Yellow Jackets land QB-in-making in Airyn Willis
Georgia Tech received a commitment on Saturday from a player who might be its quarterback of the future.
Airyn Willis, a 6-foot-2, 175-pound athlete from High Point, N.C., confirmed that he committed while attending the T-Day spring game Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium. He had hinted this past week that Tech was his “clear leader” and he may be close to pulling the trigger.
“Oh yeah, I’ve always loved Georgia Tech since I was little,” Willis said. “I knew I was going to commit to them. I was going to wait and maybe go look some other places. But I didn’t think that would be fair to be going around when I knew Tech was where I wanted to be. My dad said, ‘Tech has everything you want. What are you waiting for?’ And he was right.”
The Yellow Jackets’ recruitment of Willis is particularly interesting considering they recruited him as a quarterback even though he isn’t one. He played running back, wide receiver and defensive back as a junior at Southwest Guilford last season. He rushed 113 times for 681 yards and 11 touchdowns in five games as running back, had 36 receptions for 581 yards and five touchdowns and recorded three interceptions. He reportedly runs a 4.42-second 40-yard dash.
But Willis played quarterback as a sophomore and he will return to the position as a senior. And as good fortune would have it, Southwest Guilford is converting from a power-I to a spread option next season.
“Last year I didn’t play quarterback; that’s why everybody was recruiting me as an athlete,” Willis said. “But I’m playing quarterback this year and we’re going to run a lot of option so it should help me get ready.”
Quarterback Josh Nesbitt will graduate after next seasons. Tech signed quarterback Synjyn Days of Hillgrove in the last class and returns sophomore Tevin Washington and freshmen Jordan Luallen and David Sims.
Willis chose the Jackets over West Virginia, Wake Forest, N.C. State, Wisconsin and East Carolina. He was committed to East Carolina before Skip Holtz left for South Florida.
Willis is the Jackets’ fifth commitment for the Class of 2011.
TECH’S 2011 COMMITMENTS:
- OL Trey Braun, 6-5, 270, Tallahassee, Fla. (Leon)
- OL Bryan Chamberlain, 6-4, 280, Albany (Monroe)
- LB Chaz Cheeks, 6-3, 220, Gainesville (East Hall)
- RB Quartterrio Morgan, 5-10, 180, Jonesboro (Mt Zion)
- QB Airyn Willis, 6-2, 175, High Point, N.C. (Southwest Guilford)
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135 comments Add your comment
yah!
April 25th, 2010
10:05 pm
Yah! Welcome to the tickle pile
UGA89
April 25th, 2010
10:22 pm
SEC Fan
April 25th, 2010
8:32 am
What? 2 of the 5 GT recruits are from outside Georgia? So 40% are from ‘out of state”. Aren’t Georgia kids good enough for GT? That seems to be the suggestion whenever UGA gets a kid from outside Ga.. UGA has 6 recruits so far this year and all are from Ga.. So where is the criticism of GT?
– - – -
GT cannot just recruit every Tom, Dick and Harry from the state of Georgia like UGA can. There are academics to consider here when you make such a comment. I know you don’t want to hear it, but the truth is that GT has limitations on who it can and cannot recruit from an academic standpoint.
thwg
April 25th, 2010
11:32 pm
GT just scored another run over UGA, it’s no 2,234 – 10. Go Jackets!
thwg
April 25th, 2010
11:32 pm
Correction, they scored TWO more runs, it’s now 2,236 to 10.
steeler
April 25th, 2010
11:36 pm
Uh Seenthisb4, UGA has 3rd most players in pros currently, and has for last 4+ years. Maybe you should check out a few stats before you post.
brick
April 26th, 2010
2:19 am
Congrats Tech, you picked up a nice one, but on the other hand, it only reenforces the conception Tech runs a high school offense. This guy isn’t even a qb on his HS team but is being recruited as a qb for Tech? You have a nice little team, its almost a good D1 team and you could very well win the ACC again, but the reality is no one cares who wins the ACC. As for comparing CMR to CPJ, CMR is 3-1 against him, is 8-1 against Tech and that isn’t likely to change anytime soon, but I do understand your optimism. Winning the ACC was big, you won 10 games, it must really grind on you knowing if UGA was in the ACC, that was hard to type, you wouldn’t have won it. In fact, if any of the SEC were in it, except the bottom 2, they would have won it, went to a BCS bowl and gotten embarassed just as Tech did. But you got an ACC championship trophy, its like the fastest turtle winning the turtle race.
Dawg Man
April 26th, 2010
7:25 am
what a joke
kingster
April 26th, 2010
8:47 am
Yea, ATL XMAN, yes its easy for you to call yourself a football person, why don’t you stick with UGA and stay off the GT web site, people like you are dangerous and stupid. If anyone sign with anybody than UGA, they are consider either bad or stupid, people like you, yes I said it, people like you have no life and every time UGA loses it takes a little good from you, this years draft, since GT had something good in the draft and UGA did ok, don’t get mad Silly, what is 5 stars when you don’t plan together or getting in trouble with the LAW, knowing what ever I write you are to stupid to consider, keep your neck RED!!!!!!
RxDawg
April 26th, 2010
10:00 am
Sounds like a high risk / high reward type of recruit. Grats and good luck to the Jackets.
Athlete or a QB?? QB is what y'all need
April 26th, 2010
10:39 am
When I read that a certain school signs an “athlete” for the Qb position, I wonder. This kid had better grow some very, very tough knees, cause his athleticism will not keep him off the surgical table at Peachtree Orthopedics.
The Wishbone is a rough, tough offense and it really takes its toll on the QBs. Any QB that IS REALLY a QB will prefer to play in the Pro Style O, like at UGA, for example. Eventually, Tech will dump the Bone to validate my point.
CPJ is in his third season and tech see coaches come and go about every 3.5 years, dating back to Dodd in 67.
KC
April 26th, 2010
10:44 am
Hey Brick…uh…how is CMR 3-1 against CPJ when they’ve only faced each other twice? I think I’ll save your post as it will help make my son’s decision to attend GT even easier. Math hurts, doesn’t it? It’s okay. We understand.
wow
April 26th, 2010
11:27 am
Yech’s greatest team in 20 years and with all their studs opting to leave yet they still have less players drafted than UGA? The recruits are taking notice. Dark days ahead on the Flats in the ghetto.
Blane
April 26th, 2010
11:27 am
tools are seriously touting baseball scores now? That’s what they’ve become???? Sad.
noneya
April 26th, 2010
11:29 am
Murders by:
UGA professors 3
GT terrorists 0
Hmmmm…..guess GT loses this one. Now which school is dangerous again?
Gerald
April 26th, 2010
11:43 am
Athlete or a QB?? QB is what y’all need:
All right, and all these schools in college football who run pro-style offenses, what do they win exactly? This includes UGA. What has UGA actually WON under Richt? Precisely my point. You only actually win big with the pro-style offense if you are USC, FSU and Miami. Other schools can’t get the players. They can’t get the 4 and 5 star QBs, RBs, WRs and OLs. So they are doomed to mediocrity. Like UGA is. 9 years with Mark Richt, and they haven’t sent a LT or a WR in the 1st round, and they have produced only 1 good pro prospect at QB (Stafford) and one at RB (Moreno). That isn’t good enough. You Dawgs pretend that it is, but it really isn’t. For all the hype over Richt, he hasn’t beaten a single top 5 team in all his years at UGA, and he won’t this year or next year while UGA is recruiting athletes for their new defense and has the mediocre Murray at QB. Richt doesn’t get guys like Carson Palmer and Mark Sanchez to play QB at UGA, he doesn’t get WRs like the Miami Hurricanes get when they are good, and he doesn’t get linemen like those schools, and I don’t know why people pretend that he does.
And Georgia Tech, because of academics, can’t even get the caliber of athletes for the passing game that UGA does. Chan Gailey tried to run a pro-style offense at UGA, but with 2 star QBs. Who is Tech ever going to beat with inferior players? Of course, you UGA fans would prefer GT continue running a pro-style offense knowing that GT will always get lesser players for that system than you. UVA, UNC, Clemson, Miami and FSU would be happy if Georgia Tech continued with that failed strategy also. It is Georgia Tech’s running a DIFFERENT offense that gives them a shot, and that’s exactly why you are on here demanding that GT switch back to what didn’t work for Bill Lewis, George O’Leary and Chan Gailey, and hoping that CPJ goes elsewhere. Well I have news for you … CPJ isn’t going anywhere. He won’t go to the NFL or to a bigger school because of his offense. GT is as good as it gets for CPJ.
GT doesn’t want to be UCLA to UGA’s USC. UCLA will never recruit like USC, but they stick with running the same type of program as USC, except with lesser players. The result? USC beats them 9 times out of 10. UCLA could have long gone to a different style of play that allows them to recruit different athletes and gives them a shot, but UCLA is too proud. They would rather lose to USC and whine and complain.
Well, GT would rather try to do something different than stick with what isn’t working. If GT were still running a pro-style offense, then they don’t win the ACC, and they don’t send 4 players to the NFL draft, and especially don’t have 2 first round picks. GT always had that talent under Chan Gailey. It’s just that no one wants to draft 1st round picks off 7-6 teams. They’d rather draft players from teams who win their conference.
Look at N.C. State. They were a solid program for years running the option. But they went and hired a pro-style coach in Chuck Amato and followed him up with a former B.C. coach. What did that get them? Nothing. They never finished higher than 3rd in the ACC, even with Philip Rivers as a QB. Why? Because they couldn’t get the players. Still can’t. Never will.
This year, instead of running the option with players recruited for a pro-style offense, CPJ will be relying on his own recruits. Expect to see GT’s attack be more fluid, explosive and less mistake-prone. The year after, when Nesbitt is gone and GT gets a guy who is actually trained to run the option and doesn’t just rely on his natural ability, it will be even better.
You UGA fans can keep deluding yourselves into thinking that UGA is cranking out all these NFL QBs. The truth is that Matt Stafford is the only Richt product at UGA to start a game in the NFL, and that isn’t going to change anytime soon. Joe Cox isn’t going to have an NFL career, and neither is Murray. So, in 12 years of Richt, UGA will be able to claim one more NFL QB than UGA has. Whoopee. You know, if Cameron Newton pans out as expected, AUBURN will be a better pipeline for future NFL QBs than Richt’s UGA. Hmmm …
Kiffin and his daddy
April 26th, 2010
12:07 pm
NONE of your playes have any major college beating down their door. Half the time you are the only offer. THAT is the point. PJ cannot recruit like your last coach. With the coach change your recruiting suffered and if you do not think that translate on the field than wait….
Georgia Tech For Like
April 26th, 2010
4:13 pm
confederate dawg- youre an idiot inbread f&&&&
Buzzzed
April 26th, 2010
6:40 pm
UGA bloggers, we love CPJ, his recruits, his offense and his W’s so give up on trying to convince us otherwise. See you in Athens in November, tools.
BIG BEE
April 26th, 2010
8:00 pm
Kiffen and his daddy: Point made was that the players I talked about were not highly recruited by the big guys. Your ADD is showing. Can you stick to the point and reply to the statement in question?
Big Bad Bob
April 26th, 2010
9:19 pm
Look for Tech to recruit a punter as a quarterback in the upcoming recruiting class.
Jim Bob
April 26th, 2010
9:21 pm
The dude should be perfect for running the wishbone offense.
Pauline Johnson
April 26th, 2010
9:24 pm
I know we can’t recruit legitimate quarterbacks so we have to recruit kids at another positions and try to convert them to quarterbacks. Just look back at Tech history. Reggie Ball was a good example of the trend of Tech quarterbacks.
Have You Stomped Your Bee Today
April 26th, 2010
9:26 pm
(((30-24)))
JACKETSSUCKANDALWAYSWILL
April 26th, 2010
9:34 pm
WHO CARES……….. JACKETS SUCK……………….. 2ND TIER PROGRAM……………….., 2ND RATE RECRUITS
NC GT FAN
April 26th, 2010
9:48 pm
Airyn Willis is the real deal. Speed and agility with a strong arm are tools that will give GT a threat in many ways. Glad to see a prized NC recruit go to GT.
FantasTECH
April 27th, 2010
8:39 am
Haha I just read that the mut coaches are going around with like 14 people to all the high schools and telling these kids that they are building, ” a dream team” bahahahahahahahahahahahahaha That’s the funniest thing I have ever heard. Whatever you have to tell these poor kids to get a commit. You know the funny thing is that the muts always have good recruiting classes and what do they do with them. hahahaha yeah thats right they take them to SHREVEPORT for the rosco’s chicken and eggs bowl against a Texas A&M team that hasn’t ever won anything. And by the way how do you let A&M have twice as many fans there as the ALMIGHTY MUTS! haha what a bunch of losers. Their program is a joke. Drew said he and Richt send bible quotes back and forth to each other. HAHAHAHA whatever you gotta do again. What a loser!
How2fish
April 27th, 2010
9:55 am
Airyn Willis good luck on the flats save for the last game of the season. Should be a good fit in CPJ’s offense big fast..really his throwing is not much of an issue.
GTSteve
April 27th, 2010
12:23 pm
1eyedJack
April 25th, 2010
11:27 am
“I don’t think nobody is coming to college to be a backup,” Washington said Saturday. “Everybody is pushing to be a starter.”
What command of the English language!!!
That is better than….” I need to call my Lawyer”…which is what most dogs say in interviews.
GTSteve
April 27th, 2010
12:35 pm
Gerald
April 26th, 2010
11:43 am
I normally don’t read posts’ that are that long…but that was very good.
Mister Jackette
April 27th, 2010
4:33 pm
Where is Reuben Houston?
The NCAA
April 27th, 2010
4:36 pm
Is this the same Georgia Tech that recently served an NCAA probation for academic cheating involving 19 scholarship athletes (11 starting football players) all that had their grades changed to higher grades so that they would not lose eligibility to play? Why YES! It is that same GA Tech.
Saint Simons
April 27th, 2010
4:37 pm
30-24!!!! The Jackettes lost!
Reality
April 27th, 2010
4:38 pm
Obviously GA Tech terrorists are typical Techsters and too stupid to pull off their scheme before they get caught!
UGA - glorified hick home school
April 28th, 2010
3:47 pm
UGA recruits come in as 4 and 5 star recruits, and leave as 4 and 5 star felons – instead of counting how many players UGA sends to the NFL, we should count how many they send to prison – they would win in a landslide
AFHeels35
April 29th, 2010
10:30 pm
I love it. I went to high school with Airyn and I’m gonna be playing at UNC. I can’t wait to get after him. And actually he did throw a few passes his junior year. He was definitely a better QB than the guy we had in there.