Georgia Tech starting quarterback Haynes King will not play Saturday against No. 12 Notre Dame at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
King, a 6-foot-3, 215-pound junior, has started all 20 games he has been available for the Yellow Jackets (5-2) since joining the program as a transfer from Texas A&M in January 2023. King played Saturday in Tech’s 41-34 win at North Carolina, but left the contest early in the fourth quarter with an apparent shoulder injury and did not return.
Redshirt sophomore Zach Pyron will start in King’s place. Pyron has played in 16 games since joining Tech in 2022.
Pyron has five completions for 64 yards and a touchdown this season and has mostly been used in short-yardage situations in the red zone. Pyron has four rushing touchdowns in seven games this season.
As a freshman, Pyron came off the bench and threw for 198 yards and recorded two touchdowns against Florida State. A week later, as the starter, he passed for 253 yards and rushed for 66 in leading the Jackets to a 28-27 win at Virginia Tech. He suffered a season-ending injury the next week.
“That preparedness. Being able to prepare like a pro. Even though he’s not the starter, he knows he wasn’t the starter starting out the season, but he comes in every day ready to work, ready to lead this team if he has to,” Tech running back Jamal Haynes said Wednesday in regard to the team’s confidence in Pyron. “So. it really doesn’t matter which one of those quarterbacks gets inside the game, we know that either one of them can go in there and take over the game and lead us to a great win.
“(Offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner’s) definitely gonna have his scheme ready to go. Zach and Haynes, they prepare the right way, both of them come in the right way with the right mindset, right headset. This team is fully confident and fully capable of either of them to go in there and handle business.”
King rushed for 107 yards and two touchdowns and threw for 127 yards on 11 completions in the win at North Carolina. He has 4,410 passing yards (eighth most in a Tech career), 35 touchdown passes (sixth most in a Tech career), 1,090 rushing yards and 16 rushing touchdowns at Tech. This season, King is completing 71.2% of his throws (which would be a Tech single-season record), has thrown just one interception and is averaging 5.69 yards per carry.
At Texas A&M, King had an up-and-down career hindered somewhat by injuries before he earned his undergraduate degree and transferred. He made two brief appearances in 2020 and 2021, then played in six games in 2022 and threw for 1,220 yards, seven touchdowns and six interceptions.
King then had a breakout season for the Jackets in 2023 after beating out Pyron for the starting job in preseason camp. The Longview, Texas, native threw for 2,842 yards, completed 61.6% of his throws, connected on 27 touchdown passes while also running for 737 yards and a team-high 10 touchdowns.
According to Pro Football Focus, King is Tech’s highest-rated offensive player by more than 10 points.
Freshman Aaron Philo likely will be the backup to Pyron on Saturday.
“No. 1, the guys in that (group) are made of the right stuff. That’s the No. 1 thing when evaluating the quarterback, are they made of the right stuff?” Tech coach Brent Key said Thursday about his quarterbacks. “Do they have the right character? Do they love the game? Are they willing to be able to push through adversity, tough times? Maybe they didn’t get what they want right away, but to be able to now just pick up the ball and run. I think that’s what we have. We have tough kids in there. And the toughness in that room really exudes into the rest of the team. As much as they compete with each other, I think they’re each other’s biggest supporters.
“But we knew when we started this a year and a half ago that the first thing we had to do was fix the offense. That starts with the quarterback. It’s a quarterback-driven game. In order to fix the offense we had to go out and acquire talent and make some adjustments in that room. Over the course of the last two classes we’ve been able to do that. We got some young guys that are gonna be really good players. Not that they’re necessarily ready to go out and play 15 games a year right now, but they’re gonna be good players.”
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