15 for '15: College football's smartest players

LibertyTurns

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Congrats to Trey, but he should be #2. The fact you can play D1 football, major in Engineering at GT & get good grades is mindboggling to me as I could barely muster the discipline to study before tests and finals.

There's a lot of very deserving, hard working & smart kids on there, but some real boners as well.

C'mon, a UT AE above a GT ME??? Then a ND Liberal Arts bubba as #3????

Crap, there's even a damn Dook Anthropology major on the list. Wow, can't wait to hire one of those next year because our Janitor's retiring.
 

JacketFromUGA

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Congrats to Trey, but he should be #2. The fact you can play D1 football, major in Engineering at GT & get good grades is mindboggling to me as I could barely muster the discipline to study before tests and finals.

There's a lot of very deserving, hard working & smart kids on there, but some real boners as well.

C'mon, a UT AE above a GT ME??? Then a ND Liberal Arts bubba as #3????

Crap, there's even a damn Dook Anthropology major on the list. Wow, can't wait to hire one of those next year because our Janitor's retiring.
While I understand what you're trying to say this sentiment is ultimately detrimental. A person's intelligence and worth is not directly connected to what you think their economic future is.
 

Eastman

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This is well deserved. It is hard to see how you can be both such an excellent student and player but obviously he comes from great stock having such great role models for parents.

Also well deserved were all the UGAG players named! The hard work put into those "learning to read" and "understanding numbers" classes will surely help them provide high quality menus in whatever McDonalds they are hired.
 

cuttysark

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Braun should have been # 1 on the list but the rational for him being # 4 is easily explained:

The # 1 kid; Jordan Italiano from Kent State Has those "Family" connections and with a degree in Chemistry nobody wants to get him or his "Family" upset as that is a very combustible and dangerous combination;

The # 2 kid; Josh Dobbs from Tennessee just had "More Stars" coming out of HS according to the recruiting services so he had to be high up on the list to keep those subscription $$$$'s rolling in from the Vol Nation folks. Besides, he also plays in the SEC, SEC, SEC, and ESPN wanted to have him high up on this list, yet not make the # 1 kid's "Family" angry;

The # 3 kid: IS THE ADMIRAL'S SON! Nuff said. They also wanted to give Notre Dame fans something to crow about as they always sell out every football venue they play a game in, love them or hate them, it's a fact!

They're Notre Dame and a partial ACC Member so I can live with this one. Besides, the Admiral was and is a class act both on and off the court. Go Navy!
 

swampsting

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Isn't the Dobbs kid an aerospace engineering major at UT-K? You know where I'm going with this ... but I like who we have at QB. I wouldn't trade JT for anybody in the country right now.
 

RLR

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While I understand what you're trying to say this sentiment is ultimately detrimental. A person's intelligence and worth is not directly connected to what you think their economic future is.

Couldn't agree more. That said, GPA is a more arbitrary measure of intelligence than economic future, especially when comparing GPA's between schools AND majors. Also, I can't come up with a measure of intelligence that would justify the value/worth of a liberal arts major. I mean at the end of the day, you obtain all of that knowledge by reading, To quote good 'ol Will - "you dropped a hundred and fifty grand on a [yankee adj.] education you coulda' got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the Public Library."

The best definition of intelligence I can come up with is one's ability to improve the human condition. Sure, a good poet can spark a renaissance. But, how does a degree in history, anthropology or comparative religion solve any of the world's problem? Is the Pope going to sit down with the leadership of ISIS and come to a mutual understanding about a subjective difference of belief? Will learning about the Roman Empire lead our government to fund infrastructure improvements and invest in marvelous engineering feats? Yes, world history and understanding and embracing other cultures is important. But intelligence, IMO, requires application of knowledge or application of innate creativity or even application of love. If you look at the "industry" of liberal arts degrees, it's value is all predicated upon the privatization and withholding of knowledge, not its application. This is the very root of many of the world's current problems. So, when it comes to judging the intelligence of people I do not know, based on college major + GPA + touchdowns, yes, I'm giving the nod to Trey Braun, a GT ME with a 4.0 GPA who was a starter on the best (or one of the best) offenses and offensive lines in the nation.

p.s. congrats to every player on this list. regardless of my view, you made the most out of your opportunity and it's an impressive accomplishment.

p.p.s Of all the Georgia Tech undergrad students (all majors) who applied to law school between 2012 - 2014, 1% had a 4.0 and 12% scored 95th percentile or higher on the LSAT. This seems like a pretty astonishing stat. Can an IE confirm its significance?
 

ATL1

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I disagree with this rather insulting list, however nice recognition for Trey.

Dobb's dream school was GT, but he didn't like the offense.
 

LibertyTurns

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While I understand what you're trying to say this sentiment is ultimately detrimental. A person's intelligence and worth is not directly connected to what you think their economic future is.
Sorry, I don't see it that way. STEM programs are more challenging academically and STEM programs at elite institutions are the hardest. I only know one UT Engineering grad and he was a GT 1 & done. He rarely cracked a book at UT and graduated with highest honors & has had a successful career, but maybe he didn't become brilliant until he matured post-GT. Unless someone on here desires to correct me UT's Engineering program is not even close to being on the same level as GT's. The lawyers might argue otherwise and certainly their studies are tough, but you can have all the anthropology-history-english majors you want. Those guys didn't earn their spots on the list- this was some lackey writing an article without any real thought behind it and he did a disservice to many of the real student athletes.
 

danny daniel

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Sorry, I don't see it that way. STEM programs are more challenging academically and STEM programs at elite institutions are the hardest. I only know one UT Engineering grad and he was a GT 1 & done. He rarely cracked a book at UT and graduated with highest honors & has had a successful career, but maybe he didn't become brilliant until he matured post-GT. Unless someone on here desires to correct me UT's Engineering program is not even close to being on the same level as GT's. The lawyers might argue otherwise and certainly their studies are tough, but you can have all the anthropology-history-english majors you want. Those guys didn't earn their spots on the list- this was some lackey writing an article without any real thought behind it and he did a disservice to many of the real student athletes.

There is no doubt that the SHAFT at GT runs sharp and deep, and it raises different and likely much more difficult challenges to the average student. However, after working nearly forty years surrounded by Engineers working on seriously difficult problems I found the Auburn, Clemson, Miss S, and UT engineers to be adequately and competitively schooled (not true of S Carolina and some others) to compete as good members of their technical teams (led by usually a GT grad).
 

forensicbuzz

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I may get flamed for this, but I have 2 engineering degrees from Tech and have worked with engineers from around the country, so I'm comfortable saying this. Georgia Tech's undergraduate engineering education is not necessarily better than the other engineering programs around. Calculus is calculus and physics is physics. The difference is that Tech's undergraduate is the absolutely hardest to get through. The difference between a Tech grad and some from these other programs (not necessarily just in the SE) is the graduate him/herself. The level of effort that Tech grads have to put in to just survive makes a huge difference in what they're willing to put up with once they start working. If you survive Tech, you know you can survive anything, and how to.
 

alaguy

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I may get flamed for this, but I have 2 engineering degrees from Tech and have worked with engineers from around the country, so I'm comfortable saying this. Georgia Tech's undergraduate engineering education is not necessarily better than the other engineering programs around. Calculus is calculus and physics is physics. The difference is that Tech's undergraduate is the absolutely hardest to get through. The difference between a Tech grad and some from these other programs (not necessarily just in the SE) is the graduate him/herself. The level of effort that Tech grads have to put in to just survive makes a huge difference in what they're willing to put up with once they start working. If you survive Tech, you know you can survive anything, and how to.

yep, much like SEAL training for military--only the tough survive to graduate
 

GTNavyNuke

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I can't disagree with you more. STEM does not equate to higher intelligence.

Yeah, I agree. Intelligence is segmented into different categories. Some who can do math can't do communicating .......

Also, I know for a fact that a GT football grad didn't have the grades he was reported to have in the media. He did to start but not finish. Since grades are personal information, they can only be released by the individual. So take everything with a grain of salt in this area. In the end it doesn't matter.

At GT you learn how to bounce off the floor and keep on going. The sympathy you find is between sh!t and syphilis.
 
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