After Georgia Tech had its first scrimmage of the preseason on Saturday, coach Geoff Collins offered a summary of the roughly two-hour session after the team’s practice on Monday.
He was perhaps most eager to share an update on his kickers, specifically Brent Cimaglia and Jude Kelley. After a season in which Yellow Jackets kickers were a combined 3-for-8 for the second year in a row, Cimaglia and Kelley offered hope in the form of a 6-for-6 performance on field-goal tries, according to Collins.
Cimaglia, a grad transfer from Tennessee, was 4-for-4 with makes from 32, 41, 33 and 48 yards, Collins said. Cimaglia transferred to Tech after making 46 of 62 career attempts with the Volunteers. He has one year of eligibility.
Kelley, who was 1-for-5 last year as a freshman, made both attempts in the scrimmage, from 30 and 40 yards. Collins called Kelley “vastly improved.”
The kicking game is an area needing improvement. Besides ranking 123rd nationally in field-goal accuracy, Tech was 92nd in touchback percentage last season (24.4%). Austin Kent and Gavin Stewart are competing there. For the punting job, Kent and freshman David Shanahan are dueling to replace Ray Guy Award winner Pressley Harvin.
“We’ll get into all that,” Collins said of selecting the players for the jobs. “We’re still three weeks away from the tip. We’ll keep working through it.”
Tech will likely need to be significantly improved in the kicking game in its pursuit of its first winning season in Collins’ tenure. With a rigorous schedule, the attempt at a winning record may place the Jackets in one-possession games where a trusty field-goal kicker, a punter who can flip the field and a kickoff specialist who can crank out touchbacks will be vital.
Collins pronounced himself pleased with both Kent, who took kickoffs and backed up Harvin, and Shanahan, who was born and raised in Ireland and learned to punt at an academy in Australia.
“Just the multiplicity of things we can do now with protections and schemes and our fakes, it’s pretty cool with (Shanahan) back there, but I think Austin’s done a great job with punting and in kickoff,” Collins said. “Gavin Stewart has been really improved on kickoffs, the hangtime and the distance, as well. It’s a really good problem to have.”
In his opening remarks, Collins brought up no fewer than 18 players for their performance in Saturday’s scrimmage, including almost every member of the most recent signing class.
In relative order of mention: defensive tackle Makius Scott, cornerback Kenyatta Watson, linebacker Charlie Thomas, running backs Jamious Griffin and Dontae Smith, quarterbacks Jeff Sims, Trad Beatty and Jordan Yates, walk-on running backs Englan Williams and Daylon Gordon, wide receivers PeJé Harris, Malik Rutherford, Jamal Haynes, James BlackStrain and Ryan King, linebacker Ayinde Eley and Cimaglia and Kelley.
Among the more notable comments made by Collins, he praised the effort on offense and special teams of Griffin, saying that the switch has flipped for him. Griffin had seven touches for about 90 yards in the scrimmage, Collins said.
“He’s starting to understand big-picture things and just was really proud of him,” Collins said.
Thomas, who is competing for a starting job at linebacker, “did a great job Saturday,” Collins said.
Sims completed eight of 12 passes and ran five times for an estimated 50 yards. (Collins said he was quick to blow quarterback run plays dead.) Beatty had two touchdown passes and Yates threw a pinpoint scoring pass down the seam to Griffin, Collins said. Collins praised the quarterbacks for their support of one another.
The walk-on running backs, Williams and Gordon, have “made a huge impact on the entire locker room, how they play, how they work, what kind of guys that they are,” Collins said.
Harris “put on a show,” Collins said, with three catches for almost 90 yards and a touchdown. Eley came up with an interception return for a touchdown.
“Just really proud of how he’s been in this program,” Collins said of Eley, a grad transfer from Maryland.
Collins also praised the preseason work of several freshmen, including those enrolling and others returning. They included safety Kaleb Edwards (“he’s put together a really good preseason camp playing nickel, playing safety”), defensive ends Noah Collins (“physical, explosive, dynamic pass rusher”) and Josh Robinson (“doing a tremendous job for us”), defensive tackle Zeek Biggers (improvement “has been impressive”), linebackers Trenilyas Tatum (“he was all over the field on Saturday”) and Khatavian Franks (“he had another really good scrimmage”), offensive linemen Weston Franklin (“held his own, looking really, really good” in snaps with first string), Jakiah Leftwich (performance since the spring “has just been a highlight of the program”) and Wing Green (“it’s been really cool to see” his emerging toughness) and quarterback Chayden Peery (“he’s highly accurate and he’s got a big arm, as well”).
The team will scrimmage again this Saturday.
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