Not only does Georgia Tech have one of the best quarterbacks in the ACC in Haynes King, they also have the advantage of having a talented and experienced backup that many teams in the conference don't have. Zach Pyron played as a freshman in 2022, but lost to King in the quarterback battle last fall. It's a luxury for the Yellow Jackets to have reliable depth this season, and Pyron also came on board to run some select packages last year. He had the opportunity to speak to the media for the first time this spring. Here's everything the Yellow Jackets quarterback had to say.
1. Benefiting from being in the same offensive line for two years in a row…
“I mean, I love running the same offense, because everything is like, you know already. But Coach Weinke, you know, from day one this year when we started implementing it. , Brett Favre said he kept running the same offense almost the entire time he was in the NFL,'' and he broke it all down to the tiniest detail, even if you already knew that. So we've been very focused on that. Now, no matter how well we know about the attack, it's like we're acting out. Like us, we don't understand it at all, we're breaking everything down, and you know that for me it allows me to understand everything more deeply and it improves my game. I know it's possible because now I can help the position and the offensive line make certain calls that they might not have been able to do a year or two ago. ”
2. Has he set any goals for himself and what he would like to improve on…
“That's right. I want to be smarter. Of course I want to increase my soccer IQ, because I don't think you can learn enough. I want to be more accurate. That's one of the most important things for a buck. So I'm going to continue to be more accurate. And I feel like it all starts with the feet. So far this spring, it's the feet.”
3. What I learned from Haynes King…
“I mean, he's very competitive, we both know, so it's a matter of knowing how he handles, how he handles competitiveness and everything else. If you keep learning, it's about continuing to learn, and you know he's just, his IQ from football is off the charts.'' Raised on high school football in Texas, his father is a legend, so he knows everything. Just learning everything that he knows from the run game and how he breaks things down because he's older, so he's seen everything. All you have to do is ask him, look at this, look at this, how do you analyze this movie, things like that. I mean, it's great, we're very close, you know if you have any questions about anything that we know, we can call each other, there's a group chat. You know that, you will send jokes with each other, and you know what you know outside of soccer when you have nothing to do, when you have nothing to do, Only the family knows, you know what you know best.It's so cool because it's a way to get everyone in that room. ”
4. As to whether he is used in certain match situations…
“We're still setting everything up on a base, so we haven't really got any of that game plan. I hope that continues, but I want to be on the field. But I'm able to do that because I know my competitive nature, but that's something I'll think about later when I start game planning for my team and stuff, you know. We have very basic preparations now and we're two weeks into the spring and we're still figuring everything out, so we hope so.”
5. On what he sees from the two freshman quarterbacks…
“I mean, they're like sponges, they soak up so much knowledge and they always ask questions, whether it's me or Haynes or Brody Rhodes, Brody is as good as I am. Having been here a long time and learning from Weinke's knowledge and, you know, our freshman year, we had a different office coordinator, but they used the same terminology for everything, so you know, they were always asking questions. And always wanted to know. Whenever we make an extra throw, they never miss, so it's just you know they're doing everything right. See it. I love that because I know that a team can only progress as the quarterback progresses, and I know that I can't have just one quarterback, and I know that I need more than one. I love it because they're now they're also the future outside and I know when me and Haines are going to be gone so I love seeing that and how much they want to learn. I love to see who the guys are, how hard they want to work, and how competitive they are, we keep saying that, but you have to grow in the quarterback room. We know we have to be competitive.”
6. About his pitching at this year's Pro Day and whether he's been working on strengthening his arm…
“Absolutely, we know that building arm strength is important, but release is just as important, so always find things you can fix. You're never good enough, right? So I think I've been trying to improve and it's only going to help my game, so I've been working on everything.”
Cover photo by Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
