Georgia Tech Football: Major Takeaways from Quarterback Press Conference

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are in the training camp phase of the 2026-27 college football season, with a lot of position groups yet to be figured out. The quarterback coaching and position battle is a major part of that.

Georgia Tech Football: Major Takeaways from Quarterback Press Conference

It appears that Alberto Mendoza is clearly in the lead for the starting job, with much discussion surrounding him. He hasn’t started a game since high school, yet he already has the comparisons to a Heisman-winning brother to go through, along with a pro-style scheme with some NFL ties. Georgia Tech quarterback Chris Weinke is trying to work with Mendoza as much as possible, and he shared more about the scheme and Mendoza’s development.

The Playbook is Deep

George Godsey has fine-tuned his offensive scheme through several seasons in the NFL, coaching from 2011-25. As a result, his offensive scheme has a lot of NFL roots. That pro-style offensive scheme will come through at Georgia Tech.

“Typically, in the college landscape or football, you’re going to probably get 3 to 5 personnel groups,” said Weinke. “We’re going to have 12 to 15 personnel groups. Okay. In most offenses in college, you’re going to get 6 to 8 formations. We’re going to have 20 to 25 formations. In a typical college offense, you’re going to probably have 80 to 100 plays in your offense. Okay. We’ll probably have 250.”

Georgia Tech is trying to take advantage of a wave of NFL, pro-style offensive coordinators coming to college football with the hire of Godsey. Still, 250 plays is more than double what the average offense runs in a game, and that can be difficult for a college quarterback.

For the 20-year-old Mendoza, having a quarterbacks coach like Weinke, who’s won the Heisman at Florida State and has developed Haynes King, is key for his development. Chandler Whitmer, his quarterback coach at Indiana, who’s currently the quarterbacks coach for the Buccaneers, has helped as well.

“They’re both very good quarterback coaches, very smart. Going to detail it out for you,” Alberto Mendoza said when discussing Weinke and his former quarterback coach, Chandler Whitmer. “(They’re) going to detail it out for you. (They’re) going to let you know what to do in every situation.”

It’s a complicated offense in a league full of revolving talent, but that feeds into the next point.

Alberto Has Something Major in Common With Fernando

Alberto Mendoza has more in common with Fernando than just his last name. We saw a couple of times that he has similar mobility to Fernando, but coach Weinke lauded his intelligence and processing.

“I think he’s obviously one of the smarter quarterbacks I’ve been around,” said Weinke. “He’s a perfectionist. This guy will not go into a test without being prepared and having the answers to the test before the test, so you love that in the quarterback.” That’s high praise for Mendoza, who hasn’t played in a college football game yet.

Mendoza understands the value of having a bigger playbook, and he even embraces it.

“I mean, we’re trying to create mismatches, right? Coach Godsey talks about how we’re striving for perfection every day, and we are. And, well, how can we be perfect? Well, part of that onus is put on the quarterback because we’re not just going to go up to the line and call a play. I call it call it and haul it. We’re not going to do that. We’re going to put the onus on the quarterback to get us into a good play. So, you know, we could go through the course of a game and have a check with 50-percent of our plays, right, to get us into the right play. Well, that takes a lot of studying. You’ve got to know what you’re looking at,” said Mendoza.

Major Influences from Fernando

Mendoza has earned some help from his brother on how to deal with a pro-style offense, since Fernando’s running something similar with Klint Kubiak.

“It’s funny because he’s learning a very big scheme with coach Kubiak, who’s done an amazing job and we talked about some of the same protections, some of the same concepts,” said Alberto. “They’re both NFL guys, our offensive coordinator. So just comparing those things, it’s kind of funny, you know?”

At some point, the comparisons will come between Alberto and his brother Fernando. Time will tell if he lives up to them, but Fernando’s biggest strength coming into draft time was his processing and intelligence. He was able to play in rhythm and had the processing to make Mike Shanahan’s scheme work at Indiana. With Alberto sharing that intelligence, I think he can do that at Georgia Tech.