Josh Nesbitt thoughts

Good morning, folks-

This won’t be all that long. I’ve got a breakfast to get to.

Anyway, there were some questions from the Thursday blog that I’ll answer first.

1) R.B. Clyburn, a walk-on wide receiver, has left the team. I believe he may try out for the golf team.

2) Daniel McKayhan and Quentin Sims are both receivers on the roster who redshirted last fall. McKayhan has made a lot of progress this spring, I understand.

3) I haven’t heard anything new on Gani. As I said last week, my guess would be that he’d put his name in but not take an agent, if for no other reason than to give himself a little more time to decide. As for who would guard a big center in the post, if Lawal’s around, my guess is that he would. I’d have to think he’s physically stronger than Favors at this point and certainly a more experienced college defender.

I wrote a story for last Sunday about Josh Nesbitt about how he is trying to become a better passer. As sometimes seems to happen, it seems I pre-emptively jinxed him, as he hurt his shoulder in the scrimmage. And then Thursday, the day that the story on tennis player Doug Kenny ran, his doubles team lost and so did Tech, to N.C. State in the first round of the ACC tournament.

Anyway, I had to leave out some other stuff that I’ll toss at you.

1) By the end of the season, his ankles were bothering him a good bit. If you’ll remember, he injured both ankles last season, on top of the hamstring injury. However, he might have played his best in the Miami game, which followed the Carolina game, which was among his worst of the year. Said quarterbacks coach Brian Bohannon, “There was so much tape on [the ankles], he couldn’t do much. They were beat up pretty bad.”

2) The injuries impacted his development, as he was missing reps in practice and in games, which set him back. Bohannon said he got a better feel for the offense around the time of the Miami game. Bohannon: “I think having that season under his belt, him and Jaybo (Shaw) both, they can look back and they see things a lot better now than when you’re in the heat of it. … I think they’re getting a better understanding of what’s going on, that’s for sure.”

3) He’s becoming, or has become, the team’s offensive leader, and perhaps its overall leader. Nesbitt is not very outspoken, but is becoming moreso. Part of it is his confidence in his own play, and perhaps too in his own standing on the team. Bohannon has been pushing him and Jonathan Dwyer to take on the role. One way Nesbitt can do that is to keep the team looking forward, and not dwelling on bad plays. Bohannon said in the Chick-fil-A Bowl, he could tell Nesbitt was allowing himself to get down.

“I think a lot of [the players] did,” he said. “You see Josh after a bad play have his head down because he was mad at himself. But you’ve got to remember, he’s running the show. I’d like for him to carry himself better, good and bad.”

That said, as you can see when you watch him play, Nesbitt is a gamer. He has a real desire to get better as a quarterback. Said Bohannon, “Josh wants to be good, and Josh wants to win championships here.”

My guess is that Nesbitt will be a team captain in the fall. (If it’s possible. It’s unclear if juniors are allowed. It’ll be interesting, because there’s so few seniors on the team. Bohannon said that at Navy, only seniors were captains, but he wasn’t sure if that was a Navy thing.)

Not sure if he’ll play Saturday. He might be held out completely, or maybe play with a gold (non-contact) jersey.