Tag: Haynes King

5 Georgia Tech football players to watch against Georgia

Georgia Tech football’s biggest offensive threats against Georgia

Who are Georgia Tech’s top offensive standouts ahead of their matchup against Georgia

Quarterback Aaron Philo

Aaron Philo, a freshman quarterback for Georgia Tech, has shown impressive play in recent weeks. Most notably, he led Georgia Tech to a dramatic 30-29 victory over NC State on Nov. 21, 2024. Philo scrambled for an 18-yard game-winning touchdown with only 22 seconds left, showcasing his composure under pressure.

He called the moment a “childhood dream” reflecting his growing confidence as a young player. Philo, who is Georgia Tech’s primary passing quarterback with Haynes King dealing with a shoulder injury, has stepped in to help Georgia Tech have a strong finish to their season. Philo has attempted 43 passes over the past two weeks.

Quarterback Haynes King

Haynes King, the starting quarterback for Georgia Tech, has delivered notable performances over the last few weeks, showcasing his dual-threat abilities. Most prominently, he led Georgia Tech to a stunning 28-23 upset over previously unbeaten No. 4 Miami on Nov. 9, 2024.

In the Miami game, King ran for 93 yards and a touchdown while also passing for another score, helping the Yellow Jackets secure their first win over a top-five team in 15 years. His decisive 5-yard rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter played a key role in the victory, solidifying his impact as a rusher. King has attempted just nine passes over the past two weeks.

Running Back Jamal Haynes

Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

Jamal Haynes has been a standout performer for Georgia Tech in recent weeks. Haynes delivered a career-best performance against North Carolina, rushing for 170 yards on 19 carries, including a dramatic 68-yard game-winning touchdown in the final seconds. His efforts helped Georgia Tech secure a thrilling 41-34 victory.

The UNC game was his second consecutive game with over 100 rushing yards and marked the sixth 100-yard rushing game of his career. He averaged 8.9 yards per carry in this game.

Wide Receiver Eric Singleton Jr.

Eric Singleton Jr. has been one of the standout players for Georgia Tech during the 2024 football season. The talented wide receiver has showcased his elite speed, sharp route-running, and consistent ability to make big plays in crucial moments.

In the NC State game, he eclipsed over 100 yards for the second time this season. He has six games this season where he has averaged 10 yards or more a catch. Singleton Jr. is used in the screen game or short routes to let him create positive yardage for the offense.

Wide Receiver Malik Rutherford

Malik Rutherford, a redshirt junior wide receiver for Georgia Tech, has been a consistent performer in the 2024 season. Over the last few weeks, he has remained one of the Yellow Jackets’ top offensive targets. Rutherford has recorded 55 receptions for 627 yards and three touchdowns across 11 games. He averages 11.4 yards per catch and 57.0 receiving yards per game, showcasing his ability to make key plays for the team.

His ability to secure crucial receptions has been instrumental for Georgia Tech, contributing to their offensive rhythm. His performance reflects his growth as a reliable playmaker in the passing game.

Breaking: Georgia Tech will be without one of its star players vs. Notre Dame

Good news for the Irish, bad news for the Yellow Jackets

While you always want to play your opponents best, that won’t be the case for Notre Dame football this weekend at they hit the road to take on Georgia Tech.

We have known all week that the Yellow Jackets star quarterback [autotag]Haynes King[/autotag] was considered day-to-day, but on Friday ESPN’s Pete Thamel is reporting that he will not play on Saturday against the Irish.

As one of the best dual-threat players in the country, King will be missed by Georgia Tech, as they will now look to [autotag]Zach Pyron[/autotag] to lead the team against Notre Dame. The sophomore has played sparingly in his three seasons with the Yellow Jackets, with his last significant playing time coming in 2022.

Over the course of Pyron’s career, he’s thrown for 650-yards with 4 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. This news is extremely favorable for the Irish, but it is late in the week to reset the game plan. Hopefully defensive coordinator Al Golden has been preparing for both of them this week.

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Notre Dame’s Riley Leonard makes Top 25 for Golden Arm Award

Obviously, he’s doing something right.

While some Notre Dame fans want [autotag]Riley Leonard[/autotag] replaced as the Irish’s starting quarterback, he clearly hasn’t been that bad. Otherwise, this post wouldn’t exist.

Leonard has been listed among the Top 25 for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, which is given to college football’s best upperclassman quarterback. He, of course, was named to the preseason watch list for the award along with 62 other quarterbacks. A win would mark the third for an Irish quarterback after [autotag]Brady Quinn[/autotag] in 2006 and [autotag]Tony Rice[/autotag] in 1989.

Another quarterback who made the cut, Louisville’s Tyler Shough, faced the Irish in their last game and lost. The Irish will be facing one other quarterback later on who made the cut, and that’s Georgia Tech’s Haynes King.

As long as Leonard continues to run the football with regularity, fans will continue to call for someone who mostly throws it. But Leonard has merited award consideration, so exactly how a rough a spot are the Irish in with him?

Here’s to Leonard continuing to prove his doubters wrong.

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Three Georgia Tech players to know ahead of undefeated Duke’s visit to Atlanta

Here are three key Georgia Tech football players to know before Saturday’s game.

Saturday will be yet another step down an intriguing path that the Duke Blue Devils have slowly created for themselves.

Duke sits at 5-0 as the football calendar officially turned October, and the football season has officially hit its stride. Last Saturday, Duke took down its most prominent rival, the North Carolina Tar Heels, en route to their fifth victory. It may be challenging, but they’ll need to turn their attention to the next game as a trip to Atlanta awaits for a Saturday battle with ACC foe Georgia Tech.

Georgia Tech won the first college football game of the season when it upset the Florida State Seminoles in Ireland. They haven’t had nearly as many highs since, and Saturday marks a massive moment in their season. Georgia Tech is led by one of its own after former Yellow Jacket Brent Key took over as the head coach in 2023 after four years as an assistant with the program.

Georgia Tech isn’t lacking talent, and we’ve listed three essential names for Duke football fans interested in the Yellow Jackets’ offerings.

Haynes King, QB

Haynes King controls this Georgia Tech offense and does an excellent job. A former consensus four-star quarterback recruit who started his career with the Texas A&M Aggies, King ultimately found his way to Georgia Tech last season.

King has completed 61 of his 87 passes (70.1%) for 724 yards and one touchdown pass in three games against conference foes this year, but as a genuine dual threat, he’s taken on the load himself to help the team’s struggles in the running game by making plays with his legs. He is second on the team with 39 carries, and he’s produced 216 yards and four touchdowns. To make things even more complicated, King has only thrown one interception this season, although he also lost a fumble against Louisville in his last game.

Besides those two plays, Georgia Tech’s offense turned the ball over this year. Relying on turnovers to change the game may not be a solid plan, and instead, Duke will need to play sound defense to fundamentally slow King and this offense down.

Kyle Efford, LB

Linebacker Kyle Efford will be a thorn in the side of Duke’s offense on Saturday. Efford is a throwback linebacker, and even as just a sophomore, he’s one of the ACC’s best. He’s already racked up 39 tackles to this point in the season, the sixth-most in the conference. He flows sideline to sideline, provides nice size at 6-foot-3, and weighs around 230 pounds. He routinely grades out on Pro Football Focus as one of the Yellow Jackets’ best defensive players.

Duke showed more growth in their run game last week, and if that is to carry over to this game against GT, Duke offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer needs to account for Efford in his game plan.

Romello Height, OLB

Romello Height could find himself playing very well on Sundays. He’s a slightly undersized EDGE rusher, but for the sake of this, we’ll list him as an outside linebacker because of his versatility. He can play multiple linebacker spots and has done so throughout his college career, which included stops with the Auburn Tigers and USC Trojans before he came back to his home state.

Height uses speed to beat tackles one on one. He thrives in space and has a pretty quick twitch. At times on tape, you can see him playing with his hair on fire too much and missing obvious tells from motion, play action, or screens that ultimately take him out of the play, but when he’s positioned to pin his ears back and rush the passer, his value skyrockets. Duke’s primary plan of attack this season has been through the air, and if they continue that, they’ll need to use the quick passing game, screens, and running right at Height to negate his biggest strength.

D.J. Uiagalelei draft stock sputters in Florida State’s loss to Georgia Tech

Highly-touted transfer QB D.J. Uiagalelei’s draft stock sputters in Florida State’s loss to Georgia Tech in Ireland

D.J. Uiagalelei took over as the quarterback for the Florida State Seminoles with some hope that he could quickly establish himself as one of the top quarterback prospects for the 2025 NFL Draft. Unfortunately for the well-traveled Uiagalelei, his performance in the Seminoles loss to Georgia Tech in Week 0 showed he’s got a very large hill to climb.

Uiagalelei completed 19 of his 27 passes against Georgia Tech, but he posted just 193 yards. Facing some consistent pressure from the Yellow Jackets defense, Uiagalelei almost exclusively checked down and worked the short margins until late in the game. His yardage was boosted by some nice YAC work by RBs Lawrance Toafili and Roydell Williams on a great screen play up the left sideline, but the stats show Uiagalelei had a net negative air yards per attempt in the first half.

Two impressive fourth-down conversions helped boost up “DJU’s” stock a little, showing some strong-armed accuracy and some ability to move around in the pocket to get a throwing angle. But overall, this was not the showing Uiagalelei or Florida State wanted in his third collegiate stop. His Georgia Tech counterpart, former Texas A&M QB Haynes King, looked like a better NFL prospect in the game in Ireland.

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Former Texas A&M QB Haynes King named as the starting signal caller at Georgia Tech

After transferring to Georgia Tech this offseason, former Texas A&M Quarterback Haynes King has reportedly been named as the starting signal caller for the Yellow Jackets this season.

What a journey it’s been for former Texas A&M quarterback Haynes King, who, after an up-and-down 2022 season with the Maroon and White, transferred to Georgia Tech as soon as the transfer portal opened its doors early December.

After a successful fall camp, King has reportedly been named the starting quarterback for Georgia Tech and Head Coach Brent Key, who is also entering his first entire season with the program.

As a member of Texas A&M’s 2020 recruiting class, King’s future with the Aggies was all but sealed after stepping on campus and instantly gaining the admiration of Head Coach Jimbo Fisher, but after earning the starting quarterback job during the 2021 campaign, a season-ending leg injury kept him on the sidelines preventing him from gaining SEC experience, leading to his early struggles as the starter for only two games before he was benched during the 2022 season.

After being named the starter ahead of the dreadful 2022 campaign, King’s performance in the memorable loss to Appalachian State resulted in multiple benchings during the highly publicized quarterback carousel endured by the program, as Max Johnson’s season-ending injury gave way to Conner Weigman’s eventual ascendance to the top of the depth chart.

King proceeded to throw for 1,220 yards, seven touchdowns, and eight interceptions in five games while battling a plethora of injuries and team attrition in the process, and endearing himself to most of the Aggie fan base due to his physical and mental toughness on the gridiron, no matter the result.

No matter how he performed on the field last season, I’d advise Tech fans to watch his high school tape at Longview (TX) because that’s the type of athlete the Yellow Jackets are getting. Congratulations, Haynes!

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes, and opinions. Follow Cameron on Twitter: @CameronOhnysty.

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Former Vols’ quarterback target commits to former Tennessee coaches

Former Vols’ quarterback target commits to former Tennessee coaches.

Former Texas A&M quarterback Haynes King entered the NCAA transfer portal Dec. 2.

King committed to Georgia Tech on Monday.

The 6-foot-3, 205-pound King appeared in 10 games from 2020-22 for the Aggies.

He recorded 1,579 passing yards, 10 passing touchdowns, 10 interceptions, 150 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown at Texas A&M.

King was offered by Tennessee on Jan. 18, 2019. He was recruited by former Vols’ assistant coaches Jim Chaney and Chris Weinke.

Chaney is an offensive analyst at Georgia Tech, and Weinke is the Yellow Jackets’ quarterbacks coach. Former Tennessee offensive analyst Chip Long served as Georgia Tech’s offensive coordinator and tight ends coach in 2022.

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Texas A&M leads Florida 24-20 at halftime in an offensive shootout

Texas A&M leads Florida 24-20 at halftime in an offensive shootout

The Aggies entered their Week 10 matchup against the Florida Gators with a glimmer of offensive optimism after freshman quarterback Conner Weigman absolutely shined in a loss against the Ole Miss Rebels last weekend, but that optimism was short-lived after word came out that the flu made its way through the Texas A&M locker room throughout the week, leaving the team without six players and 3 starters, including Conner Weigman against the Gators because of it.

In a game where defense is optional with over 500 combined yards so far, the shorthanded Aggie offense led by quarterback Haynes King in his 5th start this season relied on star running back Devon Achane early and often, scampering 65 yards in the first offensive play of the game, and scoring a 5-yard touchdown a couple of plays later. King later connected with Achane for a 5-yard touchdown pass, as the Aggies took a 14-10 lead.

As I said before, defense has been optional for both teams, as the Aggies have surrendered two rushing touchdowns to quarterback Anthony Richardson from 10 yards and 60 yards out, as the latter score eventually gave the Gators a 17-14 lead, and after adding a couple of field goals from both teams, the score stood at 20-17 with nearly five minutes remaining in the second quarter.

After the Aggies finally forced their first defensive stop against the high-flying Florida offense, the (at least for today) lethal combination of Haynes King and Devon Achane led an 80-plus-yard drive as Achane yet again punched it in for a score to take the 24-20 lead heading into halftime.

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5 Aggies who need to step up in the second half of the season

Who do you pick as your step-up candidates in the second half of the season?

After a week off, the Texas A&M Aggies are set to resume play. The team will come into Week 8 with a 3-3 record as they travel to Columbia, South Carolina.

The Aggies are a perfect 8-0 against the Gamecocks in their history that only dates back to the 2014 season. They have played every season since. The average margin of victory in the series is 18.9 points.

A win against Shane Beamer and South Carolina would even their SEC record at 2-2. For the Aggies to right the ship and reach some of their 2022 goals there are five players that need to step up down the stretch. All the names mentioned coming on the offensive side of the ball.

Fisher’s offensive unit ranks dead last in the SEC at 21.5 points per game. The Aggies are also last in total offense at 333.5 yards per game, they trail the No. 13 team Vanderbilt by 428 total yards.

Check out our list of the five Aggies who have an opportunity to make an impact:

Mid-season virtual report card: Texas A&M Aggies offense

How would you grade the Aggies offense through the first half of the season?

Texas A&M is in the midst of a much-needed break as the team has played six games so far this season, sitting at a disappointing 3-3 with another six games left to show that the program is indeed progressing, just at a gradual speed.

So, as we are officially at the mid-point of the 2022 season for the maroon and white, Aggies Wire is here to hand out a couple of mid-season grades, focusing on the offense and defense so far as the team will prepare to take on the South Carolina Gamecocks on Oct. 22nd next weekend.

Offense: D+

Butch Dill-USA TODAY Sports

To know one’s surprise, the grade fits the performance, and after six games played, the Aggie offense has been statistically one of the worst in the country, ranked 110th nationally, and in the bottom half of most individual offensive statistics as well. The blame game has been pervasive to say the least, whether head coach Jimbo Fisher’s play calling, issues at quarterback, or the poor play of the offensive line is the primary blame for their lack of consistency, and especially ball control, a metric that Fisher prides himself, ranking 109th at 27 minutes per contest.

What has kept this group from receiving an F grade? Running back Devon Achane, and the recent emergence of freshman pass catchers Evan Stewart, Chris Marshall, and tight end Donovan Green. Achane is well known as one of the fastest and most versatile backs in the country and currently ranks 4th in the nation in all-purpose yards with 912 on the year. Stewart finally broke on the scene in Texas A&M’s recent loss to Alabama, recording 8 receptions for 106 yards, while Marshall and Green also made their presence felt against the Crimson Tide.

Lastly, the quarterback situation and the offensive line issues can be summarized in a similar fashion, as both have been marred by inconsistency, especially in critical moments in nearly every game this season. Going from Haynes King to Max Johnson and then Haynes King again due to Johnson’s recent hand injury is obviously not a recipe for success, but even King’s statistically impressive performance against Alabama (253 passing, 2 touchdowns) does not inspire confidence due to his mechanical issues still being a constant issue. We will finally learn if the reports surrounding King’s rumored injury have any merit early next week.

The Aggies O-line has honestly been average at best since their elite performance in the 2020 season while failing to live up to preseason expectations based on three returning starters on the right side in sophomores Bryce Foster and Reuben Fatheree, and junior Layden Robinson becoming stable forces.

Injuries have plagued the group throughout the year, yes communication issues against elite SEC defenses (and even Appalacian State) have virtually killed multiple offensive drives no matter who the quarterback has been. The expectation is that the longer the established starting group plays together, they should be able to iron out their fixable issues through the next six games.

Here’s to hoping that smoother roads are ahead for the Aggies offense for the next six weeks.

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