It took Georgia Tech offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude all of three preseason practices to determine this much about highly touted freshman Jahmyr Gibbs. The running back from Dalton High can play.
“The guy’s really talented,” Patenaude said Friday via videoconference following practice. “He’s very dynamic out of the backfield. He has great hands. He’s not a really big guy, but he has a very wide catch radius. We ran him down the sideline on a route a couple days ago, and he jumped over a guy and spun and kept his foot inbounds. So he brings a lot of versatility.”
Gibbs was the prize of coach Geoff Collins’ 2020 signing class, a first-team All-American who was rated among the top 100 seniors in the country and the No. 8 running back nationwide (247Sports Composite). He picked Tech over Florida and LSU, part of a class that was rated No. 27 in the country, the highest finish since the 2007 class.
Patenaude said he saw in Gibbs a back who can run speed sweeps to the perimeter, pound it up the middle and catch passes out of the backfield. Patenaude gave strong indication that there will be a place for him on the field, likely sharing snaps with returning starter Jordan Mason, an All-ACC selection last season, and Jamious Griffin.
Patenaude warned of not overloading Gibbs with too much information that causes him to play slower.
“Right now, we’ll keep stoking his fire over the next four or five weeks to get him ready for Florida State (in the season opener Sept. 12),” Patenaude said. “But we are extremely lucky to have him here. He’s going to be a really dynamic piece of the offense that we didn’t necessarily have last year.”
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