April 20, 2012
ATLANTA – After being held to three first-half points, the White team erupted for 28 points in the second stanza to beat the Gold team, 31-7 in Georgia Tech’s annual spring football game Friday night.
“I think we had a productive spring,” head coach Paul Johnson said. “I saw some positives (tonight). Overall, I think some guys made real progress. I’m happy we got out of the game tonight without any injuries.”
A crowd of 18,125 attended the game, part of Tech’s “Friday Night on the Flats (presented by PNC Bank)” – an evening of festivities that included pre- and post-game concerts as well as fireworks.
There were very little fireworks on the field in the first half as the defense dominated, taking advantage of patchwork offensive lines for both squads. Tech entered the spring game missing a number of injured offensive linemen, which meant players playing out of position, and freshmen and walk-ons playing key roles. The defense recorded sacks on three consecutive first-half plays during one stretch.
“I think we had a productive spring,” Johnson said. “Tonight was a little hard to tell because we wanted to stay fairly vanilla, and we couldn’t do much with our injury situation on the offensive line. We were down to 10 guys (offensive linemen). We had guys playing guard who have been playing guard two days.”
White led 3-0 at halftime after David Scully kicked a 41-yard field goal with two seconds remaining.
It was the defense that actually started the scoring onslaught in the second half. Sophomore safety Correy Dennis’ fumble return for a touchdown gave White a 10-0 lead early in the third quarter.
The offense then began to find its rhythm and all three of Tech’s top quarterbacks played a role.
Senior Tevin Washington, the returning starter at QB, scored the game’s first offensive touchdown on a one-yard run for a 17-0 White lead.
Redshirt freshman QB Vad Lee, who ended up playing for both teams, later led the White on an impressive scoring drive. Lee’s 47-yard pass to sophomore Deon Hill – with Hill accounting for most of that yardage with a nice run – went to the one-yard line. After a delay-of-game penalty on Lee, he hit Tony Zenon with a short pass over the middle for the touchdown.
Sophomore Synjyn Days, who led all rushers with 79 yards on 15 carries, scored the Gold team’s only points of the night on a QB keeper to pull within 24-7.
Lee and the White team closed the scoring with a nifty TD pass to senior wide receiver Chris Jackson.
Johnson was asked by the media, following the game, to summarize his three quarterbacks. “I think all three bring something to the table. It’s really a matter of who can improve most and (September 3rd). The guys behind Tevin (Days and Lee) both bring different things.”
Washington rushed 14 times for 67 yards and a touchdown, and he completed 4-of-6 passes for 46 yards. Lee completed 9-of-17 passes for 120 yards and two TDs. Hill and Zenon, both A-backs, had three receptions each.
Tech, which went 8-5 in 2011, will open the 2012 season Sept. 3 at Virginia Tech.
