ATLANTA – Haynes King let somebody down?
Georgia Tech Associate AD Mike Flynn tells the story of the time the quarterback kept him and some other staffers waiting over an hour in the athletic offices to do a quick promo after King earned the Pop-Tarts ‘Crazy Good’ Play of the Week last season. The guy always had time for the communications team for promos, interview requests, whatever the case may be. Maybe he was getting a big head after his miracle game-winner in Miami?
King finally showed and was quick with the apologies. He had been at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta hospital painting pumpkins with some patients and lost track of time.
“Can’t he even let me get mad at him once?” Flynn laughs as he tells the story.
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Talk to enough people around Georgia Tech, and you will find very few people that can get mad at King. His story is part Texas legend, part disappointment, part redemption. He also projects to be one of the best quarterbacks in the ACC next season and the key to Georgia Tech reaching back-to-back bowl games for the first time since the end of its 18-year bowl streak from 1997-2014.
Not that King sees back-to-back bowls as even a goal.
“Looking at the big picture, obviously we want to do better than last year,” King said when asked about 2024. “Secondly, we don’t see why we can’t be playing for the national championship here. With the players we have, with the staff we have, we don’t see why we won’t be playing in it.”
Haynes King is a Longview legend
The Haynes King story starts in Longview, Tex., an east Texas town that is closer to Shreveport, La., than Dallas. His dad, John King, was head coach of the Longview Lobos, a program that takes its football rather seriously. The team’s website has results of games dating back to 1909 (not a typo).
The quarterback job was not going to be handed to the coach’s son, even if Haynes spent countless hours essentially growing up in the field house, as his father says. Toughness was going to be required, and he would not have a head start on the competition.
Haynes says his father used to tell him in middle school he wasn’t sure Haynes was going to be tough enough to run the I, dive-option, power football he favored. There’s only one quarterback, John would say. If you’re not the best one, you’re not going to play.
But Haynes was tough enough, and he was the best quarterback. And the Lobos started to win. And win. And win. As a junior, Haynes would help his dad break through with his first Texas state championship after falling short in two others earlier in his career. The Lobos took home the Class 6A Division II crown, the largest classification in the state. It was the first state title for Longview since 1937, and it is safe to say his hometown has not forgotten.
GEORGIA TECH TOUCHDOWN WITH A SECOND LEFT pic.twitter.com/r99N5CvcQW
— 🇧🇹 Sickos Committee 🇧🇹 (@SickosCommittee) October 8, 2023
“When you win a state championship here, you don’t outgrow that,” said Jack Stallard, sports editor of the Longview News-Journal. “He still has a lot of fans here.”
“It is just different,” King says of Texas high school football. “The whole community is going to be behind you. And it definitely shows in East Texas going to road games, how well your fans will travel. Sometimes we’d be going to Dallas and playing a Dallas school and have more people in the stands than they did. Everybody is taking that trip – students, parents, grandparents, sometimes people who don’t have anything related to the school. They are still going to watch the games.
“The further you go in the playoffs, people just start rolling in and rolling in. Half the time, they didn’t even go to your school, it is just the surrounding areas that come behind it. It is something special.”
The Texas kid with the football coach for a dad decided to stay in-state for college and play at a passionate program longing for another star quarterback like Johnny Manziel. The stage was set for King to continue his ascent at Texas A&M. Only it didn’t happen.
The short version of King’s time at Texas A&M – it did not work out.
The longer version is filled with learning, injuries, some highlights, more injuries, and finally some benchings. After three seasons, five starts, a broken leg, two quarterbacks coaches and the arrow trending in the wrong direction for his personal success and that of the team, King decided to enter the transfer portal.
John King was not in favor at first.
“I told him unless the coaching staff leaves or you graduate, you are not transferring,” John King said.
So King worked to graduate in just three years, and with Conner Weigman named QB1 it was time to look around and see if he could find a new home.
Haynes King lands at Georgia Tech
The first coach to reach out to him in the portal was one that had tried to lure him out of Texas once before. Chris Weinke, former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback at Florida State, developed a strong relationship with Haynes and John when he was an assistant at Tennessee during Haynes’ high school recruitment. Weinke knew it was going to be hard to get him out of the Lone Star State, but he worked it as best he could. King eventually made the difficult call to Weinke to tell him he was going to Texas A&M.
“I told him I’ll be your biggest fan and you are going to do great things, but someday, you are going to play for me,” Weinke said. “That’s the last thing I said to him. It is kind of crazy.”
When King hit the portal, Weinke had moved on to Georgia Tech, and he says he was not letting King say ‘no’ to him twice. There was a visit to Arizona State, during which Weinke continued to text, but eventually King signed with the Yellow Jackets, where he would have three years of eligibility remaining.
King didn’t win the starting job until late August, but once he did, he stepped forward as the clear leader of the offense and the team. He has the ability to run, but when he leaves the pocket, he’s still trying to make a play downfield. King does not shy away from contact, and is deceptively fast. He ran for 737 yards and 10 TDs in addition to his ACC-best 27 passing touchdowns. He threw 16 picks last season, the most among Power 5 QBs, but the staff loves his aggressiveness. And they know they have John’s blessing when they coach him hard. That’s how John, who flies to every Saturday game with his wife Jodie after competing on Friday nights, coached Haynes himself.
Georgia Tech coaches describe him as even-keeled through all the ups and downs a game and season can present. In their biggest moment of the 2023 season, the stunning 23-20 upset at No. 17 Miami, it was King’s cool during a chaotic finish that led to the win. When Miami failed to take a knee and run the clock out with 33 seconds left, and subsequently fumbled, the adrenaline on the Tech sideline went through the roof.
“It was electric,” King said. “Everybody was all over the place. I had to settle them down. You just have to take the field with confidence.”
King fired a sensational 30-yard pass to Malik Rutherford to the Miami 44-yard-line, then spiked the ball. With 10 seconds left, King was forced out of the pocket and was about to throw the ball away for a final snap when he saw Christian Leary breaking free deep. He threw a dart, and Georgia Tech had the winning touchdown with one second left.
GEORGIA TECH TOUCHDOWN WITH A SECOND LEFT pic.twitter.com/r99N5CvcQW
— 🇧🇹 Sickos Committee 🇧🇹 (@SickosCommittee) October 8, 2023
That was one of three come-from-behind wins in the season’s second half, including a 30-17 Gasparilla Bowl win over UCF in which Tech trailed 17-3. But it wasn’t the comeback that impressed Key. It was the fact that King entered the game within arm’s length of three Georgia Tech single-season passing records, but only threw 13 passes and didn’t break any.
“We ran the ball 27 straight times at the end of the game,” Key said. “And he loved every minute of it. That shows the unselfishness of that kid, putting the team first.”
King lingered outside the tunnel long after the game, jumping up to high-five Tech fans at Raymond James Stadium. There was a pure joy he didn’t experience at Texas A&M, and he hopes to have more of this season.
With loads of experience back and an ACC that is in some flux after Florida State and Clemson at the top, Georgia Tech has a chance to be knocking on the door of an ACC championship game appearance. The team’s Week 0 opener in Ireland against reloading Florida State could set the trajectory of the season.
The coach’s son is not looking ahead. He knows Georgia Tech needs to polish its fundamentals in spring practice. He knows there will be summer workouts. He knows there is a preseason camp where jobs will be won and lost. He’s the quarterback, but predictably, he sees things as a coach.
“His football IQ, it is as good as any player I’ve been around my entire career as a player or coach,” Weinke said. “But he doesn’t stop working at it. He’s always looking for an edge. Those guys who keep working at it are winners. We go as Haynes goes. We can’t be more excited about what the future holds with him at the helm.”
