On The Record – Football — Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

On The Record: Jordan Williams, Georgia Tech’s quotable, durable offensive lineman, will make history in Clean, Old Fashioned Hate. But more than an individual record, he’s proud of the strong offensive line play he’s helped restore.

Inside The Chart | By Andy Demetra (The Voice of the Yellow Jackets)

In he strolls, 6-foot-6 and 315 pounds of dimpled, dreadlocked wit, ready to turn the drabness of a weekday press conference into a one-man display of sunshine.

To some Georgia Tech players, a request to speak at a press conference gets treated with the same enthusiasm of a summons for jury duty. Then there’s Jordan Williams, Tech’s fifth-year senior right tackle, who will cheerfully take his turn at the podium and let it fly.

Quips, musings, banter, anecdotes, inner monologues spoken out loud – they all flow guilelessly from the Gainesville, Ga. native, along with plenty of thoughtful responses.  No matter how bland the question, he’s incapable of giving a stock answer. Dullness hates when he walks in a room. Give him a microphone and a few minutes, and he’s bound to spread his personality and positivity.

And yet, what attracted Jordan Williams to Brent Key was… the negativity.

He can’t recall if he had committed to Georgia Tech yet, but in one of his phone conversations with Key during the recruiting process, he knew he had found the school and coach for him.

“You’ve got all these college coaches when you’re getting recruited out of high school, they’re trying to hype you up and everything,” Williams recalled.

Key, on the other hand, went straight to the point.

“He told me that I, like, sucked in high school,” Williams laughed.

“He followed it up by saying that my technique as an offensive lineman has a long way to go, and he basically wanted to be the coach to help me get to where I want to go. Really, that brutal honesty and everything, I was like, ‘Yeah, I need that type of coach in my life,’” he added.

Williams has not only given Tech quotability, but durability during his five seasons on The Flats. When he and the Yellow Jackets take the field on Friday in the 118th installment of Clean, Old Fashioned Hate (7:30 p.m. ET, Georgia Tech Sports Network), Williams is set to make his 52nd career start, tying the school record held by running back Roddy Jones (2008-11).

He opted to play an additional year due to Covid-19, so he knows the asterisk may always…