Georgia Tech quarterback TaQuon Marshall’s toe that was injured in the team’s loss to South Florida on Saturday feels better than it did in the game, Marshall said Tuesday.
“It’s a lot better than Saturday, that’s for sure,” Marshall said. “So I’m doing pretty well.”
Marshall hurt himself on the first play from scrimmage of the second half, when he was tackled from behind on the sideline. He stayed in for one more play before taking himself out of the game. Marshall said that the tackle at the end of the 26-yard run “made (the toe) bend more than it probably should.”
He later was cleared to return and subbed back in for Tobias Oliver in the fourth quarter.
“I didn’t think it was too bad when I first got up, but as I started to walk, it was a little bit more than what I thought it could be,” Marshall said. “I just tried to shake it off then, but then I couldn’t really plant on it, so I just went to the sideline, tried to get it a little taped up and stuff.”
Marshall said he has been getting a total of five hours of treatment on his left big toe daily, a combination of stretching, ice, massage and laser therapy.
Marshall said he probably will modify his game a little bit in the Yellow Jackets’ ACC opener Saturday at Pittsburgh.
Marshall was 9-for-18 for 183 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. The touchdown was an 81-yard completion to a wide-open Clinton Lynch on a play-action pass in the first quarter. Marshall called it a “huge” play, as he sometimes missed downfield throws like that, overthrowing or underthrowing open receivers.
“I focused on it a lot in the offseason,” Marshall said. “That’s one of the things that I’ve really been working on in practice is just hitting the wide-open guys. I think that started in camp so it’s just translating over to the game.”
Marshall said he thought his play improved from the first game, when he was also 9-for-18 (for 104 yards with a touchdown and interception) but early on was highly inaccurate on a few throws.
For Saturday’s ACC opener at Pittsburgh, “I’ll come out and be even better than I was last week,” Marshall said.
Earlier Tuesday, coach Paul Johnson said there would not be a specific plan to put Oliver in the game. Against USF, Oliver was in four two full possessions and parts of two more and led the Jackets to three touchdowns.
“If we need Tobias, I’m confident that he can go in and play and run the game plan and do what we do,” Johnson said. “But I’m not going to go into a game plan just to play a guy.”
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