Yellow Jacked Up
Fansided

Georgia Tech Football: Quarterbacks main attraction for Friday’s spring game

By Dylan Callaghan-Croley

Sep 3, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets head coach Paul Johnson gives a play to running back TaQuon Marshall (16) during the fourth quarter of their game against the Alcorn State Braves at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Georgia Tech won 69-6. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 3, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets head coach Paul Johnson gives a play to running back TaQuon Marshall (16) during the fourth quarter of their game against the Alcorn State Braves at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Georgia Tech won 69-6. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

With the departure of Justin Thomas and the injury to Matthew Jordan, the Georgia Tech quarterback position has become the main attraction for Friday’s spring game.

With the departure of Justin Thomas following last season, the quarterback for the Yellow Jackets was going to be the biggest position battle when it came to spring ball. Head coach Paul Johnson had hoped to have a winner by the end of spring ball. Redshirt junior Matthew Jordan took what appeared to be a good lead in the battle but went down with a foot injury two weeks ago.

Next: Recruiting: List of visitors for spring game

With Matthew’s foot injury, there will be four quarterbacks who play on Friday evening, two on each team. On the White team will be TaQuon Marshall and Jay Jones while the Gold team will feature Chase Martenson and Lucas Johnson.

When asked about the quarterback position, Paul Johnson told the media that the quarterback position “is the least of my worries. I think we’ve got some good players there. I’d be good with any one of them playing in a game”, according to RamblinWreck.com.

White Team:

TaQuon Marshall, a sophomore from Hamilton, Georgia is a former A-Back for the Yellow Jackets before getting switched to quarterback last spring. Last fall, Marshall saw time in two games at quarterback against Mercer and Vanderbilt. In those games, Marshall rushed for 14-yards on seven attempts while also completing a single pass for nine yards. If Matthews doesn’

t win the starting job during preseason camp, the most likely to do so appears to be Marshall.

Backing up Marshall on Friday night will be redshirt freshman Jay Jones. Jones was recruited out of McCalla, Alabama, about an hour and a half outside former Jacket quarterback, Justin Thomas’s hometown of Montgomery. In his senior season at McAdory High School in McCalla, Jones passed for 1,781-yards and 21 touchdowns while also rushing for 956-yards and 14 scores.

Gold Team:

More from Football

The starting quarterback for the Gold Team, Chase Martenson has a history of run a triple-option prior to arriving on The Flats last year. The Marist School alumnus ran a triple-option offense while a member of the War Eagles football team. In his senior season, Martenson had over 2,000 total yards and 29 touchdowns. Martenson provides a good size for a quarterback at 6-foot-2, and 215-pounds allowing him to take punishment more so than other Jacket quarterbacks.

The final quarterback that will be playing on Friday night is Lucas Johnson. Johnson overall may be the most talented quarterback on the Yellow Jackets roster. The biggest potential problem with Johnson is he is more set to be a pro-style quarterback. However, this could also help add a little bit more of a passing game to the Jackets offense when needed if he played. During his senior season at Mount Carmel High School in San Diego, Johnson amassed nearly 4,000 total yards while collecting 40 total touchdowns.

Will the battle continue into preseason camp?

The ultimate question on Friday night is will somebody win the starting quarterback position. A couple weeks ago it would seem as though Matthew Jordan would most likely win the battle and be the starting quarterback going into preseason camp. But on the last day of spring ball, the quarterback battle seems to be as strong as it was at the beginning, the only question is, will somebody play strong enough to win the battle on Friday?

The most likely scenario is that no quarterback outplays all the others and the battle continues into preseason camp. This will also allow the coaching staff to get one last look at Matthew Jordan before making a decision on the starting quarterback position. If the battle does continue into the preseason, Paul Johnson would most likely want to make a decision early on in the camp.

With all that, the quarterback position will be where all eyes are on Friday night. On Monday, a full recap of each quarterback’s performance will be provided here on YellowJackedUp.