Freshman receiver Eric Singleton Jr. made his first appearance in front of the media after practice on Wednesday. Singleton has five catches and two touchdowns through his first two collegiate games and he is expected to start at wide receiver on the road at Ole Miss with Chase Lane out this week.
Singleton said that his approach has been to stay humble and ready as the key to his early success as a true freshman on the field in the ACC.
"Really I'm just trying to take every opportunity I get and just take advantage of it and make a play every time my name is called," he said.
From the summer workouts on, Singleton was gaining praise from his teammates. He said he set simple goals for himself and just kept working to put himself in a position to get on the field.
"I really was just trying to work my way up the depth chart so I could see the field," he said. "During the summer it was an OMG moment for me because I had to get adapted to everything but once I adapted it started clicking."
Given the fact he was a two-star recruit on Rivals and didn't have the offers he thought he should have out of high school, Singleton said there has been some joy in his early success on the field.
"I'm definitely trying to show the world who I am and make as many plays as I can," he said.
MORE FROM SINGLETON
Singleton told me the reason Chase Lane had to tell him to celebrate the TD in the first game was because the team was losing and he said there is no celebration if we are losing, I'll only celebrate a play if we are winning.
He said that Coach Crawford is a great guy and he is very knowledgeable and he came from a great program at WKU and once he got here he has been clicking with the WR room.
He said the whole WR room welcomed him with open arms when he got to GT.
Singleton said he met Haynes King on one of his unofficial visits to GT and they bonded quickly and he is a really good guy.
KYLE KENNARD
On being the ACC DL of the week, It is great, I haven’t received recognition like that in a long time.
They have great competitors like they see every week, a big group of guys up front and it is going to be fun going up against them.
Kennard said they are treating this game the same as any other, it is a business trip.
On watching the 2022 Ole Miss game, We watched film on it and talked about the game briefly. However both teams are very different than last year and GT is a completely different team than the one that played Ole Miss last year and they have new faces too. They are focused on looking at them from this year.
Kennard said the tempo is something they can take away from last year, they are one of the fastest teams in the country and look even faster operationally compared to 2022 on film.
Kennard said the DTs are coming along and CMC has taught them some new techniques and it is a completely different coaching style from (Larry Knight) and they are getting better week to week.
Kennard said seeing the tempo that Buster Faulkner likes to run should help them some this week and it is more like the Tech offense than either of the teams they've faced so far this year so he hopes that helps them be better prepared.
LAMILES BROOKS
Brooks said the Ole Miss tempo is among the fastest in the country outside of Tennessee and the old UCF offense. He said they are in shape and have been practicing the tempo and he feels like they are prepared for it.
On DBs helping in the run game, that is something they harp on no matter who the opponent is and Ole Miss has a really great RB, great receivers and a really good QB so they are not going to be doing anything out of the ordinary to stop the running back only, but they have to keep their eyes on the right keys and execute.
Brooks said last year's game is in the past and they have not really talked about it even amongst themselves.
Brooks said the secondary tackling was a little bit of week one struggles and they were the victims of that and you see a big jump to week two and they are trying to improve from there as well. The goal under Coach Key is to improve each week in all phases.
Brooks said he is viewing this as another game and it is their first away game against a SEC opponent with a good crowd so it will be a little different, but he isn't viewing the game any differently from any other one.
Brooks said there has been no trash talk yet with former teammates at Ole Miss now, but he expects some on the field on Saturday.
JAMAL HAYNES
I asked him about how his body feels after playing so much RB in the first two weeks, he said that the coaches harp on them to stay in the training room as much as they can and he is taking more hits but he put on some pounds and did extra lifting to prepare himself for that and that has been very valuable. He hasn't noticed much of a difference in how he feels compared to the past after a few games.
Haynes said he didn't look at his stats after the game on Saturday because he just cares about the win and he has always been a guy with that mindset, how can I help the team win and that is his goal. It is all about winning.
Haynes said he expects Ole Miss to be aggressive upfront attacking but if he can make that first defender miss he thinks there will be some room to break off some big runs. He said the OL has been doing a great job up front.
Haynes said his comfort level at RB is at a 10 on a 1-10 scale right now. Once he got used to the first few live snaps he was ready to go and his comfort improved tremendously from the first game to the second one.
Singleton said that his approach has been to stay humble and ready as the key to his early success as a true freshman on the field in the ACC.
"Really I'm just trying to take every opportunity I get and just take advantage of it and make a play every time my name is called," he said.
From the summer workouts on, Singleton was gaining praise from his teammates. He said he set simple goals for himself and just kept working to put himself in a position to get on the field.
"I really was just trying to work my way up the depth chart so I could see the field," he said. "During the summer it was an OMG moment for me because I had to get adapted to everything but once I adapted it started clicking."
Given the fact he was a two-star recruit on Rivals and didn't have the offers he thought he should have out of high school, Singleton said there has been some joy in his early success on the field.
"I'm definitely trying to show the world who I am and make as many plays as I can," he said.
MORE FROM SINGLETON
Singleton told me the reason Chase Lane had to tell him to celebrate the TD in the first game was because the team was losing and he said there is no celebration if we are losing, I'll only celebrate a play if we are winning.
He said that Coach Crawford is a great guy and he is very knowledgeable and he came from a great program at WKU and once he got here he has been clicking with the WR room.
He said the whole WR room welcomed him with open arms when he got to GT.
Singleton said he met Haynes King on one of his unofficial visits to GT and they bonded quickly and he is a really good guy.
KYLE KENNARD
On being the ACC DL of the week, It is great, I haven’t received recognition like that in a long time.
They have great competitors like they see every week, a big group of guys up front and it is going to be fun going up against them.
Kennard said they are treating this game the same as any other, it is a business trip.
On watching the 2022 Ole Miss game, We watched film on it and talked about the game briefly. However both teams are very different than last year and GT is a completely different team than the one that played Ole Miss last year and they have new faces too. They are focused on looking at them from this year.
Kennard said the tempo is something they can take away from last year, they are one of the fastest teams in the country and look even faster operationally compared to 2022 on film.
Kennard said the DTs are coming along and CMC has taught them some new techniques and it is a completely different coaching style from (Larry Knight) and they are getting better week to week.
Kennard said seeing the tempo that Buster Faulkner likes to run should help them some this week and it is more like the Tech offense than either of the teams they've faced so far this year so he hopes that helps them be better prepared.
LAMILES BROOKS
Brooks said the Ole Miss tempo is among the fastest in the country outside of Tennessee and the old UCF offense. He said they are in shape and have been practicing the tempo and he feels like they are prepared for it.
On DBs helping in the run game, that is something they harp on no matter who the opponent is and Ole Miss has a really great RB, great receivers and a really good QB so they are not going to be doing anything out of the ordinary to stop the running back only, but they have to keep their eyes on the right keys and execute.
Brooks said last year's game is in the past and they have not really talked about it even amongst themselves.
Brooks said the secondary tackling was a little bit of week one struggles and they were the victims of that and you see a big jump to week two and they are trying to improve from there as well. The goal under Coach Key is to improve each week in all phases.
Brooks said he is viewing this as another game and it is their first away game against a SEC opponent with a good crowd so it will be a little different, but he isn't viewing the game any differently from any other one.
Brooks said there has been no trash talk yet with former teammates at Ole Miss now, but he expects some on the field on Saturday.
JAMAL HAYNES
I asked him about how his body feels after playing so much RB in the first two weeks, he said that the coaches harp on them to stay in the training room as much as they can and he is taking more hits but he put on some pounds and did extra lifting to prepare himself for that and that has been very valuable. He hasn't noticed much of a difference in how he feels compared to the past after a few games.
Haynes said he didn't look at his stats after the game on Saturday because he just cares about the win and he has always been a guy with that mindset, how can I help the team win and that is his goal. It is all about winning.
Haynes said he expects Ole Miss to be aggressive upfront attacking but if he can make that first defender miss he thinks there will be some room to break off some big runs. He said the OL has been doing a great job up front.
Haynes said his comfort level at RB is at a 10 on a 1-10 scale right now. Once he got used to the first few live snaps he was ready to go and his comfort improved tremendously from the first game to the second one.
