I had a great time today. Man I'm going to enjoy being back in Atlanta. Gotta call out Nuke. Where were you man? Lex? What is up?
It was great to meet AWBuzz, BUzz wiser, and Fat Pat. Get this. Fat Pat's wife is the older sister of a fraternity brother of mine. Small world. We laughed a good bit at some old stories.
After leaving the parking deck to stand in line, I met Brandon Oliver's parents. Man were they awesome. Dad is a football coach, a DC no less. Needless to say I asked him how he would defend this offense. He started his response by shaking his head. Bottom line, he thinks it is every defensive coach's nightmare. He is very high on both QBs we have vying for the starting job.
Upon entering the stadium I met the following position groups Safeties, OL, LBs, and BBs. I didn't have the patience to wait in some of the lines. I can't tell you how proud I am of the guys we have representing us on the roster. They are well composed gentlemen. I deal with a lot of young people (athletes) in my life and I can tell you we are bringing in quality kids. I shook everybody's hand and had some good brief conversations. I asked some tough questions at times. These kids are positive and ready to go. They will be easy to root for. I would say the most shy kid of all was Shamire Devine. Go figure. He was the biggest guy in the house, after all.
I was on the way out when I really had the highlight of may day. I just happened to run into coach Sisk and I asked him about a former strength coach that I knew at TECH. He had heard of him but didn't know him. Anyway, we must have talked about 15 minutes without interruption. We talked about some of the kids, his methods and philosophies etc. Out of respect for him and the privacy of our talk I will not go into individual players. I will just say this, I am very high on him and I am sure he has been impacting the program in a positive way. If you knew what he is putting the kids through and all of what they have to do academically as well, you would have some new found respect for sure.
I was just about to leave when I saw Roddy Jones hanging out without much of a crowd around him. I had to go meet him. We also talked about 15 min or so. If you didn't already know it, that kid is impressive and he is heading places. He was as genuinely warm and humble as any person I have ever met. I encouraged him about his new gig. Obviously he is excited, but like anybody just getting started, he has his doubts. I ensured him he was a natural and that he would be awesome. I can't wait to have a player with inside knowledge of the offense to provide color. I told him how excited I was to be back in GA so I could attend games, and God bless him, he acted as if he was excited for me to be back! He has a gift for making people feel special. What a gentleman! I am so proud that he represents our beloved program.