Georgia Tech defensive tackle T.K. Chimedza is wearing his No. 5 jersey with pride. Chimedza, coming back from a season-ending Achilles injury, received it in the spring, upgrading from No. 93. The Yellow Jackets are the rare team with two defensive tackles garbed in single digits, Djimon Brooks (No. 0) being the other.
“It feels good,” Chimedza said Thursday following the team’s preseason practice. “It gives that extra little confidence. I’m not wearing ninety-something. Everybody’s looking for the single digit. He’s getting in a three-point stance. It’s real cool.”
The number runs in his family. His grandfather Steven Chimedza wore it as a soccer star in Zimbabwe. T.K. wore it when he played soccer, but had never gotten the chance in football. But, following coach Geoff Collins’ protocol, he wrote a letter to Collins explaining why he wanted it. Collins, who awards the single-digit jerseys based on leadership and effort, approved.
“I was like, I need that,” Chimedza said.
The number has some meaning to Collins, too – it’s the number he wore as a linebacker at Western Carolina.
“He’ll be like, You’ve got to make it look good,” Chimedza said. “I say, ‘I got you. I got you.’”
Chimedza will get his first chance Sept. 4, for the season opener against Northern Illinois at Bobby Dodd Stadium. It will be his first game since the end of the 2019 season after he missed the entire 2020 season. Chimedza started nine games as a redshirt freshman in 2019 and was expected to play a significant role last season before the injury.
“I’ve been thinking about it all the time,” Chimedza said. “I’m trying not to get too overhyped with it. Just taking it day by day. I know it’s going to come, but it’s definitely been in the back of my head.”
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