May 19, 2015
The following story appeared in the Spring 2015 issue of The Buzz Magazine. Click here to read the entire issue.
By Adam Van Brimmer
– Georgia Tech’s Micheal Summers is an option offense lifer, at least through his first 21 years, so he understands which positions in the offense are more difficult to replace than others.
Quarterback is the toughest, he insists, the spot where knowledge and experience are as vital as play-making ability.
Offensive line is problematic as well, according to Summers. Option blocking requires a level of agility and quick thinking few linemen develop prior to becoming immersed in the offense.
The running back spots – A-back and B-back in Tech vernacular – are simpler and often conducive to players originally recruited for other spots. So too is Summers’ position, wide receiver.
How fortunate, then, that the Yellow Jacket offense’s losses from last year’s Orange Bowl champion team were almost exclusively backs and receivers.
“We have our quarterback back, we have depth up front and we have plenty of young talent at the skill spots,” Summers said. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t be more explosive on offense.”
Don’t sit too close to the field then. The Jackets averaged 38 points and 477 yards per game on their way to an 11-3 finish. Yet they lost four of their top five rushers and players who accounted for 94 of the team’s 109 receptions, including top wideouts DeAndre Smelter and Darren Waller.
Finding new contributors or expanding the role of those who played bit parts last season at those spots may not cause the same heartburn as trying to replace quarterback Justin Thomas or patching several holes along the line. But Georgia Tech needs playmakers at running back and receiver to build on 2014’s success.
“We gotta keep pushing ourselves to keep reaching those higher standards we have established,” Thomas said. “And that takes 11 guys, not five or six. You can’t have that many missing links.”
Little-known candidates
Only Georgia Tech’s most fervent fans will recognize the names of those vying for the B-back position. There is no heir apparent. The B-back is the feature back in the option, with the potential to carry the ball 20 times or more per game. Identifying the player or players who can run hard between the tackles while protecting the football is a top priority heading into the Sept. 3 opener.
“You need big plays out of that position,” said Bryan Cook, Georgia Tech’s quarterbacks and B-backs coach. “The more success you have inside the easier it is to get our perimeter option going.”
Of the leading candidates for the B-back job, none have played a college snap. And the frontrunner going into spring practice, C.J. Leggett, tore a knee ligament two days before the spring game is expected to miss the 2015 season while recovering.
Redshirt junior Marcus Allen, who started his career at B-back only to switch to defense before moving back to his original spot in the spring, was the leading rusher in the spring game with 77 yards. He’ll compete this fall with walk-on Ryan Braswell and Quaide Weimerskirch, who graduated high school early to enroll at Georgia Tech and participate in spring practice. Weimerskirch injured his foot during the spring and underwent surgery. His status for the start of preseason practice is uncertain.
The situation at A-back is slightly more settled. Dennis Andrews and Broderick Snoddy return, and both are gamebreakers in the run and pass game. Snoddy, an All-Atlantic Coast Conference track star, averaged 10 yards a carry last fall prior to suffering an injury.
Beyond Andrews and Snoddy, though, the rest of the A-backs are as unproven as the B-backs. And Johnson prefers to use as many as a half-dozen A-backs most games, mixing and matching based on the defensive personnel and his play-calling.
“There’s some work to do at all our running back positions, but I think there are some young guys who have good opportunities in front of them,” Cook said. “We have some time, and the lack of depth means they will get plenty of reps. We will see how they hone their skills.”
Passing game uncertainties
Summers is in full honing mode himself at wide receiver.
He’s started 19 games in his career yet has only 17 catches. But two of those came in the Orange Bowl win against Mississippi State, and many of his teammates expect that performance to catapult him into a star this year as the quarterback, Thomas, searches for new threats in the passing game.
“He’s ready to make that big jump; I should know having lined up against him in practice,” said defensive back D.J. White of Summers. “He just needs to develop that chemistry with his quarterback.”
Considering Summers and Thomas were roommates two years ago and hook up daily for 7-on-7 passing drills, that relationship is bound to bloom. Summers is perfecting his route running – he was an option running back in high school – in order to improve his ability to get separation in the passing game.
He is also focused on growing as a leader for the wide receiver corps. He’s the only one with significant playing time. Even the coaching staff is voicing a wait-and-see approach when asked about other contributors, with Cook venturing “we have some guys who can run, but can they make plays?”
Summers is confident he and his teammates can. The difference in the passing game for Georgia Tech is the ability to make what Summers calls “will plays,” and he senses plenty of strong will among the wide receivers.
“We’re going to make some catches that we shouldn’t make; that’s the attitude of this group,” he said. “We don’t throw it a lot so we have to have the mindset that when the ball does come our way, we are going to come down with it.”
Do enough of that – at wide receiver, B-back and A-back – and nobody will be talking about who’s replacing who this fall.
