Updated: Tech’s Vad Lee pushes forward

Greetings-

Updated notes from second practice.

1. He didn’t have much of a scrimmage on Saturday. He began Georgia Tech’s fall camp as the co-No. 2 quarterback with Synjyn Days and is now No. 3. Vad Lee is undeterred.

“As always, you have some great days, you have some tough days,” Lee said Monday following the team’s second practice of the day. “You’ve just got to keep fighting through it.”

Three weeks remain until the Yellow Jackets open against Virginia Tech Sept. 3 in Blacksburg, Va. Coach Paul Johnson noted that the depth chart is constantly changing and that “I wouldn’t read too much into it until you get to about game week.” If his number is called against the Hokies, Lee said he’ll be ready to play.

“I think I got a lot of good things done in the spring,” he said. “I’m just building off that and working this camp and just trying to get ready for Virginia Tech.”

Johnson said that Saturday, “it was just in general, he just didn’t have a good day.”

Lee, whose promise as a passer has made him popular among Tech fans, has had challenges mastering the option. Lee said he feels pretty comfortable with it, but allowed that it’s not second nature.

“Everything happens so fast,” he said. “You’ve got to be focused in on every play.”

The competition between Days and Lee to be No. 2 behind Tevin Washington will continue.

“He’s going to be fine,” Johnson said of Lee. “I’m not worried about him.”

2. One of the most notable changes in the updated depth chart was B-back Zach Laskey moving ahead of Charles Perkins to second string behind starter David Sims. After Laskey’s strong performance in the Saturday scrimmage, Johnson had hinted at the move on Saturday.

“He’s had a really good camp,” Johnson said. “He breaks a lot of tackles. He’s done some good things in the hole, shown some good feel.”

Perkins missed Monday’s two practices with an injury suffered Saturday. With Sims also out, Laskey split first-team snaps with walk-on Matt Connors, while Marcus Allen and Broderick Snoddy worked with the second team. Snoddy, who has also worked at A-back, has been taking snaps at B-back in recent days.

Coaches “just want me to keep my pad level down, make sure I hit the holes hard,” Laskey said. “I’ve kind of just been working on that.”

3. The team practiced in full pads Monday morning and came back in shoulder pads in the afternoon, the Jackets’ second double session of fall camp. When rain began to fall in the afternoon, Johnson moved practice into the indoor facility. Johnson deemed the morning practice “O.K.” and the afternoon session “good.”

The play of the day was turned in by wide receiver Jeremy Moore, who made a one-handed diving catch in the corner of the end zone on a throw from Washington from about 40 yards out.

Among players who were held out: Offensive tackles Ray Beno and Morgan Bailey, wide receiver Jeff Greene, cornerback Rod Sweeting and B-backs Sims and Perkins. Johnson said Sims, who had surgery to repair a stress fracture in his shin over the summer, re-aggravated the injury in practice.

“We’ve got some guys that are bumped and banged, but I don’t think we’ve got anybody that’s questionably out for a long period of time,” Johnson said. “It might be a week or two, but I’m talking about blowing somebody out for the season.”

4. Former Tech All-American safety Ken Swilling, a member of the 1990 national championship team, was named Monday to the ACC Legends class of 2012. Swilling and 11 other greats will be honored at the ACC championship game Dec. 1 in Charlotte.

5. With Greene out for Monday’s morning practice, freshman wide receiver Anthony Autry was part of a rotation working with the first string with Chris Jackson, Jeremy Moore and Darren Waller.

“He’s looking good,” Waller said. “He’s real fast out of his routes. He’ll get after it, too.”

Johnson said he wouldn’t read much into depth-chart assignments until game week. He did offer praise of Waller.

“He’s progressing,” Johnson said. “I’ve been pleased with him in camp.”

Ken Sugiura, Georgia Tech blog

150 comments Add your comment

GT Lee

August 14th, 2012
12:57 pm

ooooooops my bad……forgot to ignore the barking dawgs….bark bark woof woof arf ruff whimper whine

Ghost

August 14th, 2012
1:07 pm

WNE, They both played at tech Lucas transferred from UConn, Mike Who plays for falcons played for Chan.

Supersize that order, mutt

August 14th, 2012
1:16 pm

@ Reality……thanks. Whenever tempted to respond to a troll, just type “UOAD !!!” both an appropriate response and a tribute to our temporarily banned friend.

Supersize that order, mutt

August 14th, 2012
1:21 pm

This just in from UOAD —

Lucas Cox is playing QB in Finland and just won a playoff game to get to The World Championship of American gridiron football for their league. It was an overtime game.

“One of the most fun and craziest games I’ve ever played in. Nothing beats a playoff OT win! Playing for the championship in the Spaghetti Bowl next Saturday in Helsinki!”

WnE

August 14th, 2012
1:24 pm

re:
GTBob
August 14th, 2012
11:41 am

I hope the QB’s being recruited by CPJ see the light before it is to late.

The QB’s being recruited by CPJ aren’t being heavily recruited as a QB at other major schools. There is a decent chance that Vad Lee, Justin Thomas, Synjyn Days, and Tevin Washington would have never played QB in a pro style offense at any major school. In our system they get a chance to shine. The real decision is whether they want to be a DB or WR at some other school or play QB at Tech.
________________

This is one of the major reasons why CPJ’s won’t be able to beat the better teams consistently.

Unless CPJ is “smarter” than all the other BCS-level HCs , then the QBs that he is bringing in are limited as far as developing as polished passers.

So he’s basically getting “leftovers” at QB, that the “big boys” don’t think can pass good enough, and he supposed to try an transform them into QBs that can beat UGA and win bowl games.

It would seem that CPJ would set aside his stubbornness, and run an offense that will attract decent passers that have the upside to develop into polished passers, and then he’ll have a better chance to beat the better teams we play and to win a Bowl game for a change.

Someone on CPJ’s staff has to recognize that we simply don’t pass good enough to beat good teams consistently.

In our system they get a chance to shine vs. Dook & Wake & SC State, & W. Carolina & MTSU and then when we play UGA or a Bowl team we crap the bed.

It ought to be obvious by now that CPJ is NOT playing “chess” while everyone else is playing checkers.

CPJ’s “smartest guy in the room strategy” for Recruiting QBs is not working very well!

Supersize that order, mutt

August 14th, 2012
1:28 pm

WnE

August 14th, 2012
1:28 pm

re:
Ghost
August 14th, 2012
1:07 pm

WNE, They both played at tech Lucas transferred from UConn, Mike Who plays for falcons played for Chan.
___________

Thanks for the follow up.

Lucas that played for CPJ is playing in the Spaghetti Bowl in Finland and Mike that played for Chan has played in the NFL and is trying to make another NFL roster.

But I’m crazy, the “system” you play in makes no difference at all!

GT Lee

August 14th, 2012
1:32 pm

ignore the barking dawg……woof woof woof

Supersize that order, mutt

August 14th, 2012
1:33 pm

GTVegas

August 14th, 2012
2:04 pm

I’ll play.

UOAD !!!!!

GTBob

August 14th, 2012
2:09 pm

So he’s basically getting “leftovers” at QB, that the “big boys” don’t think can pass good enough, and he supposed to try an transform them into QBs that can beat UGA and win bowl games.

No, he is getting QBs that are very talented overall and fit well into our offensive scheme. I am surprised that you haven’t noticed this yet but our offense is slightly different from most other teams.

Jacket Detective

August 14th, 2012
2:12 pm

Gorilla Biscuit

August 14th, 2012
2:15 pm

Tevin Washington. :)
Al Groh. :) :)

GT Lee

August 14th, 2012
2:24 pm

hey Milkbone Monkey, got that link yet?

WnE

August 14th, 2012
2:32 pm

re:
GTBob
August 14th, 2012
2:09 pm

So he’s basically getting “leftovers” at QB, that the “big boys” don’t think can pass good enough, and he supposed to try an transform them into QBs that can beat UGA and win bowl games.

No, he is getting QBs that are very talented overall and fit well into our offensive scheme. I am surprised that you haven’t noticed this yet but our offense is slightly different from most other teams.
__________

That sounds good on a message board or blog, but when we needs to pass to scroes points at the end of the half or the end of the game to win, like a 2-min offense for example, we cannot get it done.

When we are in obvious passing downs, the offense makes no difference, ours is at a huge disadvantage.

This puts unnecessary pressure on our O to be perfect on 1st & 2nd downs or else be forced to pass on 3rd.

So far, slightly different has not been better vs. the better teams that we play.

Al Bundy

August 14th, 2012
2:34 pm

5150 UOAD I hope you Mom get’s better soon. I will remember your Mom in my prayers. Look forward to reading your posts soon.

Supersize that order, mutt

August 14th, 2012
2:41 pm

GT Lee

August 14th, 2012
2:45 pm

bark bark woof woof

Supersize that order, mutt

August 14th, 2012
2:48 pm

Didn’t somebody earlier on here say that Mike Cox is no longer with the Falcons???
WRONG !!!

GT Lee

August 14th, 2012
2:57 pm

Super, with Mughelli gone and the new draft pick from Wisconsin hurt(out for year, knee) Mike should get a lot of reps at FB

GTfan 2012

August 14th, 2012
3:05 pm

UOAD!!!! I want to dispell one of the biggest myths on here, and that is regarding the size of GT’s DL. WE ARE NOT UNDERSIZED no matter how much certain posters try to convince us. Here’s proof. Here are the weights of the starting DL for three teams that run the 3-4 (listed DE NT DE).
300 280 285
275 345 300
309 351 269
295 307 284

Ok, do you see any differences? If you do please point them out to me, because I see very little difference among the sizes of these players. And that’s really interesting, because 1 is GT, 1 is UGA, 1 is the Pittsbugh Steelers, and 1 is the Houston Texans. Now of course, the next argument will be (without any facts to back it up) that the talent level of the GT line isn’t up to the level of these other DLs. And that may well be true, but is not the primary argument that has been made about GT’s DL.

GTfan 2012

August 14th, 2012
3:06 pm

sorry, obviously that’s four teams, not three.

CC

August 14th, 2012
3:12 pm

Tech will win 8 games at best.

Gorilla Biscuit

August 14th, 2012
3:19 pm

“Ok, do you see any differences?”

One difference is that you’ve got a big fat guy at NT who can’t get out of his own way.

GTBob

August 14th, 2012
3:22 pm

That sounds good on a message board or blog, but when we needs to pass to scroes points at the end of the half or the end of the game to win, like a 2-min offense for example, we cannot get it done.

That is very true. Our team is not really setup well for a 2 minute offense. Is the 2 minute drill so important though that we should abandon an otherwise very successful offense?

With CPJ’s offense: 30 points a game (2 top 25 offenses)
Average scoring offensive rank: 45th

The 4 years before CPJ: 24 points a game (0 top 50 offenses)
Average scoring offensive rank: 79th

How exactly were we doing so much better with a pro style offense?

GT Lee

August 14th, 2012
3:46 pm

Gorilla Biscuit

August 14th, 2012
3:19 pm

“Ok, do you see any differences?”

One difference is that you’ve got a big fat guy at NT who can’t get out of his own way.

___________________________________________

Another failed attempt at humor from Milkbone Monkey……

Ol'JacketFan

August 14th, 2012
3:52 pm

UOAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hayseed Dixie

August 14th, 2012
3:53 pm

@GTBob

We weren’t doing much better with a pro style offense.

CPJ’s option is perfectly suited to the type of players the Institute normally recruits.

We’ve had no real D. There’s been no real ‘vibe’ or story to our defense. The year we won an ACC Championship we had a handful of playmakers but no real substance to our D.

We need a shut-down defense and a lights-out QB. Kind of like every. other. team. and. system. in. CFB. Funny how that works.

@DawginLex….

….the anti-troll.

Welcome back for another season. Lord knows while your CFB insight might be higher than most folks, your civility certainly is.

William Casey

August 14th, 2012
4:36 pm

Every time I see the term “high school offense,” I cringe. Not because it’s an insult but, because it’s silly. Perhaps, it’s because I was a high school offensive coordinator for a number of years. CPJ’s offense involves intricate blocking schemes and calls FAR beyond anything I ever saw in high school. Maybe y’all were at better schools with better opponents than I was. How does a high school offense consistently come close to leading the nation in rushing? Yes, CPJ’s offense has been stuffed a couple of times (Iowa and Miami come to mind.) Yes, it would be nice to have a better passer. I just don’t get this pejorative term. Almost ALL of GT’s losses in the CPJ era have resulted from: (1) bad defense, (2) bad special teams, and (3) fumbles. All I know is that CPJ’s offense has hung a lot more points and yards on UGA than Chan’s “modern” pro-style offense ever did. You can look it up.

Ol'JacketFan

August 14th, 2012
4:38 pm

Tech wasn’t doing anything under Gailey and his vaunted Pro Style attack other than win 7 games for 5 seasons and luck into 9 wins the other. Please don’t compate Chan Gailey to anyone’s idea of a coach preparing his players for the pros!

JM

August 14th, 2012
4:48 pm

too many injuries. this team needs everyone to be healthy.

BLT

August 14th, 2012
5:09 pm

Gorilla Biscuit

August 14th, 2012
3:19 pm

“Ok, do you see any differences?”

One difference is that you’ve got a big fat guy at NT who can’t get out of his own way.

*We’ve been asked not to respond to such insults. I’m going to respect that request even though I can think of a couple of doozies right off the bat. Have a great day Mr. Biscuit!

tripledart

August 14th, 2012
5:54 pm

Way too early to tell.Great comparison of their schedules.Tech will be dine but it is rough when all your players go to class and not jail and study.MOONDAWG YOU SUCK

AA

August 14th, 2012
5:59 pm

I also would have thought Snoddy would be placed in the BBack position..I am guessing it is his weight that is keeping him at A Back. Maybe by next season after more time in the weight room.

1 4 GT

August 14th, 2012
6:44 pm

It sure is tough not firing back at some guys. Especially when you KNOW they are wrong. Oh well. Life is full of disappointments.

Dawg1

August 14th, 2012
6:54 pm

When Laskey committed to Tech, there were a couple of Dawg fans making fun of this kid. I defended him then and said that he was a nice pick up for Tech.

What the kid does well is ‘run down hill’. He is a tough runner and works his ‘butt off’. I find the comments about having ‘quick feet’ interesting – he is faster than he looks, but I watching the kid, never thought of him as quick. But hey, I’m also not the coach, so if CPJ says he has quick feet – he has quick feet. :)

He comes from a great family and deserves everything he gets. I hope he has a tremendous career at Tech, with the exception of the obvious.

Big Crimson 75

August 14th, 2012
7:02 pm

Damn, I didn’t know Twinkie, Kool-aid & Smart were gonna have to serve the suspension with 5150!!!

paul johnson

August 14th, 2012
7:29 pm

nesbitt

August 14th, 2012
7:30 pm

Why do we have to wear the yellow panyies

Dawg48

August 14th, 2012
7:30 pm

Looking like Oregon is going to get it next from the NCAA.
“@ESPNChrisLarsen: Rumor re: possible #Oregon sanctions. 4 years probation, 2 year bowl ban, 30 scholarships over 3 years. #Ducks #Pac12”
“@RichCirminiello: Rumors beginning to circulate that #Oregon could get whacked very hard by NCAA within the week … worse than many expect”

Big Crimson 75

August 14th, 2012
8:14 pm

48 — Oregon’s rise was too good to be true.
Bet the farm Phil Knight is involved.
…while their at it, I’m sure every thing is on the up & up with Okie St & their benefactor, T. Boone Pickens.

Let’s see now, the most recent severe sanctions have been given to USC, Ohio St, Penn St now possibly Oregon………Looks like the “All they do is cheat in the SEC” comedy routine may need to get an update!!

BLT

August 14th, 2012
8:19 pm

“panyies”

LOL…

BLT

August 14th, 2012
8:23 pm

Well whatever it is, all they need to do is self report the violations and smile for the NCAA investigators. That’s a real big deal for them.

Big Crimson 75

August 14th, 2012
8:23 pm

How exactly were we doing so much better with a pro style offense?
——-
Bob — simple answer my friend, y’all had Megatron!!
Do you not know how difficult it is to stop a Transformer?!!

Big Crimson 75

August 14th, 2012
8:27 pm

BLT — Bingo!!
Are the Institutions that self-report or “aid” in these investigations actually getting off with lenient Sentences?
If so, is that suppose to be fair??

GSUStud

August 14th, 2012
8:34 pm

Well, that doesn’t sound very good. And just over three weeks left. Va Tech mush be licking their chops.

BLT

August 14th, 2012
8:42 pm

BC75, it seemed to be a big deal for the NCAA regarding Tech. Yes, I’m biased but it appears the NCAA rulings are arbitrary. No “fairness” enters the equation…

They’ve already penalized UNC and stuff is still coming up there. I wonder what will happen to Miami? I believe they’ve already self reported.

The biggest thing for me is punishing the players that did nothing wrong. i.e. Taking Tech’s championship.

BLT

August 14th, 2012
8:43 pm

Thanks 2 by 4

Big Crimson 75

August 14th, 2012
8:57 pm

I don’t care if the U kept impeccable records pertaining to their Player “payoffs” & put the NC2A investigators in the Pent-House suite @ the Hilton-Bentley, those guys deserve at least what Penn St got dealt!!
Shapiro was on the Field!! — He was flaunting/taunting after he got caught — Randy Shannon looked like a fool.
Next to point shaving, boosters paying players is the worst offense in College Athletics, just ahead of scum-bag “agents”. If You wanna see all 3 in action simultaneously, take a trip down the road to Auburn!!!! :-)

buzzwax

August 15th, 2012
11:45 am

Perkins played as a stand up back in a spread offense in HS not BB. Good hands and good in space. IMO he doesn’t like ‘pounding’ on every play. AB? Maybe he doesn’t like blocking? Snoddy played BB in HS in an offense very similar to ours. Maybe he is still learning to block? Maybe he doesn’t have the ‘wiggle’ or hands for AB? He certainly is blazingly fast. If he has good hands for KO returns we get to the 30 at minimum on every return. Laskey is a FOOTBALL player who is tough as nails, that is why he is doing so well.