News and Notes From Georgia Tech's Second Spring Scrimmage (4/6)

Jackson Caudell | Apr 6, 2024

Nov 25, 2023; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets head coach Brent Key on the field / Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

Georgia Tech is winding down spring football and held their second scrimmage today. After holding their first scrimmage last week, it was going to be interesting to see how the scrimmage today matched up with the one last week. After the scrimmage, head coach Brent Key met with the media to discuss the scrimmage, and here is the interesting news and notes to come from today's scrimmage.

Georgia Tech ran 120 plays today, down from 155 last week. 

The offense won the scrimmage last week, but the defense won this week, an encouraging sign for them.

 
Of the 13 drives that were ran, there were two touchdowns, two field goals, an interception, and seven punts.

 
Brent Key praised defensive lineman Josh Robinson today. "He's had a really, really good spring so far. Really good to see his. growth and really, you look at a guy that's been around the program a long time and really taking all the coaching right now, playing in the scheme and we talk about doing your job. He's somebody that he doesn't say a lot, comes to work every day and truly does his job every play and he's been very consistent throughout the entire spring. Really pleased that we're 27 is right now in his development for us. And it shows too, you don't have to be a young guy to develop in a program. I mean, you can be a four-year -fifth-year guy and still have ways to go. And he's taken that and he's really run with it and he's doing a great job"

True freshman running back Anthony Carrie has had a good spring and Key singled him and Trey Cooley out as running backs that impressed today. "Anthony (Carrie) had some really big runs, some really good runs. Showed really good vision and balance, made some good cuts. He's getting more and more confident every day he's been out here running the football We still got to work pass protection on the running backs with blitzes and those things, but I thought six and I thought Trey Cooley did some good things out there today."

Yale transfer tight end Jackson Hawes had another good performance today, earning praise from Key again for the second straight week: "But then today really showed up as a big target that's hard to bring down is Jackson Hawes, the Yale transfer. He's a big target to see over the middle, especially when you get down in the red area, part of the game."

Cornerbacks Ahmari Harvey and Omar Daniels, edge Jacob Cruz, and linebacker E.J. Lightsey all had good days today according to Key: 

"Defensively, Ahmari Harvey, he's playing with a lot of confidence right now. There's things in his game we're working on, and we've had a lot of individual kind of one-on-ones with me and him of being able to focus off his energy on playing the game. Not always the emotional part between the plays, and he did a really good job of that today, and he showed the way he played, being able to get his hands on a lot of balls out there. Thought 21 showed up. Omar (Daniels), today was to make some good plays. You know, talked about No. 27, No. 35 Jacob Cruz, we've moved down to the rush spot. He's been there for about a week now, and he's starting to, starting to flash. Starting to make some, make some plays, showing his length and his speed. I think he's going to be, be a big help for us. But No. 2 (E.J. Lightsey), man, it's good to see him out there. He's a big, imposing, looking guy that can run and bring people down kind of in their tracks."

Key gave an update on the secondary today as well: 

"Uh, so we've got some guys banged up. You know, we brought some guys in. I think Warren (Burrell) is obviously a really, really good football player. He's six foot, 195, you know, maybe over six foot, but he's what you want in a cornerback. You know, true cover corner. You know, some of those guys have been banged up a little bit, so it gives me a chance for some. some of the other guys to come in there and play. DJ Moore has had a really, really good camp so far, got banged up out there at one point. I think Clayton (Powell-Lee), Clayton has, Clayton's improvement from the start to now has been probably as good as anybody on the back end. I was really impressed with the tackles he made today, some of the tackles in space he made, some of the ones behind the line of scrimmage some of the different calls we had. Then, I've already talked about Ahmari. I thought Ahmari did some good things.

Syeed showed up on a couple today. But to me, the secondary is very similar to the offensive line. You've got two tackles. You've got two corners. You've got two guards. You have two safeties. You have a nickel. And you have a center. But they're all five guys that have to work cohesively and work together. Because if one of them's out of position-- or out of place, it misses a call. You're not going to have success in that individual play. So it's the cohesiveness that we're trying to get with those guys. It's the individual play, number one, obviously. But then the cohesiveness within the calls that we've got to get different guys in different spots because we're creating the versatility and the ability for more than one group. I've said it before, I think our first 11, you know, they were pretty good football players. And I think they were pretty good football players. But we've got to be able to develop the rest of the guys depth-wise. We've got to be able to address a couple of the needs here coming up in the next couple of weeks. We've got some spots we need to fill, and we'll do that as well. So that's what spring is, though. It gives you really good assessment of where you are as a football team, and I think we make progress on that end."

Some unfortunate news, Key confirmed today that tight end Jackson Long tore his ACL in practice. 

"Yeah. You know, Jackson, we got confirmed last week, Jackson, you know, unfortunately, tore his ACL. Yeah. Okay. so Jackson will be down. Just a freak thing that happened out there. Nothing, you know, that you can prevent. Just, you know, I hate it for him. He was having a good camp. He's been banged up, you know, a lot since he's been here, but he's got a smile on his face. He's working to be ready to come back."