Georgia Tech Will Play Another Freshman

The latest weekly press conference says Marcus Wright will finally be seeing some playing time.

Coach Paul Johnson explains that due to a chain of events starting with Quincy Kelly and Embry Peeples, there will be some changes to the lineup on Saturday. Luke Cox is going to be playing B-Back as the second stringer and Embry is questionable at best for Saturday. That drops us to two A-backs, giving Marcus a chance to shine.

I'm really excited yet sad that he had to sit out the past five games. Despite his size, I know he'll be having a good career while he is at Tech. Remember that Marcus was one of the recruits to change his commitment from Tulsa to Georgia Tech after Paul Johnson took over. He WANTS to play the option, and Saturday he will.

Wright will be the sixth true freshman to play this season out of a class of 26 (21 on scholarship). The other five true freshmen are: WR Tyler Melton (who starts), QB Jaybo Shaw (who started against Duke after starting QB Josh Nesbitt sat out the game due to injury), FS Cooper Taylor (who plays as many if not more snaps than Dominique Reese, who starts at Free Safety), Rashaad Reid (the primary nickelback), and OLB Steven Sylvester (who took off his redshirt after Brad Jefferson and AT Barnes were injured in the season opener).

Now that he won't be redshirted, I wonder what impact Marcus could have on Tech's kick and punt return game.

He is probably the fastest player on the team and could help out the struggling punt return game considering how Tyler Melton, the starting punt returner, is ninth in the ACC after eight attempts, with a longest play of 15 yards and an average of 3.6 yards. In comparison, Tech's opponents are averaging 10 yards a return (in three attempts).

Coach PJ himself has called the special teams atrocious and believes his staff hasn't done enough "coaching" to correct this element of Tech's game.

If there's something PJ can do, it is coach, so don't be surprised to see a new ummphh in Tech's special teams this week. We might even have a new face downfield returning the ball.