Georgia Tech quarterback Lucas Johnson tweeted the news that he underwent surgery Thursday, a procedure that will end his sophomore season before the season opener.
Johnson tweeted Thursday afternoon that the surgery went well, offered his thanks “for all the love” and ended the message with the hashtag #RoadToRecovery.” Johnson suffered an injury, apparently to his foot or lower leg, in the team’s scrimmage Saturday.
On Wednesday, coach Paul Johnson had said that the quarterback was to be evaluated Thursday, with the possible outcome of surgery.
“It’s frustrating,” he said. “It’s non-contact again. That’s the second time in three years we’ve lost a quarterback with non-contact injuries, just planting.”
With Lucas Johnson on the sideline, redshirt freshman Tobias Oliver will be the No. 2 quarterback behind TaQuon Marshall. Oliver is a redshirt freshman from Northside High in Warner Robins, where he set a school record with 3,785 passing yards in his career and also ran for 3,218 yards. In the team’s scrimmage on Saturday, he had runs of 39 and 56 yards. On Monday, Paul Johnson said that he was “doing OK.”
While it’s not ideal to have a redshirt freshman as the backup quarterback, it’s hardly new territory for Tech during Johnson’s tenure. It was the case in 2011 (Synjyn Days), 2012 (Vad Lee), 2013 (Justin Thomas), 2015 (Matthew Jordan after Tim Byerly’s season-ending injury) and last year (Johnson and Jay Jones after Jordan’s season-ending injury).
“I’m really excited to see how far he’s come along, because I know how it is coming in as a freshman, trying to learn the offense and then being on scout team, not really in meetings all the time,” Marshall said Monday.
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