to school. I'm proud of where I graduated from. But I am coaching at Georgia Tech, okay? And that's the first challenge on our schedule this year. Happens to be on a big stage, which we like. I haven't necessarily thought a bunch about it yet as we continue to get closer and start honing in and game planning for those guys and locking in on them. I think the juices will be flowing. And I think the most important thing is it's an exciting opportunity for our kids, right? You're playing against a team that had a lot of success last year Their roster has changed a little bit. Our roster changed a little bit, not necessarily on our side of the ball. Okay, we've had a few pieces, but our focus right now is to be the best that we can be each and every day. And when our mindset changes to start to focus on them, I think it'll get ramped up around here."

5. On if being deep at the skill positions helps the freshmen QB's...

"Yeah, you know, I think it's exciting. That's part of the whole process when you're recruiting guys, right? I always tell quarterbacks, you have to be our best recruiter. When a kid commits here, good players want to come play with good quarterback. So you look at our roster now compared to maybe a couple, three years ago, it's a different looking football team. We have good young players. I think the advantage that all of those young players have, regardless of whether it's the quarterback or any other position, they have veteran guys ahead of them that are continuing to show them what the expectation is, what the standard is, and when you create depth, you create competition. And I think, as Coach Key would say, we're going to play the best players. It doesn't matter if you're a sixth year sixth year senior or for your first year freshman. So I think the young quarterbacks see that there's talent that surrounds them, which means there's some excitement for the future."

6. On how much of Haynes King's interceptions last season were a product of him being a first time starter...

"Well, I think there's a couple of things there. One, you're right, he hasn't necessarily been the starter for a full year. He does have a lot of experience, but it hasn't necessarily been consistently over a number of years. And I think that's important for us all to understand, don't forget the fact that the guy came in and just had to learn a new offense one year ago and then became our starter and operated our offense at a high level. I tell these guys this every single day. We are going to be aggressive, okay? He is ultra -competitive, okay? Now he needs to understand, okay, when to take those shots and when not to take those shots. I think a better understanding of our offense, of the nuances within our offense, and the ability to be able to say, hey, live for each down, right? Be the best that you can be and don't ever put us in a bad position, okay? He will be better this year than he was a year ago. But I don't want to take away his aggressive attitude. I don't want to take away his competitiveness. Like I tell them, when they run out of the tunnel, go out, have fun, okay? Cut it loose and put the mistakes on me. So that's how I want him to play. That's how they'll continue to play. But he is very conscious of that, and that's something that takes place right after the season. I'm not dwelling on that. That's over. It's done with. He understands what he needs to get better at, and he's gotten better at that. And through the course of six practices, you'll see when it's not there he's throwing the ball away. He's making really good decisions."

7. On the tight end position...

"Yeah, I think, you know, there's no doubt we had a couple last year that were twitchy guys in Dylan and Luke who did a lot of really good things for us. I think if you look at our tight end room now, there's a lot of depth there, right? And I think if you look at it, they're more specific in terms of what they're capable of doing. But when you have a lot of depth there in our offense where we're going to change personnel a bunch, whether we're going to be an 11 personnel, 12, 13, possibly 14. We're going to make everybody prepare for us in a lot of different ways. The luxury of having depth at that position allows us to do that."

8. On the new helmet communications...

"Yeah, and I think because of my experience with it as a player and then as a coach in the NFL, it is a process that you have to go through. That's why we utilize it every day. So these guys are getting comfortable with that. I think, as I shared with Buster, each and every guy is a little bit different. There's some guys that want more information than other guys. There's some guys that strictly want to play, and I don't want to hear anything else. So it's the challenge of Buster understanding the guy, okay, and then the guy's understanding, okay, one, can I stay calm, listen to the call while everybody's talking? Our mechanism hasn't necessarily changed, right? We still have to signal because We're not in the huddle like the NFL. Now, I think the landscape of college football, you will see some changes. Because of the communication on both sides of the football, I think when you start talking about, hey, when we're shifting in motioning, they're going to have to check. The ability for defensive coordinators now to be able to help their linebackers check, okay, will be a cat and mouse game. And I think it'll be interesting to see college football as we move forward. Are we going to now revert back to some old school football where there's going to be some teams getting in the huddle and calling plays because it's going to be easier. If you feel like a team has got a beat on your signals, the one way to be able to combat that is to get in the huddle. So I think we're conscious of that. We're aware of that. That's what a lot of teams do, right? They're trying to get your signals. Well, they can't get your signals if we're calling the play through the headset. So It's a process. The guys are comfortable now after six days. Obviously, we use it a little bit in spring. I think the next step with that is the iPads on the sidelines. You talk about teams being able to make adjustments now, okay? Not only can you talk about it and try to draw it up for the players, you're going to show it to them in real life. I think it's also going to help defensive coordinators, right? Hey, this is what they did out of this formation. okay we can expect this we have to be one step ahead of defensive coordinators in terms of combating what we anticipate they're going to do right so it's it's going to be a cat and mouse game right I think it's good for college football I think it's unique in terms of the direction we're going it's going to allow probably a lot more exotic things in college football you know everything right now is hey speed and tempo and everybody go right well they'll still be that but i think you're going to see a lot more things with the ability to be able to communicate to the quarterback"