Georgia Tech Football Potential Breakout Candidates: Quarterback

Leading up to the start of the season, I want to highlight a potential breakout candidate on each position of the team for Georgia Tech in 2023. 

The most intriguing position battle for the Yellow Jackets heading into the 2023 season is going to be at quarterback. Jeff Sims transferred to Nebraska, leaving Zach Pyron, Zach Gibson, and Texas A&M transfer Haynes King to battle for the starting job. For GT to get back to a bowl game and have a winning season, they are going to need someone to step up and take control of the offense and lead. The battle is going to stretch into fall camp and I don't anticipate head coach Brent Key giving a lot of insight into the battle, as evidenced by his response to a question about the quarterback battle after the spring: 

"You know, I could not tell because they all had the same color jersey on. I was the happiest with Brody Rhodes. To see Brody go in there and throw the deep ball and pull on the zone read, taking off, and he has made a lot of progress this spring. He doubles as our signaler lots of times in games. I thought Brody did a really nice job today"

I think the guy I would choose that is heading for a breakout season is Zach Pyron. 

After Sims was injured last season, Gibson was the first quarterback up, finishing the Virginia game and starting and playing the first two series against Florida State. After those first two series, Pyron took over and had some bright spots, despite the team being overmatched against a good Florida State team. Pyron led the comeback against Virginia Tech and then was trying to lead the team to victory against Miami before getting injured and having his season cut short. 

Pyron threw for 565 yards and three touchdowns and completed 60% of his passes.

The PFF (Pro Football Focus) grades are not going to blow you away when you take a closer look at Pyron. He finished with a 56.7 Overall grade, with 48.0 in passing and 71.5 in rushing. Pyron showed his athleticism and while I don't think he is as an effective runner as Sims, he can move in the pocket and make throws on the edge and I expect offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner will do that. 

One intangible that Pyron seemed to show in every game last season was his toughness and you could tell that the team and Key loved that about him: 

"I recruited Zach and there is a special quality in a quarterback when you recruit them and they are a state champion in high school. Not just one state championship and not just two but when you have somebody that is a three-time state champion at two different high schools, running two different types of offenses, ones a kind of single wing under center offense then goes to a spread offense and still be able to do it, you can always say it is the system or it is this or it is that but at the end of the day, he went to two different systems at two different places and won state championships, there is a competitive drive in him and that showed up today."

That kind of competitiveness is something that Key is looking to instill in his team and Pyron exemplifies it. 

If Pyron is indeed the starting quarterback, he is going to be throwing to a new look wide receiver corps. Dominick Blaylock (Georgia), Christian Leary (Alabama), Chase Lane (Texas A&M), and Abdul Janneh (Duquesne) have transferred in and Malik Rutherford, D.J. Moore, and Avery Boyd were standouts from the spring game. This has a chance to be a pretty good receiver room on paper if everyone stays healthy.

There are plenty of questions about the offense heading into the year, but it also has a chance to be a good unit. Having a breakout player at quarterback would be a huge step in that direction and I think Pyron very well could be that guy. 

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