AJC cruitin article

4shotB

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I'll quote on of my former coworkers from the track team "you'd have to try to fail"
I think I get what you are driving at. It's discouraging though to cut corners AND still not be succesful. That's the worst of both worlds in my mind. It's that awful middle ground that is unpalatible (imo).
I'm a strong proponent of open-book examinations. In what world are engineers (or anyone, really) required to memorize anything. Tests should probe one's understanding of the subject rather than test your ability to recall formulae and equations. I feel like our institutions of higher learning are failing our youth and not preparing them for the real world.

Just my opinion.

Edit: I know. There's a lot to unpack in those two paragraphs.
A brief response. I agree with you. In cases where formulas are involved, I let the kids have notes or else the formulas are on the board. At first, they are astonished and think the class will therefore be easy. But after the first test, they understand that having the formulas and working the problems are two different things. As a student, I diliked course like anatomy or history that relied heavily on memorization of facts. Sorry for the off topic.
 

GTJeff1975

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idk if those numbers are accurate but at the end of the day i don’t know why a sizable amount of people in here seem to totally disregard the possibility that we make exceptions for our athletes and they are not held to the same standard as the typical student body
I don’t think it’s that we don’t make exceptions (we do and a lot) for our SAs and specifically our FB SAs. The problem is the perception by these kids in HS that this is an exceptionally demanding elite ENGINEERING school (which it is) that would be add too much headache to their NFL aspirations. Look 99% of those 4 & 5 star guys are in “school” to get into a lucrative career in the NFL. It’s gonna take a huge effort from a creative recruiting program that has the resources to let these guys know “Hey the rigors of this school that the normal students are not gonna get in the way of your semi-pro career here. We’ll help you and worse case scenario you have a degree from an elite university”. Collin had the right idea but totally flubbed it’s execution.
 

Ibeeballin

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Not going to link it bc it’s a pc paywall.

We went to Stephenson once in 3 years? Wtf they’ve produced more nfl talent than any other GA hs.

Also a bad look that Westminster hbc was critical. That’s the top school in the state. Buttkicker went there. They aren’t exactly a football power but do produce d1 players from time to time.

You need to come into the 2020s.

Stephenson is not the same Stephenson. Most of the guys find their way up Hwy124 to go play for Grayson. If you think GT has only been to Stephenson once, go read the Javier Morton & Kamari Wilcoxson threads.

Westminster? Lol Westminster not even the 3rd or 4th best team in their own region
 

Ibeeballin

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I’d be really curious to see if you took all of the 2023 recruits in the state Georgia, only the 4 star and 5 star guys, which is like 40 guys depending on what service you look at - how many of them have the academic chops to make passing grades at GT? Half? Less than half?

And I’m not saying they gotta make all A’s, but if they take advantage of tutoring and hustle, they can remain academically eligible while playing football.

Same way sports is specialized, so has academia. These kids know what is need and expected to be academically eligible. Of the 40, 30-35 would have no issue.
 

slugboy

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I'll quote on of my former coworkers from the track team "you'd have to try to fail"
I have known enough scholarship athletes to tried to pass and did not. I think your track friend had their act together and was a good student.
Everything looks easy when you know what you’re doing.

That’s not saying that a fair fraction of the top athletes can’t make it through school with the academic support we have, but there are definitely people that no amount of academic support will be enough for.,
 

4shotB

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Same way sports is specialized, so has academia. These kids know what is need and expected to be academically eligible. Of the 40, 30-35 would have no issue.
Sheesh. Based on my experiences in today's high schools, the "support" sytem in place must be stronger than I expected. OTOH, I have only taught at 2 schools. I have seen a few athletes in my time who were mid major or D1 level but not a single one did I think was cut out for GT or equivalent school. And my current place of employment is widely noted as a top notch academic school (private) that routinely sens students to the best colleges in the US and abroad.

With that being said, I will certainly defer to your opinion over mine as I am merely speculating while you have been there and done that.
 

BainbridgeJacket

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I have known enough scholarship athletes to tried to pass and did not. I think your track friend had their act together and was a good student.
Everything looks easy when you know what you’re doing.
Did you know them before or after flunkgate? If after, and I'm trying to be nice about this, they would have to be exceptionally stupid or intentional to fail. We have a superb academic support system.

It is also 100% completely irrelevant in the NIL and transfer portal era. The guise of student is gone. They're now just athletes. Non- revenue sports, though, still good for us.
 

684Bee

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People act like football players are actually students anymore. NIL baby, they're employees. Class is optional.
1670077179957.jpeg
 

budweisersong404

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While using academics as an excuse for why our program is where it is with recruiting is easy, it doesn’t make it any more true. It’s completely false. Our lack of success in recruiting has nothing to do with academics on 80-90% of NCAA eligible recruits.

Recruiting as a whole has taken off tremendously over the past 10 years. During the last 10 years, we’ve had a coach that ran an offense that did not attract top talent, and then a coach who won 9 games in 3 years. This is not a recipe for recruiting success. Additionally, football spending across the country has hit turbo mode while we have lagged behind.

We have to get past the academic cop out to figure out how to bring this program back to the national stage. Go Jackets!
 

BurdellJacket

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While using academics as an excuse for why our program is where it is with recruiting is easy, it doesn’t make it any more true. It’s completely false. Our lack of success in recruiting has nothing to do with academics on 80-90% of NCAA eligible recruits.

Recruiting as a whole has taken off tremendously over the past 10 years. During the last 10 years, we’ve had a coach that ran an offense that did not attract top talent, and then a coach who won 9 games in 3 years. This is not a recipe for recruiting success. Additionally, football spending across the country has hit turbo mode while we have lagged behind.

We have to get past the academic cop out to figure out how to bring this program back to the national stage. Go Jackets!

HOGWASH!!!
 

85Escape

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I have known enough scholarship athletes to tried to pass and did not. I think your track friend had their act together and was a good student.
Everything looks easy when you know what you’re doing.

That’s not saying that a fair fraction of the top athletes can’t make it through school with the academic support we have, but there are definitely people that no amount of academic support will be enough for.,
I am consistently surprised that while we all admit that people are born with and develop different levels of physical capability and talent, so many try to deny that it is true for mental capability and talent as well.

Some people are just slow and some people are just dumb.🤷‍♂️

And a few of us are both ;)
 

684Bee

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I guess I’m supposed to be impressed that someone with a team of tutors was able to graduate from State U with a degree in African studies. If he would’ve been like most normal students, he’d have come out with 6 figure debt for a pretty much worthless degree. A lot of this is a sham, and we should stop acting like it’s not.
 

Ibeeballin

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I guess I’m supposed to be impressed that someone with a team of tutors was able to graduate from State U with a degree in African studies. If he would’ve been like most normal students, he’d have come out with 6 figure debt for a pretty much worthless degree. A lot of this is a sham, and we should stop acting like it’s not.

Why are you so mad? If you coming out of school with 6 figure debt, that’s not Cardale or any other SA fault. Maybe you and others should’ve been utilizing those tutors so you could’ve been a superior student, so you could’ve received more scholarship money to cover your expenses.
 

roadkill

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Back to the AJC article's take (which I didn't read due to paywall), if the gist is that Ga hs coaches think we need to recruit their schools better, that's a different view than presented in The Athletic's similar article last year. That article was discussed briefly in another thread in our Recruiting forum. They compared TFG to CPJ, and based on their survey of 8 hs coaches, most thought recruiting presence had improved under TFG.
Small sample size though, which can lead to opposite conclusions depending on who you talk to.
 

GoldZ

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idk if those numbers are accurate but at the end of the day i don’t know why a sizable amount of people in here seem to totally disregard the possibility that we make exceptions for our athletes and they are not held to the same standard as the typical student body
I doubt anyone on here thinks we don't make exceptions, otherwise we would be playing Parkview and losing. A better question is: do we make exceptions to our internal AA academic standards. The answer is yes, otherwise we would lose to Western Carolina and Furman frequently, and have the football legacy of Rice. I'm in the camp that believes we should make more exceptions. Most people would make the point that Bama/UGA/Auburn/FSU don't have standards period, albeit probably a slight overstatement. My bottom line after supporting Tech for more than a half century, is we tend to somewhat exaggerate the academic issue, but that it is very real. The gap between our regular students and football players is very significant and at or near the very top of major cFB.
 
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Northeast Stinger

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idk if those numbers are accurate but at the end of the day i don’t know why a sizable amount of people in here seem to totally disregard the possibility that we make exceptions for our athletes and they are not held to the same standard as the typical student body
It’s complicated.
 

jacketup

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Almost none of the players could “get in” on regular standards.

Once they’re in though, all you have to do is show up to class and pay attention and they’ll make the grades to stay eligible.

I was there from 04-06. I’m sure it’s only gotten easier since then.

Not saying it’s dwag or UNC easy, but it’s not as hard as most make it out to be.

We should be able to recruit 90% of the players Bama, ugag, or anyone else recruits. Whether or not they want to come is another story.
This is exactly right. If the kid took and passed the necessary course work in HS, they can get him in. Tech has tended to not take thugs, which doesn't seem to inhibit other schools.

The difference in Tech, and say Clemson, is that they all have to go to class and do some work. But the "have to try to fail" comment is accurate. UNC is not the only place where players were getting credit w/o work, but UNC cared enough to try to fix it. Clemson etc--I'm not sure that they don't turn a blind eye.

Tech now has BS degrees in liberal arts. If your perspective of Tech academics is pre-2000, then your perspective is wrong. It's still hard to make A's, but it's much much harder for a student to flunk out. And maybe survey of calculus is harder than college algebra, but most BA programs require 2 years of foreign language. A lot of us would find survey of calculus to be easier.
 
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