Avery Boyd wouldn’t swap his Georgia Tech experience for another. That’s saying something, considering his experience in Atlanta has been anything but a smooth ride.
“It’s been a lot, but it’s been fun. It’s been worth it. Even with the injuries and everything, everything that I’ve learned so far, I wouldn’t trade it,” the wide receiver said. “I wouldn’t go back and say, ‘I wish I didn’t break my ankle,’ or anything like that. I wouldn’t say, ‘Dang, I wish I got more playing time over this guy,’ because all the trials and everything I went through made me who I am today, and I wouldn’t want it to be different.”
Boyd goes into Tech’s game at noon Saturday at Clemson as one of the Yellow Jackets’ many unheralded contributors on offense. And when he steps on the field at Memorial Stadium, he’ll continue to build on his career high for games played in a season, no small feat given where Boyd was a few years ago as a prospect, what he has had to overcome since arriving on campus and how he has adapted to a new role in a new offense.
“He’s come a long way,” Tech coach Brent Key said. “We saw some of the glimpses of him at the end of spring. Excited for him. He’s a big man, he can run, and now he’s starting to understand everything there is to know about the offense.
“We use him at a lot of different positions on the field. He’s multiple in what he can do. He’s a big body that can get in there and block, but he also has strong hands, and once he pulls it down he can run with it.”
Boyd began playing organized football only in 2018. He had, truthfully, played one season as an eighth grader but discontinued his participation because he wasn’t seriously interested. And in fact, Boyd, who described himself as a “nerd” never really played much sports at all growing up in Tallahassee, Florida.
When Boyd got to high school he took a driver’s education class in which the final test was administered by Godby High School track and field coach Jesse Forbes. Boyd made a deal with Forbes that if Boyd passed his driving test he would join the Godby track team.
Boyd didn’t realize Forbes also was the wide receivers coach for the school’s football team. It wasn’t long before Forbes recognized that Boyd’s speed could help the Cougars’ football team.
“I do remember my first spring practice (in 2018),” Boyd said. “I had a tunnel screen and I got hit. I laid on the ground for a second and was like, ‘Dang, is this really what I want to do?’ But, nah, it was all fun.”
Boyd, now listed at 6-foot-2 and 232 pounds, quickly became an integral part of the Godby offense as a junior. He caught 13 balls for a modest 348 yards and three touchdowns.
Boyd’s on-field production coupled with his physical assets turned him into a three-star recruit and earned him scholarship offers from Southern Mississippi, Troy, Central Florida, South Florida and Tech. He committed to Tech before the start of his senior season, then went out and made 47 catches that went for 754 yards and 11 touchdowns.
On Sept. 26, 2020, Boyd made his collegiate debut on special teams for the Jackets against Syracuse. Two weeks later, in a win over Louisville, Boyd sustained a broken ankle, ending his freshman season.
Boyd would play a total of 50 snaps, mostly on special teams, over the next two seasons, biding his time as Tech transitioned from Geoff Collins to Key as an interim coach to Key as a full-time coach. Boyd also had to bounce back from a torn ligament in his thumb along the way.
Then came this year, when Key and the offensive coaches came to Boyd and floated the idea of Boyd playing a little bit of tight end.
“They were like, ‘You’re a big, fast and physical dude. Gotta find a way to get the ball in your hands.’ I said, ‘I couldn’t agree more,’” Boyd laughed. “In the spring, a couple guys had nicks and injuries, so people just had to step up into other positions.
“My stance to this day still sucks. It’s a lot more blocking than you would do at receiver – well, not even more blocking, just blocking bigger bodies. Same route concepts, now it was just adjusting to knowing that now instead of blocking a 160-180 pound DB or safety, I got 200-plus pound linebackers or might have to chip a 260-pound D-end.”
On Sept. 16, Boyd returned to the end zone for the first time since Nov. 15, 2019, during his senior season of high school. He hauled in a 14-yard throw from quarterback Haynes King late in a 48-23 loss to Ole Miss – a touchdown that was dampened by the Jackets’ loss and, Boyd said, by his drop of what surely would have been a touchdown catch earlier in the game.
Boyd has played 207 snaps this season for the Jackets. He has a modest five catches for 73 yards and also reeled in a touchdown reception against Boston College. His ability to be a sort of hybrid wide receiver and tight end has given the Tech offense added depth and created extra matchup problems for opposing defenses.
Off the field, Boyd is on track to earn his degree from Tech as early as the summer. He has enough prerequisites to apply and enroll at veterinary school, but said he’s now leaning more toward real estate investing.
Boyd, however, isn’t ruling out increasing his profile as a possible professional football player.
“I’m not super, super into going to the NFL. But don’t get me wrong, if they said, ‘I’ll give you a million dollars to run up and down the field,’ I’ll do it. But that’s not like a dream or aspiration of mine.
“I just want to go to a bowl game, be an ACC champion, do whatever I gotta do for the team. I don’t even gotta be the star guy, especially when we got guys like Lik (Malik Rutherford) and Eric (Singleton) and (Christian) Leary and Abdul (Janneh). They can have the spotlight. They can have all the cameras and stuff like that. I just do what I can.”
Like many of his upperclassmen teammates, Boyd had every chance to maybe choose a different path for his football track. His freshman season was shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic, he’s had two significant injuries, endured far too many losses and felt the aftershock of a coaching change.
But Boyd is still here. And he’s not planning to go anywhere anytime soon.
“I was never raised to give up on anything, no matter what adversity you go through,” Boyd said earlier this fall. “I really, really love coach Key. He’s been with me through it all since I’ve been here.
“I really love Georgia Tech. And I ain’t graduated yet, so I ain’t leaving until I graduate.”
