Spring bloggin', Volume 2 ...

By now you’ve all heard the news: That redshirt freshman Ju-Ju Clayton has “won” the back-up QB job. At least for this final week of spring practice. Fellow redshirt freshman Marcus Davis will move to wide receiver for this last week.

Coach Frank Beamer said the move is in part because Clayton is simply further ahead, more polished, at QB. And partly because Davis has shown himself to be too dynamic and explosive not to find a place for him to make plays for this team.

Sounds like a smart move all the way around to me.

And in light of this development, now seems like a good time to roll out a Q&A with the quarterbacks coach. Keep in mind, these questions and answers were presented on Saturday, immediately following the scrimmage.

Also, after the QB talk, I’ll got ahead and empty my recorder of a quick-hit interview with leading PK candidate Matt Waldron. So far this spring, former Penn State transfer looks solid.

Check back tomorrow for some extended interviews with RB Ryan Williams and RB coach Billy Hite from a story I wrote today on the talented tailback. All signs point to Williams being very, very special for Tech. Very, very soon.

Until then ...

QB COACH MIKE O’CAIN

ON DRAWING OUT THE DECISION ON A BACK-UP QB: “I think we’ve got to make a hard and fast decision and live with that decision, because you keep trying to get both of them work and neither of them can get as good as they need to be. Both of them continue to get better, but you’re not improving either one of them enough to where that guy can become a solid second-team player. You don’t have to have him coming out of spring practice ready to play, but you need to have a No. 2 guy that you feel good about, then you have three weeks in August to get him ready to play in that first ballgame.”

ON WHETHER THE DECISION GOT HARDER SATURDAY: “I don’t know yet. It’s been hard the whole time. There’s really been very little separation. They both have strengths and weaknesses. Ju Ju started a little bit ahead, just because of the mental aspect, having gone through it in the fall when Marcus did not. Obviously Marcus is a very talented athlete. Now we’ve got to weigh does he throw the ball consistently and well enough to be the No. 2 guy. Obviously he can do things in the running game well enough. It’s now does he have the knowledge and the wherewithal in the passing game to be that No. 2 guy. And can he (eventually). That’s the other thing you do: You’re trying to project, and that’s tough.”

ON WHETHER CLAYTON, AT THIS POINT, IS SLIGHTLY AHEAD: “Yeah. Just because he’s done it. Marcus is a year and a half (removed) from playing quarterback at all. So yeah, (Ju Ju) is ahead from that standpoint.”

ON WHETHER IT LOOKED LIKE JU JU HAD SOLIDIFIED THE NO. 2 SPOT WITH THAT 95-YARD DRIVE BEFORE DAVIS BROKE THE LONG TD RUN: “Well, not necessarily, because it’s not based on one day. It’s based on 11 days. And then the hardest thing we have to do is: Where can he be on Sept. 6 or 5 or 4 or midway through the season. That’s the hard part. If you took it on what both of them have done today, I know what I’d do. But what would it be three weeks from now. Where could it be two months from now.”

ON THE OTHER FACTORS: “You’re not only looking at the two of them. Just like we did with Tyrod and Sean, you have to look at the make-up of the football team. What do we need? Who fits? What do we need in a second quarterback?”

ON WHETHER CLAYTON AND DAVIS’ STYLES ARE VERY DIFFERENT: “Right now they are. Marcus is more – I don’t like to use this word, but I’m going to – talented athlete. He’s a 4.5 in the 40 and he’s 6-3, 6-4, 220 pounds. Ju Ju is 5-11, 200 pounds and runs a 4.85 40. So athletically, yes, there are differences. But that’s not always the key. You saw Ju Ju pull it down out there today and make two or three nice runs. It was kind of like slow motion out there, but they weren’t tackling him. He was making people miss. So he has a little bit of a knack, a little savvy to him, which I like. There are a lot of things you weigh into it and put into the hopper to make the decision.”

ON WHETHER THE BATTLE OPENS BACK UP IN AUGUST: “You don’t want it to. But if the No. 2 guy that we decide is the No. 2 Monday doesn’t come out and perform to those standards, yes, it could be different. You want to do it to try to put yourself ahead, but at the same time, it’s not written in stone. A lot can happen between April and August.”

ON WHAT MORE HE NEEDS TO SEE FROM DAVIS: “He’s got to see things quicker. Got to get a little bit more on his throws. His throws are not quite crisp enough. Timing. All of those things have to improve before he’ll be ready to play. He’s just late with some throws. That’s part mental and part physical. He doesn’t know exactly where to go, and he hasn’t done it enough to when we call a certain protection and a certain route, I know I’m taking a five-step drop or a seven-step drop. Those things he hasn’t done enough for it to be automatic.”

ON THE THING THAT CAN BE LOST IN ALL THE BACK-UP TALK ... HOW STARTER TYROD TAYLOR HAS PROGRESSED: “I think he’s made tremendous strides. It didn’t look it today. He missed a couple balls that he’ll normally hit. I don’t worry too much about that. He’ll be fine. He’s improved his throwing motion. He’s throwing the ball quicker. He’s delivering the ball quicker. For the most part this spring, he’s very accurate. He’s still going through some ... any time you change something you’ve been doing over a period of time, it takes time to get the timing exactly right. That’ll continue to improve the more he goes this summer. But the thing I like about him: He understands what’s going on on the other side of the ball. He’s pulling the trigger faster. He’s seeing things better. Those are the things you wanted to see this spring. You began to see it toward the end of the year last year. The game was slowing down for him. For Ju Ju and Marcus right now, it’s a thousand miles an hour. Tyrod now, he sees that safety move a little bit. He sees the ends or linebackers adjust and shift and do those little things that give you a pre-snap advantage. It takes a couple years for that. It’s just repetition. You can’t speed it along.”

K MATT WALDRON

ON OFFSEASON PREPARATION TO COMPETE FOR THE JOB: “I’d ride a lot of the bike up the hill to kind of get the stamina going (in his leg). I’m getting a lot more height on the ball. That’s helped a lot. That’s what grabs (Beamer’s) attention. The biggest thing with Coach is you’ve got to grab his attention. If you don’t grab his attention, you’re just going to kind of fall to the back.”

ON WHETHER HE WAS A FORMER SOCCER PLAYER THAT MOVED TO KICKING: “No, never played soccer. Never really liked soccer. My dad got me a little set of plastic pipes in the back yard. Now I have a big set, but I always used to kick little footballs around. I injured my neck as a kid. Somebody slammed head against the roof of the bus when I was in kindergarten. i always had a bad neck. It doesn’t hurt anymore, but that’s why I never played football. I used to always get headaches from contact, so that’s how I became a kicker.”

ON WHETHER, AS A FIFTH-YEAR SENIOR, HE IS INSPIRED BY THE STORIES OF JUD DUNLEVY AND DUSTIN KEYS, WHO WON THE JOB THEIR FINAL SEASON AND HAD RECORD SEASONS: “Yeah, they’re my good friends and I kind of hope it can work in that same progression, me being a fifth-year senior and hopefully getting my opportunity this year. I’m pretty old. This is my last time. We’ve got a long time left. There’s months and months until the game. I just have to keep my consistency, my head on straight, got to keep focused.”

 

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