Key gives Tech injury updates, says Haynes King will be available vs. Clemson
In his final media availability before the Clemson game on Saturday at noon, Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key provided several injury updates, including sharing that quarterback Haynes King will be available for the huge ACC showdown vs. the Tigers at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
After a great performance to help Georgia Tech to a thrilling 27-20 win at Colorado in the season opener on Aug. 29 in which he ran for 156 yards and three touchdowns and threw for another 143, the redshirt-senior QB King missed last Saturday’s game vs. Gardner-Webb with what was described as a “nagging lower-body injury.” Redshirt-freshman Aaron Philo made his first career start and performed quite well with 373 yards passing on 21-of-28 attempts and one touchdown as he completed a pass to 11 different receivers.
Also on Thursday, Key said defensive lineman/rush end AJ Hoffler and cornerback Rodney Shelley will be available for Saturday’s game after each missing the first two games. Both Hoffler, a Clemson transfer, and Shelley are listed as starters at their position on the depth chart.
Key said that back defensive end Ronald Triplette will be listed as questionable for Saturday’s game and ruled out defensive backs Savion Riley and DJ Moore, running backs Trelain Maddox and Chad Alexander and defensive lineman Shymeik Jones.
The full injury report is expected to be released by the ACC later today. Key expressed his thoughts on how he will handle the newly-mandated injury reports this year and what it means for him.
“What I gave you all is what it is. I mean, that’s the truth is. It’s honest. It’s transparent,” Key told the media on Thursday. “They asked us to do it for a lot of reasons, and that’s what I’m going to do. I mean I’m going to be transparent with it, and it is what it is. I mean people look into that a little bit too much too. I mean once the ball is kicked off on Saturday, the guys playing, or the guys play right here, we’re going to let them play those guys. I’ve said it each week. When it comes to the health of our players, we’re going to make sure they’re ready to go, right? That’s not something we’re ever going to mess around with. We have really good doctors, really good trainers. Brad Kimball and his staff do an outstanding job, and I put full faith and trust in those guys. And these guys are back, and they’re ready to go. And they’ve had good practice.”
Georgia Tech (2-0) and Clemson (1-1) will kick it off on Saturday at noon at Bobby Dodd Stadium as the teams open their ACC schedule.
