Nesbitt vs Lothridge

[DvilleJacket]

Doubt we'll ever have a Qb tough as Nesbitt! Dude was nasty running the football!

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

I did not, but recall that Dayne was one of the all-time bustouts as winner. I had forgotten that Hamilton was also a Heisman contender.

Not just a contender, he should have won it.

 

[GTFLETCH]

With the departure of Justin Thomas, Georgia Tech has an empty throne. While Thomas is the most recent quarterback to find success, there are legends who played in gold that preceded him. Here are the top ten quarterbacks in Georgia Tech history.

#10 Tevin Washington 2009-2012
Washington was the second starting quarterback in the Paul Johnson era. The win that put Washington on the map came in 2011 where his legs led the Ramblin’ Wreck to a 31-17 victory over Clemson who was ranked fifth in the nation at the time. The quarterback rushed for 176 yards on the day, and crushed Clemson’s national title dreams. Tevin Washington finished his career with 3,312 yards passing, and 2,225 yards rushing. He is currently a graduate assistant with the Yellow Jackets.

#9 Eddie McAshan 1970-1972
Eddie McAshan was a trailblazer at Georgia Tech being the first African-American quarterback to start for the Yellow Jackets. While McAshan had a proclivity for throwing interceptions, he was able to amass 4,080 yards passing in his three year career. His best game was against Rice in 1972 where he passed for 5 touchdowns (and sadly 5 interceptions as well).

#8 Joshua Nesbitt 2007-2010
When Paul Johnson came to Georgia Tech, he turned to then sophomore Joshua Nesbitt. As his first season at the helm of the triple option, Nesbitt led the team to a 9-4 record that included a win over rival Georgia and an appearance in the Chic-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta. In his junior season, Nesbitt helped Georgia Tech win it’s first outright ACC championship in years (which they later vacated for “violations”). Nesbitt finished his career with 2,806 yards on the ground. No other ACC quarterback has rushed for as many yards in their career.

#7 John Dewberry 1983-1985
This is a nice revenge story. Originally, John Dewberry committed to the University of Georgia in 1981. After spending a year there he realized he wasn’t going to get the playing time he felt he deserved, so he transferred to the Georgia Institute of Technology where he earned the starting job. His passing prowess (4,193 yards in his career) propelled the Yellow Jackets to two consecutive victories over Georgia, and started the tradition of taking pieces of the hedges from Athens. After a brief stint in the CFL, Dewberry went on to start his own real estate development company.

#6 Billy Lothridge 1961-1963
While his stats pale in comparison to the other quarterbacks on this list (3,140 total yards), Lothridge played in a different era. During his junior and senior seasons, Lothridge was top ten in nearly every major statistic in the SEC including total yards, passing yards, rushing yards, and touchdowns. His ability to both run and pass the ball efficiently earned him second place in the 1963 Heisman voting. After college, Lothridge was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys to play punter. He won the starting job as a rookie despite injuring his knee in training camp.

#5 Reggie Ball 2003-2006
It’s tough to put Reggie Ball on this list, but he did put up a lot of yards during his career at Georgia Tech. Ball won the starting job as a true freshman under Chan Gailey, and went on to put up over 8,000 career passing yards as well as over 1,400 yards rushing. With those kinds of numbers, you would think he would be higher on the list. Sadly, Ball was not the most efficient passer despite have a receiving core that included Calvin Johnson. This 5’11” QB threw a record 55 interceptions in his career. His senior season was cut short after he was declared academically ineligible. Ball never finished his degree at Tech.

#4 George Godsey 1998-2001
George Godsey is one of the most efficient passers in Yellow Jacket history. In his two years as a starter, Godsey amassed 6,137 yards through the air, and had a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 40-18. Godsey holds the single season passing record at Georgia Tech with the 3,085 yards he passed for his senior year. Once he finished his college he began a successful coaching career. He has worked with numerous pro and college teams, and is currently a defensive assistant for the Detroit Lions.

#3 Shawn Jones 1989-1992
It’s really hard to put the only quarterback on this list that won a national title anywhere outside the top two, but there is a reason Shawn Jones is third on this list. Shawn Jones did in fact lead Georgia Tech to an 11-0-1 season in 1990 to earn them a national title. He is also second in career passing yards at Georgia Tech (8,441 yards). That being said, Jones had a lackluster touchdown-to-interception ratio of 51-50 during his college career. Still what he accomplished for Georgia Tech cannot be disputed. Winning Tech it’s fourth national title (first since 1952), Shawn Jones Solidified his self as one of the all-time greats for the Ramblin’ Wreck.

#2 Justin Thomas 2013-2016
With Vad Lee deciding to transfer, redshirt sophomore Justin Thomas won the starting job at Tech in 2014. The rest is history. Thomas’ ability to pass had an immediate impact on his opponents. The triple option was hard enough to guard when athletic quarterbacks like Josh Nesbitt and Tevin Washington played, but neither of these quarterbacks possessed the speed and decision making ability of Justin Thomas. In 2014, Thomas passed for 1,719 yards AND rushed for 1,086 yards. This magical season culminated with a dominating performance in the Orange Bowl as Thomas and crew racked up 49 points earning the young quarterback MVP honors. His production did drop the following year, but Thomas bounced back his senior season and led his team to another bowl victory over Kentucky in the Tax Slayer bowl. Thomas is currently a member of the New Orleans Saints, but his position is still unspecified.

#1 Joe Hamilton 1996-1999
At 5’10″, most people did not expect much from this scrappy quarterback, but boy did he prove to be special. 8,882 yards passing, 1,758 yards rushing, and a completion percentage of 61.7% in his career in gold. His numbers are staggering to say the least. Hamilton finished second in the Heisman voting in 1999, and finished his career as the ACC’s all-time leader in total yards (currently ranked fourth). His stature did prevent him from having a successful career in the NFL, but he did find a home in Arena Football as the quarterback for the Orlando Predators. In his three years there, he amassed 9,806 yards passing with a 66.3% completion rating.

Link
https://armchairallamericans.com/history-of-underdogs-quarterbacks-georgia-tech/

 

[Boss Ross]

With the departure of Justin Thomas, Georgia Tech has an empty throne. While Thomas is the most recent quarterback to find success, there are legends who played in gold that preceded him. Here are the top ten quarterbacks in Georgia Tech history.

#10 Tevin Washington 2009-2012
Washington was the second starting quarterback in the Paul Johnson era. The win that put Washington on the map came in 2011 where his legs led the Ramblin’ Wreck to a 31-17 victory over Clemson who was ranked fifth in the nation at the time. The quarterback rushed for 176 yards on the day, and crushed Clemson’s national title dreams. Tevin Washington finished his career with 3,312 yards passing, and 2,225 yards rushing. He is currently a graduate assistant with the Yellow Jackets.

#9 Eddie McAshan 1970-1972
Eddie McAshan was a trailblazer at Georgia Tech being the first African-American quarterback to start for the Yellow Jackets. While McAshan had a proclivity for throwing interceptions, he was able to amass 4,080 yards passing in his three year career. His best game was against Rice in 1972 where he passed for 5 touchdowns (and sadly 5 interceptions as well).

#8 Joshua Nesbitt 2007-2010
When Paul Johnson came to Georgia Tech, he turned to then sophomore Joshua Nesbitt. As his first season at the helm of the triple option, Nesbitt led the team to a 9-4 record that included a win over rival Georgia and an appearance in the Chic-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta. In his junior season, Nesbitt helped Georgia Tech win it’s first outright ACC championship in years (which they later vacated for “violations”). Nesbitt finished his career with 2,806 yards on the ground. No other ACC quarterback has rushed for as many yards in their career.

#7 John Dewberry 1983-1985
This is a nice revenge story. Originally, John Dewberry committed to the University of Georgia in 1981. After spending a year there he realized he wasn’t going to get the playing time he felt he deserved, so he transferred to the Georgia Institute of Technology where he earned the starting job. His passing prowess (4,193 yards in his career) propelled the Yellow Jackets to two consecutive victories over Georgia, and started the tradition of taking pieces of the hedges from Athens. After a brief stint in the CFL, Dewberry went on to start his own real estate development company.

#6 Billy Lothridge 1961-1963
While his stats pale in comparison to the other quarterbacks on this list (3,140 total yards), Lothridge played in a different era. During his junior and senior seasons, Lothridge was top ten in nearly every major statistic in the SEC including total yards, passing yards, rushing yards, and touchdowns. His ability to both run and pass the ball efficiently earned him second place in the 1963 Heisman voting. After college, Lothridge was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys to play punter. He won the starting job as a rookie despite injuring his knee in training camp.

#5 Reggie Ball 2003-2006
It’s tough to put Reggie Ball on this list, but he did put up a lot of yards during his career at Georgia Tech. Ball won the starting job as a true freshman under Chan Gailey, and went on to put up over 8,000 career passing yards as well as over 1,400 yards rushing. With those kinds of numbers, you would think he would be higher on the list. Sadly, Ball was not the most efficient passer despite have a receiving core that included Calvin Johnson. This 5’11” QB threw a record 55 interceptions in his career. His senior season was cut short after he was declared academically ineligible. Ball never finished his degree at Tech.

#4 George Godsey 1998-2001
George Godsey is one of the most efficient passers in Yellow Jacket history. In his two years as a starter, Godsey amassed 6,137 yards through the air, and had a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 40-18. Godsey holds the single season passing record at Georgia Tech with the 3,085 yards he passed for his senior year. Once he finished his college he began a successful coaching career. He has worked with numerous pro and college teams, and is currently a defensive assistant for the Detroit Lions.

#3 Shawn Jones 1989-1992
It’s really hard to put the only quarterback on this list that won a national title anywhere outside the top two, but there is a reason Shawn Jones is third on this list. Shawn Jones did in fact lead Georgia Tech to an 11-0-1 season in 1990 to earn them a national title. He is also second in career passing yards at Georgia Tech (8,441 yards). That being said, Jones had a lackluster touchdown-to-interception ratio of 51-50 during his college career. Still what he accomplished for Georgia Tech cannot be disputed. Winning Tech it’s fourth national title (first since 1952), Shawn Jones Solidified his self as one of the all-time greats for the Ramblin’ Wreck.

#2 Justin Thomas 2013-2016
With Vad Lee deciding to transfer, redshirt sophomore Justin Thomas won the starting job at Tech in 2014. The rest is history. Thomas’ ability to pass had an immediate impact on his opponents. The triple option was hard enough to guard when athletic quarterbacks like Josh Nesbitt and Tevin Washington played, but neither of these quarterbacks possessed the speed and decision making ability of Justin Thomas. In 2014, Thomas passed for 1,719 yards AND rushed for 1,086 yards. This magical season culminated with a dominating performance in the Orange Bowl as Thomas and crew racked up 49 points earning the young quarterback MVP honors. His production did drop the following year, but Thomas bounced back his senior season and led his team to another bowl victory over Kentucky in the Tax Slayer bowl. Thomas is currently a member of the New Orleans Saints, but his position is still unspecified.

#1 Joe Hamilton 1996-1999
At 5’10″, most people did not expect much from this scrappy quarterback, but boy did he prove to be special. 8,882 yards passing, 1,758 yards rushing, and a completion percentage of 61.7% in his career in gold. His numbers are staggering to say the least. Hamilton finished second in the Heisman voting in 1999, and finished his career as the ACC’s all-time leader in total yards (currently ranked fourth). His stature did prevent him from having a successful career in the NFL, but he did find a home in Arena Football as the quarterback for the Orlando Predators. In his three years there, he amassed 9,806 yards passing with a 66.3% completion rating.

Link
https://armchairallamericans.com/history-of-underdogs-quarterbacks-georgia-tech/

Lothridge was maybe the best FOOTBALL player to ever play at GT! People posting on here about the best qbs at GT and leaving off Mike Kelley and Larry Good the two best passers to ever play at Gt need to watch some old film.

 

[Milwaukee]

Lothridge was maybe the best FOOTBALL player to ever play at GT! People posting on here about the best qbs at GT and leaving off Mike Kelley and Larry Good the two best passers to ever play at Gt need to watch some old film.

Never heard of them.

 

[Essobee]

Lothridge was maybe the best FOOTBALL player to ever play at GT! People posting on here about the best qbs at GT and leaving off Mike Kelley and Larry Good the two best passers to ever play at Gt need to watch some old film.

Glad you brought them up. Larry Good way more than lived up to his last name and Mike Kelley was competitive as one of the best pure passers I can recall at Tech.

 

[croberts]

Good piece. The outstanding difference in now vs. then in my mind is the overwhelming size difference with no appreciable dropoff in speed. OG at 230 in those days, now 300+; WBs routinely 225-230 pounds, linebackers out of sight big. (Geez. When you read of a LB at 220 as maybe being "too small" ....?) It is more than diet or training; I just don't know what. Might be something to this evolution "theory", but that is a whole lot over maybe 50 years.

i think guards were more like 200lbs as a 69 program had Tech with two starters over 200lbs with one being Perdoni. I believe the I read somewhere that a Alabama National Championship team mid 60s had no offfensive linemen over 200lbs.

 

[Boomergump]

Glad you brought them up. Larry Good way more than lived up to his last name and Mike Kelley was competitive as one of the best pure passers I can recall at Tech.

We will never know how good Mike Kelley was. He had a good arm for sure. It is just that he was stuck on some GT teams that had the worst records in history.

 

[33jacket]

Interesting no one has brought up that two on this list were in the past decade and under one head coach. The other two on that list we're under one head coach and within four years.

Says A lot about both Paul and George.

 

[forensicbuzz]

This is a generational thing. Kim King should be on that list over someone like Tevin or Reggie. I disagree with the names on the list and the order, for sure.

 

[65Jacket]

Darrell Crawford deserves to be in this discussion. You could argue that he played a big part in putting Bobby Dodd and Tech on the college football map in the early fifties. I saw him play as a kid and was at Tech with Lotheridge. Crawford played in the two-platoon era. Lotheridge was a great all around player. He played during the one platoon era and was our punter/kicker in addition to playing QB.

http://www.georgiatrend.com/August-2002/The-Man-With-The-Golden-Arm/

I sit with Darrell at The Lunchbunch. He is a great guy,I love to hear his stories about his days at GT. When I first met him, he wanted to talk more about my days of running track at Tech than about himself. I believe he is 88 at the present time. His eye sight is poor and he always asks me to read his ticket number to him for the weekly prize drawing. I attended with Lothridge. Both of those guys were great in a time that Tech could recruit with anyone. You can't compare players from different eras.

 

[augustabuzz]

One of the main reasons for smaller lineman was that if your hands were placed on an opponents defensive player, it was a fifteen yard penalty. Speed was more important than size.

 

[GTHomer]

We will never know how good Mike Kelley was. He had a good arm for sure. It is just that he was stuck on some GT teams that had the worst records in history.

True statement! As we were moving into the ACC, we had the worse records in the 80 and 81 seasons in both football and basketball. We were also transitioning from Pepper Rogers and Dwayne Morrison to Bill Curry and Bobby Cremins. I'm glad that things got better later in the decade.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

Lothridge was maybe the best FOOTBALL player to ever play at GT! People posting on here about the best qbs at GT and leaving off Mike Kelley and Larry Good the two best passers to ever play at Gt need to watch some old film.

I meant to mention Mike Kelley too.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

So how many Tech players shoulda won the Heisman but didn't? Castleberry, Crawford, Lothridge, Hamilton......Anyone who thinks that award has ever been anything other than a big program popularity contest is fooling themselves.

 

[Skeptic]

i think guards were more like 200lbs as a 69 program had Tech with two starters over 200lbs with one being Perdoni. I believe the I read somewhere that a Alabama National Championship team mid 60s had no offfensive linemen over 200lbs.

I was thinking of Rufus Guthrie and Billy Shaw. There was another who for the life of me I can't remember but yes, for the day, they were bigger than the "normal" linemen of the day.

 

[GSOJacket]

I was thinking of Rufus Guthrie and Billy Shaw. There was another who for the life of me I can't remember but yes, for the day, they were bigger than the "normal" linemen of the day.

I think the "Magnificent Seven" (Davis, Martin, Griffin, Stallings, Caldwell, Guthrie and Curry) were all over 200 pounds, but not by a lot with the exception of Guthrie, who was listed at 235, if I remember correctly.

 

[awbuzz]

Bottom line is the the more "current" players get the "votes" today because not enough folks never ever saw the players of the past, thus they only vote for what they have seen. Just can't compare players from different eras against each other.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

The only way to compare players from different eras is to compare to their contemporaries and then compare that comparison to other GT players of different eras. It's not very scientific, but it should give you the best idea of who was better in their own time.

So if the question is which GT qb was the best qb of their time, who would win?

Has anybody won the Davey O'Brien award, or it's equivalent, other than Lil' Joe?

 

[33jacket]

i think Joe Hamilton by far for me is an easy #1. Shoulda won the heisman, won davey obrien, helped really turn GT around. He was unstoppable at times folks. And he did it when you were allowed to defend and play real defense. Vs the whimp crap they force on football now.

After that its more up in the air. But Tier 2 probably is a group like Nesbitt, Jet, Godsey, Jones. Then if there are oldtimers I know little about...maybe they are in there too. Billy and Kim King could be tier 2 guys.

Teir 3 for me is a guy like ball and dewberry. I can't put Tevin in my top 10 though. He just wasn't. Even though Ball never beat UGA, he did get us to acc title, beat bigtime teams like Miami, VT on the road etc....so...he is a cut above tevin. Eddie Macashan I know little about. But Tier 3 are guys like Ball, Tevin, Macashan, who ever else I am not aware of...

But its almost impossible to rank them absolutely. You would have trouble arguing with me Nesbitt doesn't belong in the top 5. And Hamiltion is one. The other 3 slots we can debate...I probably put Jet in there just for beating UGA and get to ACC title and dominating the SEC