Akelo "Rolling" Stone makes his way to the portal

[MaverickGT]

No sugar coating this, Huge loss for DL. I guess he's gonna get paid by an SEC team. College Football sucks now, there's almost no point even keeping up with who is on our team anymore. In the blink of an eye, they gone

 

[Ramble1885]

No sugar coating this, Huge loss for DL. I guess he's gonna get paid by an SEC team. College Football sucks now, there's almost no point even keeping up with who is on our team anymore. In the blink of an eye, they gone

I disagree. Because it goes both ways. Those players on the bigger SEC schools who don’t get playing time transfer out and come to us. How do you think we got EJ Jenkins last year? Or Christian Leary this year?

We are also a destination ourselves for G5 talent. Keion White was a transfer from Old Dominion.

college football is not what it was, and I miss that. But I don’t think it’s ruined. We can still keep up if we do this right.

 

[billga99]

the importance of depth is even more important in the NIL era. We will likely never have the financial resources to compete with the SEC and Big Ten. But if we have more players who can compete and get back to 8+ wins per year, I think we can slow outbound transfers down.

 

[TooTall]

And he could return back to GT.

 

[Jim Prather]

And he could return back to GT.

If he is just testing the waters that is true. Given that he appeared to be in line to either start or be a major contributor, I think most people here expect that he has been recruited to go somewhere else.

 

[seanfloyd18]

Given that Akelo was one of Marco’s freshmen that he was most vocally proud of a few years back, and his status as a captain and probable starter / in the rotation for certain, I can’t see this being a “testing the waters” or a “we let him go.”

Also given that we have former DEs at Ole Miss and Colorado, both big NIL transfer destinations, I’d be baffled if this wasn’t some kind of snag by Deion or Lane to add to their also weak interior DLs.

 

[InsideLB]

Maybe we don't need to have spring captains and awards for doing well in spring practice, or at least not till after the portal closes if kids use these things to seek out NIL deals.

 

[LargeFO]

Maybe we don't need to have spring captains and awards for doing well in spring practice, or at least not till after the portal closes if kids use these things to seek out NIL deals.

Yea. This one just rubs me wrong.

 

[Buzztheirazz]

Ouch. Like always

 

[Jerry the Jacket]

No time to worry about it. It’s every man for himself and one game at a time.

Go Jackets!

 

[iceeater1969]

Everyone needs big nasties, & they can now legally provide $$.

Is Coach Key's no bs approach causing guys to rlfeel under appreciated?
Or
Is gt a bottom feeder money wise. ?

 

[bobongo]

Is Coach Key's no bs approach causing guys to rlfeel under appreciated?
Or
Is gt a bottom feeder money wise. ?

I would lay ten to one odds on the latter. At any rate, we don't need a bs coach.

 

[slugboy]

Is Coach Key's no bs approach causing guys to rlfeel under appreciated?
Or
Is gt a bottom feeder money wise. ?

Key has lost players to the portal that campaigned for him to get the job and have publicly said that they think he’s great. I don’t think the players feel under appreciated. I don’t think Stone felt under appreciated.

 

[iceeater1969]

Key has lost players to the portal that campaigned for him to get the job and have publicly said that they think he’s great. I don’t think the players feel under appreciated. I don’t think Stone felt under appreciated.

Maybe Stone thinks we are going have a bad defense
And / Or
Are their way greener NIL pastures than Gt

 

[LongforDodd]

Tampering? Do you actually believe the NCAA is still a viable entity? The NCAA has allowed players to be paid and tampered with for decades. Our fans always ask the wrong questions. The only question is why did this staff let this player get to this point? This doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Every team is and should be recruiting other teams players. The concern for GT is why isn’t our coach able to keep his players? Why do our fans always look for external reasons when negative things happen? It’s always about the man in the mirror.

You don’t like Key, do you?

 

[LargeFO]

Sorta a screw you to us to play the Spring Game as a captain and get an award and then bail 2 days before it’s locked.

 

[AlabamaBuzz]

Is Coach Key's no bs approach causing guys to rlfeel under appreciated?
Or
Is gt a bottom feeder money wise. ?

I think it’s more about the $$. I do think Key is no nonsense, but he knows he can’t “O’Leary” these guys.

 

[iceeater1969]

You don’t like Key, do you?

As you all know i started the "i hate the new coach before he was announced club".
SOW seems like my best candidate to retroactively join after Toe meets leather.

Members of club don’t have to donate or buy tickets because the lead at blaming the " not perfect coach".

 

[Ramble1885]

Is Coach Key's no bs approach causing guys to rlfeel under appreciated?
Or
Is gt a bottom feeder money wise. ?

Probably a mix of both although I don’t think we’re a bottom feeder. We’re probably on par with some other teams in our conference like BC, Duke, Wake, NCST, etc.

 

[MidtownJacket]

All, I moved the side conversation about what NIL has done to the transfer portal, or what the portal did to NIL, or.. well now I’m just confused. The thread about all of it is in the lounge now, if anyone wants to continue that conversation it’s there:

Midtown’s Magic 🎱 @ NIL

No sugar coating this, Huge loss for DL. I guess he's gonna get paid by an SEC team. College Football sucks now, there's almost no point even keeping up with who is on our team anymore. In the blink of an eye, they gone You hit the main point. Players no longer matter. It’s the coaches and...

gtswarm.com

If you have comments specifically around Akelo and his upcoming (likely) departure this is the place to continue them.