Countdown to Kickoff: No. 22

Tashard Choice

The countdown to kickoff is officially on as Georgia Tech‘s season-opening matchup at Colorado on Aug. 29 is less than 100 days away.

Until then JOL will be counting it down with one Jackets’ player daily that wore the corresponding number of days remaining until toe meets leather in Boulder.

With it now 22 days until kickoff in Boulder, today’s focus is on No. 22 Tashard Choice, a dynamic Georgia Tech running back that started his career at Oklahoma before coming back home to Atlanta to run his way into the record books and Jackets’ fans hearts.

Choice was a workhorse back for Lovejoy High (Ga.) in Hampton during his prep career, including running for 1,200 yards and 15 touchdowns and adding another 600 yards receiving with two touchdowns during his senior season there. He was an All-State selection, and the school later retired his No. 2 in 2007, further solidifying his legendary status there.

Choice signed with the Oklahoma Sooners over offers from several other college programs as part of the recruiting class of 2003 and redshirted his first season there before securing the starting spot in the backfield going into his redshirt-freshman season. However, an injury sidelined him early in the 2024 season, opening the door for a freshman running back named Adrian Peterson to get on the field and go on to a huge season that resulted in him being a Heisman Trophy finalist.

Choice decided it was time to come back closer to home to help with his mother who was having health issues, and he received a medical hardship to be able to transfer and be immediately eligible at Georgia Tech for the 2005 season. That Fall he split time in the backfield with PJ Daniels while running for 513 yards on 117 carries with six touchdowns.

Choice took over the full starting role in 2006 as a junior and proceeded to have the second most productive season from a yardage standpoint in Georgia Tech program history, only behind Eddie Lee Ivery’s 1978 campaign. Choice ran for 1,473 yards on 297 carries (leading the ACC) with 12 touchdowns and had nine total 100-yard rushing games and seven straight 100-yard rushing games, both GT records. He was named Second-Team All-ACC as a key piece of the Jackets’ ACC Coastal Division title and appearance in the ACC Championship Game.

All that set the table for what proved to be another huge season in 2007 as a senior as he rounded out his Tech career with 1,379 yards on 261 carries with 10 touchdowns and also threw for a touchdown. He led the ACC in rushing for the second straight season to become the only Jackets player to ever accomplish that feat and is only one of three Tech RBs to ever rush for 1,000-plus yards in consecutive seasons. He was named First-Team All-ACC and an Honorable Mention All-American.

In the Georgia Tech record books, Choice is fourth all-time in career rushing yards (3,365), sixth all-time in career rushing TDs (28) and has two of the top-six single-season rushing yard totals (1,473 in 2006, 1,379 in 2007). He was inducted into the Georgia Tech Sports Hall of Fame in 2019.

After his decorated college career came to an end, Choice was selected in the fourth round (122nd overall) of the 2008 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys and spent part of his first four pro seasons with the franchise. He went on to play for Washington, Buffalo and Indianapolis over the next three years before retiring from the NFL following the 2013 season. Over six seasons in the NFL, Choice compiled 1,579 yards on 372 carries with 10 touchdowns and also had 81 receptions for 574 yards.

Following his playing days, Choice shifted into coaching and started as a coaching intern with the Dallas Cowboys in 2016 before joining the North Texas staff as a graduate assistant in 2017 and later the running backs coach in 2018.

Choice returned to his alma mater Georgia Tech as running backs coach from 2019-2021 and spent the last three seasons in that same role at Texas. This past offseason he was hired as the running backs coach for the Detroit Lions and will head into his first season there in 2025 as he is now reunited with former Tech running back Jahmyr Gibbs, who he recruited to The Flats.