Four Tech walk-ons placed on scholarship
Georgia Tech has four new scholarship football players – safety Coray Carlson, defensive lineman Ben Keith, A-back Jamal Paige and kicker David Scully, all of whom joined the team as walk-ons.
Carlson has scrapped his way up the depth chart and is working with the second team as a redshirt sophomore. Keith won the team’s defensive scout team MVP last season. Paige has been a dutiful scout-teamer for four seasons and has earned some special-teams snaps. Scully took kickoffs last season and is in a competition with Justin Moore for placekicking duties.
Coach Paul Johnson made the announcement, sort of, in a team meeting early in camp. In front of the whole team, Johnson said that the four players needed to see him in his office. Carlson knew that Johnson has awarded scholarships to walk-ons in the past during fall camp, but thought it came later on in camp.
“I thought maybe someone was in trouble,” Carlson said. “I was kind of sitting there thinking, ‘I didn’t do anything.’”
Later on, Carlson figured it out when teammates began high-fiving him. When he has had scholarship space available, Johnson has awarded grants to walk-ons. This year, with 81 players on scholarship, he gave out four to walk-ons with the proviso that they’re not assured of retaining them past this academic year.
Carlson is, or was, a true walk-on. A Lassiter High grad, he applied to Tech with an intention to major in architecture and no plans to play football.
“I didn’t think I was going to get in, but once I got in, I thought, Well, might as well talk to the coaches,” he said.
Carlson, who helped Lassiter to a region title in 2009 (his teammates included Georgia quarterback Hutson Mason, Auburn tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen, N.C. State center Camden Wentz and Tech offensive line coach Mike Sewak’s son Michael Robert) and was named all-Cobb County as a senior, was invited onto the team prior to the 2010 season as a preferred walk-on.
“Basically, I came in not really expecting too much, because I was down at the very bottom,” Carlson said. “I just knew I had to work really hard, just listen really hard and watch everyone, see what everyone was doing, just learning the whole defense before I could move my way up. Whenever I had my opportunity, I just did the best I could.”
Carlson got on the field a few times last season and caught defensive coordinator Al Groh’s attention in the spring.
“This is a kid who’s got a real passion for football, who’s fully engaged in it,” Groh said.
Carlson, 6-foot-0 and 180 pounds, came into fall camp second on the depth chart at safety behind Fred Holton and has held his spot.
“He’s a player who, let’s say the line on his training camp graph has been consistently inching upwards,” Groh said. “Some days it’s bounded up, some days it’s just inched up, but his line really hasn’t plateaued at all.”
Given the rigors of architecture, Carlson switched majors as a freshman to chemical engineering. (Keith is an economics major, Paige is studying industrial engineering and Scully is studying biochemistry.) As for playing time?
Time will tell, but Groh acknowledged that “he’s certainly worked himself into the picture.”
Ken Sugiura, Georgia Tech blog
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105 comments Add your comment
juvenal
August 15th, 2012
10:24 am
3 less…
juvenal
August 15th, 2012
10:27 am
glad to see Drad learned his lesson on keeping players out…
Supersize that order, mutt
August 15th, 2012
10:31 am
Congrats and best wishes to all four
Buzzzed
August 15th, 2012
10:44 am
How many scholarships are left for this class?
Golden White
August 15th, 2012
10:45 am
Hey Super !
I see that you are mending your ways and now you are preaching the good word on not feeding the trolls. Congratulations. But I am curious as to how you found your way.
JM
August 15th, 2012
10:51 am
Congratulations to all these young men. Your hard work has paid it reward. Keep it up.
Buzzzed
August 15th, 2012
10:56 am
“How many scholarships are left for this class?”
My mistake. These ’ships are for this year and do not impact the number of ’ships available for the current recruiting class.
juvenal
August 15th, 2012
11:00 am
Super is an inspiration for all of us…
SansWorld
August 15th, 2012
11:02 am
Q: How many scholarships are left for this class?
A: This year, with 81 players on scholarship, he gave out four to walk-ons with the proviso that they’re not assured of retaining them past this academic year.
I guess this is less than typical attrition since signing day.
GT GRAD
August 15th, 2012
11:09 am
Hard work and dedication pays off!
Congrats to all four!
Reebok
August 15th, 2012
11:13 am
Congrats to these young men.
SansWorld
August 15th, 2012
11:15 am
I guess it has been a good summer for David Scully. move to the top of the depth chart, got a Scholly, his UGA Cheerleader girlfriend transferred to Tech.
Ken Sugiura
August 15th, 2012
11:45 am
he must be living right, SansWorld.
headley lamar
August 15th, 2012
11:55 am
CPJ is 2 – 10 vs UGA, Va Tech and Bowl Game
Including 0 for the last 6
The one accomplishment, an ACC title, was stripped by the NCAA because of cheating.
The program remains on probation.
I guess that flies at Tech and can be spun into being successful
Would get you fired most anywhere else.
SansWorld
August 15th, 2012
11:57 am
Thanks headley,
I had forgotten these things
Hey Golden White...
August 15th, 2012
11:58 am
…Super found his way after his buddy got banned, though he was one of the first to really try to not answer the trolls.
And, on topic, congrats to the subjects of this story – just goes to show that hard work “outside” theclassroom sometimes pays off well, jsut as hard work inside the classroom pays off later in life…this a real testament to these guys “stick-to-it-tiveness” and gives hope to the other 22+ guys out there who are walk-ons…
Supersize that order, mutt
August 15th, 2012
12:01 pm
LOL @ Ken
buzzwax
August 15th, 2012
12:04 pm
These four young men are inspiring to say the least!! Congrats!! They weren’t ‘given’ anything, they EARNED it!!!
Supersize that order, mutt
August 15th, 2012
12:05 pm
@ Golden White……I had tried it in the past and failed miserably. When UOAD got banned, I realized that there is just no sense in arguing with the trolls, because they really aren’t worth the time it takes to type a response to them. Plus, I was somewhat afraid that one day I might go over the edge like UOAD did and say some things that I would regret and that might get me banned too. So now, whenever I see post by a troll (or, even worse, by WnE), I simply type the following, and nothing else —
UOAD !!!
I can’t tell others what to do, but I would HOPE that you would all do that, or just type nothing at all. The important thing here is just to IGNORE THE TROLLS !!!
TDone
August 15th, 2012
12:13 pm
Headley, and what has Muttland accomplished? You win an SEC East and were not the best team in the Division, you get blown out in the SEC Championship Game, and you blew your bowl game. I am impressed.
Ignore the Trolls
August 15th, 2012
12:17 pm
I wish I was cool like Supersize. NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Supersize that order, mutt
August 15th, 2012
12:19 pm
@ TDone…..you are wasting your time. IGNORE HIM
Golden White
August 15th, 2012
12:20 pm
Thanks for the reply Super.
And congratulations to these four Yellow Jackets.
Oh by the way… UOAD <—– how do you bold ?
Snellville Jacket
August 15th, 2012
12:21 pm
“Given the rigors of architecture, Carlson switched majors as a freshman to chemical engineering.” Yeah, now THAT’S an easy major! Anyone who went to Tech realizes how hard these guys have to work to both play football and study at a very tough school.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 15th, 2012
12:24 pm
@ Golden White…….type (with no spaces like I will have to type here to get it across) before what you want in bold, and after it. I hope putting the spaces in it lets it appear, and doesn’t bold what I said.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 15th, 2012
12:26 pm
Dammit, let me try again…..before the words that you want to make bold, type the left bracket character (”"). Then left bracket, “b”, right bracket. After the words you want in bold, type the left bracket, “/b”, the right bracket, then the left bracket, “/h”, and the right bracket
Supersize that order, mutt
August 15th, 2012
12:29 pm
Well, damn, it still didn’t come out completely correct—–left bracket, “h”, right bracket, left bracket, “b” right bracket, the words you want in bold, and then left bracket, “/b”, right bracket, left bracket, “/h”, right bracket. I hope that did it. The left and right bracket characters are SHIFT “,” and SHIFT “.”
HighTech
August 15th, 2012
12:33 pm
Switched to ChemE because Arch was too demanding? Wow! Congratulations on the scholly and becoming a helluva engineer.
GT fan
August 15th, 2012
12:38 pm
TDone … listen to Supersize. Ignore trolls like Headley. And see my FYI below on him.
IGNORE…I’ve preached it before too. Even to SS himself before he finally realized the power of silence. It’s simply a waste of your time & energy to engage these idiots.
FYI …. Headley’s the epitome of a troll (i.e. he didn’t go to UGA). Headley went to Troy, and I think I read somewhere on these blogs that it was a Troy “satellite” campus!
headley lamar
August 15th, 2012
12:40 pm
Headley, and what has Muttland accomplished?
Mark Richt has a 106 – 38 record in the toughest conference in the country.
He has won 2 SEC titles ( and we were allowed to keep them )
He has a winning record against every SEC team except Florida.
7 – 4 record in bowls.
Needless to say, He has destroyed Tech.
Thats all.
headley lamar
August 15th, 2012
12:42 pm
Also UGA has never been on probation under Richt.
and I think I read somewhere on these blogs that it was a Troy “satellite” campus!
It was. I went to the one in Montgomery. Pretty good Computer Science program.
Wasn’t easy I assure you and I’m damn proud of it.
CT_Jacket
August 15th, 2012
12:47 pm
With Scully starting as a walk-on and then getting a scholarship, it made me wonder how most schools handle kickers and punters. I thought it was actually more common to convert the walk-ons rather than offer a HS kid a full ride but Tech has done it the 3 of the last 4 years. Durant Brooks was a preferred walk-on. Justin Moore signed out of HS. I’m sure there are examples both ways, but missing on a kicker who can’t play another position really hurts.
GT fan
August 15th, 2012
1:16 pm
Ah, Golden White, if we could all only be so bold as Headley is.
Super … instead of saying “bracket” [ say less than, greater than key ……
Burdell
August 15th, 2012
1:18 pm
Where does Scully find the time? Granted that compared to Architecture ChE is much less time intensive but still VERY impressive, young man! My undergrad degree is ChE and it was tough…that school is good at weeding people out.
GO JACKETS!
michael
August 15th, 2012
1:30 pm
you guys gotta love walk-ons. go fo it and don’t forget the books and helment.
ToeMeetsLeather
August 15th, 2012
1:32 pm
Yea Headley, and Richt did all this and kept the number of arrest between 150 and 200, pretty impressive numbers for an $EC school.
1 4 GT
August 15th, 2012
1:42 pm
say what
Supersize that order, mutt
August 15th, 2012
1:50 pm
Now you got it, 1 4 GT—-LOL
juvenal
August 15th, 2012
1:55 pm
headless & weenie, sittin’ in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g!
GTVegas
August 15th, 2012
2:05 pm
Headley – “Easy” is a relative term…
UOAD !!!!!
junenal – That’s so….juvenal, but well done.
juvenal
August 15th, 2012
2:07 pm
been a long time since i debated at that intellectual level, GTV;in the future, i’ll go with “neener-neener-neener!”
DawginLex
August 15th, 2012
2:26 pm
I’m sorry guys, but I’ve gotta do it.
How come Tech has gotten so bad that 4 walkons get scholarships?
DawginLex
August 15th, 2012
2:27 pm
GTBob is my idol
Ramblin Man
August 15th, 2012
2:37 pm
Headley the fact UGA is not on probation is amazing. Never seen a team commit so many violations, some repeatedly, and yet no real trouble from the NCAA. If you really believe UGA is a clean program you are delusional. I also would not beat my chest on that record when a good amount of those wins came from lower division teams and down SEC years. Hence the reason UGA was not invited to play for a NC when they won the SEC.
headley lamar
August 15th, 2012
2:38 pm
Yeah, now THAT’S an easy major! Anyone who went to Tech realizes how hard these guys have to work to both play football and study at a very tough school.
Yeah. Thats why 90 percent of the football team is majoring in ahem …. ” Management “
GT Lee
August 15th, 2012
2:45 pm
DawginLex
August 15th, 2012
2:26 pm
I’m sorry guys, but I’ve gotta do it.
How come Tech has gotten so bad that 4 walkons get scholarships?
______________________________________________________________
Sorry Lex, but I gotta do it; How come UGA is so bad that 7 walk-ons get scholarships?
Ramblin Man
August 15th, 2012
2:47 pm
DawginLex, pretty simple GT has had a few players still under scholarship leave early for good jobs over the past two years. P. Smith was removed from the team opening a slot and the staff held two in hopes of landing two guys come signing day and CPJ choose to keep the scholarships open rather than offer guys at the last minute or risk oversigning. That said I would rather see 1or 2 instead of 4.
GT Lee
August 15th, 2012
2:50 pm
DawginLex
August 15th, 2012
2:27 pm
GTBob is my idol
____________________________
Geez, Lex, I thought you were better than “Monkey See Monkey Do”
Ramblin Man
August 15th, 2012
2:51 pm
A management degree that’s rated higher than a business degree from schools like UGA that actually have a business school. What % of UGA players major in housing or a similar degree?
That is an easily answered question, GT Lee...
August 15th, 2012
2:54 pm
..because 7 is 6 under the allotted number of scholarships that UGA has had to revoke on an annual basis what with bad behavior and criminality amongst the ’shipped’…they still have 6 ’ships’ available to be used this year…it will be interesting to see if St. Mark uses them at all this year or if he brings in some JUCO players in Jan. that will count towards the 2012 numbers…