FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — There’s no questioning Josh Nesbitt‘s leadership. The junior quarterback guided No. 9 Georgia Tech to an ACC championship this season and a trip to Miami for the 2010 FedEx Orange Bowl on Jan. 5 against No. 10 Iowa.
But what makes this more compelling is where Nesbitt was just two years ago, when Paul Johnson was hired from Navy as Georgia Tech’s head coach.
At that time, Nesbitt was an unknown commodity. Not only had he not seen the field in college, but according to quarterbacks/B-backs coach Brian Bohannon, the 6-1 signal-caller struggled with three-step and five-step drops, both of which are essential to a quarterback’s success in the passing game.
Bohannon summed up what Nesbitt has done in a span of two years as “a transformation.”
“He is physically as impressive as you’ll see,” Bohannon said. “He works extremely hard in the weight room in the off-season. What’s it done is now that he understands his role in this offense, he’s become a very, very tough runner. Hard to tackle.”
In two years, Nesbitt went from a player who rarely saw the field to one his teammates believe is as tough as they get.
With the spread option attack offense run by the Yellow Jackets, Nesbitt has put up remarkable numbers on the ground for a quarterback. In 13 games this season, he has posted 991 rushing yards on 259 carries and rushed for 18 touchdowns.
To put that into perspective, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow has 859 yards rushing this season, and Alabama running back Mark Ingram, who won the 2009 Heisman Trophy, only crossed the goalline 15 times on the ground.
The one attribute his teammates and coaches say Nesbitt has is toughness.
“He has really just taken this team on his back,” junior center Sean Bedford said. ”You look at the number of times he gets hit in this offense, I’d love to see any other quarterback take the beating he does and make it through the season.
“He’s the toughest player I’ve ever been around.”
If that isn’t enough to prove Nesbitt’s leadership, he also threw for 1,689 yards passing and 10 touchdowns in addition to his success in Georgia Tech’s running game.
In fact, some of his teammates have even witnessed Nesbitt throw a football anywhere between 60-75 yards from his knees.
“Josh has got a strong arm,” junior wide receiver Demaryius “Bay-Bay” Thomas said. “He knows where to put [the ball] at. We worked over the summer a lot and it actually paid off a lot this year.”
Last season, when Nesbitt became the Yellow Jackets’ starting quarterback, he did enough to lead Georgia Tech to an appearance in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl against LSU. He said the missed opportunities he had last season, along with a desire to win, motivated him in the off-season to evolve into the type of leader his team could rely on. A leader who can take his team to an ACC title and BCS bowl.
“I feel like last year, I could’ve seen some things across from me and done some things to turn the team around,” Nesbitt said. “I didn’t do it, and this year, I felt like I needed to take advantage of all those moments.”
