Johnson not giving anything away about quarterback position for Georgia Tech opener

Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson seems to be enjoying this little cat-and-mouse game involving the starting quarterback. He says he knows the identity of the starter.

He says the team has figured it out, too. He’s just not ready to tell the rest of the world.

The Yellow Jackets open their season Monday against Tennessee.

“Whenever we feel like announcing it,” Johnson said. “Our guys know who’s going to play, and I probably know who’s going to play. I might send it out on Twitter in a day or two. Who knows? We’ll get through a couple more practices, and it’ll be one these four guys, I promise.”

Johnson seems to be having some fun with announcing a decision he hasn’t had to make in many, many years.

“We’re going to play the quarterback who gives us the best chance to win the game,” Johnson said.

On his weekly radio show, Johnson even joked that he might wait until the night before the opener with Tennessee to break the news to the four contenders. He said he might tell Matthew Jordan that TaQuon Marshall had won the job and tell Marshall that Jordan would be starting, then tell Lucas Johnson that Jay Jones had earned the start and tell Jones that his choice was Lucas Johnson.

“As I said earlier, I think I could call the game for each of them and go from there,” Paul Johnson said. “We’ve tried to highlight what each of them do and go from there, and that’s why I’m not in a big hurry to tell everybody who it is.

“We may play all of four of them in the first game, who knows?”

The Yellow Jackets’ head coach said the competition has been spirited.

“It’s just like any other position when you’re competing for playing time,” he said. “The skill sets aren’t as different as you might think with those guys.”

B-back job settled

Johnson did announce that KirVonte Benson had earned the starting job at B-back. Benson, a sophomore from Marietta, held off challenges from sophomore Quaide Weimerskirch and hard-running freshman Jerry Howard.

Benson (5-foot-9, 211 pounds) isn’t as big as Dedrick Mills (5-10, 227), but Benson brings a dimension of speed that hasn’t existed at the position since the days of Jonathan Dwyer, Johnson said. Mills was kicked off the team last week

“He’s a real strong guy,” Johnson said of Benson. “And he has really good speed. He’ll have to do it on the field, but he has a chance to be a home run hitter, and we haven’t had that in a while.”

Benson played in the final seven games last season and did not carry the ball. He rushed nine times for 57 yards and one touchdown in the spring game.

Harvin wins punting job

True freshman Pressley Harvin III has won the starting job as punter.

The South Carolina native was one of the nation’s top-rated punters and will replace Ryan Rodwell, who finished his playing career last year.

“It all depends on whether Pressley can be consistent,” Johnson said. “He’s got a big leg.”

The place-kicking job is still undecided. Freshman Brenton King has battled through a groin injury and sophomore Shawn Davis has held his own against the highly recruited kicker.

Injury update

A-back Clinton Lynch remains a question mark for the opener. Lynch has practiced very little, but Johnson said Lynch has “a chance” to play. Already ruled out of the opener with undisclosed injuries are offensive tackle Andrew Marshall and linebacker David Curry.

This story was originally published August 29, 2017 at 8:20 PM with the headline "Johnson not giving anything away about quarterback position for Georgia Tech opener."