Alberto Mendoza entered fall camp with the quarterback job already settled, but he still came in carrying one big question: can he handle the position without the benefit of game experience? So far, Georgia Tech’s coaches sound convinced that he can - and what has stood out most is not just his arm or athleticism, but his mind.
Mendoza had a strong spring and separated from the rest of the group to win the Yellow Jackets’ top quarterback role. He has never started a game, but the snaps he got at Indiana last season showed flashes of why Georgia Tech believes in him. He’s a good athlete and a precise passer, even if he won’t be the same kind of runner Haynes King was.
What Brent Key and offensive coordinator George Godsey keep circling back to, though, is Mendoza’s intelligence.
"Yeah, you know, that's a requirement of the position," Godsey said on Tuesday. " It's to know all 22 players on the field, offense and defensively.
And, you know, if our team needs to be put in the best situation, then he's got the freedom to do that stuff. He understands ball.
He knows spatial awareness, zone coverages, recognition of man coverages. And, you know, like I said, those are requirements and really fundamentals of the quarterback position.
I feel really good about where he's at with that."
That comfort level matters because Godsey also said Mendoza’s grasp of the offense gives him more control at the line of scrimmage. There is a balance there, though: too much information can slow everyone down, but the ability to adjust and diagnose before the snap is part of what makes a quarterback valuable.
"Well, you know, that's a good question. And, you know, there's benefits and there's detriments.
You know, you give the quarterback. So much to think about at the line of scrimmage.
And you can kind of paralyze the group. You know, the line's not putting themselves in a stance and they're not firing off the ball.
Conversely, you'd like to not to run where a lot of people are. So you'd like to maybe go the other way.
So there's a fine balance of that."
For Georgia Tech, that kind of intelligence may be the separator. The staff is trying to build an offense that leans on the run game and keeps Mendoza from having to carry everything.
That plan also ties into a defense that needs to be steadier after several rough stretches last season. In three of the Yellow Jackets’ losses, the defense unraveled with explosive passes, problems against the run and little pressure on the quarterback.
Even in a late-season win over Boston College, Georgia Tech still gave up nearly 40 points.
Key wants a more complete team around Mendoza, and he pointed to King’s first season as a starter as a reminder of what can happen when too much is placed on one quarterback’s shoulders. King threw 16 interceptions that year while trying to make something happen for a team that needed him to do everything.
"He's brilliant. He is really, really, really smart.
You know, he's just got to continue to know that we've got enough things around him. We've built a defense to be able to play good defense this year.
And we'll allow him to play as he continues to evolve in the offense and evolve as a quarterback here. But I thought it was a little bit, you know, looking back three years ago, you know, Haynes comes in.
This has been three years to go, really. You know, three years.
He graduated. He was pretty good. 28, 29 by then.
But what happened? You know, at that point in time, he was one of, not the best player on the team already, right?
So when things went south for a drive, what did everybody do? They looked at him to bail us out.
He forced a lot of throws. I mean, 16 picks that year, right?
Forced a lot of things. He started understanding better, having a better grasp, understanding the situational ball and what to do with it and different things, right?
But also, if the talent around him started to improve, they weren't always just looking at him to make a play."
Georgia Tech will find out plenty soon enough, starting with the Colorado game in the season opener on Sept. 3rd. For now, Mendoza’s early camp buzz is built on something coaches trust deeply: he understands the position, he sees the field well, and he’s giving the Yellow Jackets a quarterback they believe they can build around.
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