GA TECH IS BUZZING! | FOOTBALL HOTBED | NATIONAL UNDERCLASSMEN SHOWCASE ..

[Whiskey_Clear]

Tech is landlocked with the explosion in midtown. They can definitely renovate older buildings and dorms to be taller, issue is that off campus housing is cheaper, so there really isn’t a need to do it. Renovating costs money and college is already rediculously expensive, and the desire to not raise costs to keep techs ROi and best selling point alive.

I’m not as focused on housing them as having enough space to teach them in classes. Ton of great students in metro Atl would be happy to commute if they could but get accepted.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

Anyone that cannot acknowledge the limitations that Tech has WRT recruiting is living in a fantasy world. (Hell, Bobby Dodd knew that half a century ago.....and that was before the APR) That does not mean that they cannot it cannot be overcome to some degree........but thinking the floodgates will open simply because of a new coach and "hype" is silly. Telling kids to switch their desired major in order to play football will turn off more than it will turn on. Been there, done that.

I think @Ibeeballin hit the nail on the head as to what extent recruiting can improve.

Believing we are about to sign consecutive top 20 classes for the next 10 years is a fantasy anyone outside Tech fandom would ridicule.

 

[jojatk]

Same old tired misdirection argument.
It is NOT a matter of getting admitted.
The primary issue are 1) The limited number of degree programs and the requirement for calculus. 2) The recruit actually wanting to "play school"
Those have been and remain the limiting factors regarding recruiting.
Changing the head coach has not changed that.
Increasing the staff budget will help find a few more needles in the haystack.
Kids that have NFL ingrained in their head or whispered in their ear will be looking for turf management and parks and recs degree programs that they can coast through,

You are correct that the limited number of degree programs and the requirement for calc of some kind are limitations to some kids. And yes, there are a great many who don't want to "play school," as you put it. But I think you've under-estimated how many needles there are out there and what a coach and his staff can do to uncover some of those needles that didn't even know they were needles before. I'm not saying there are just oodles and oodles of kids out there who are suddenly going to be able to hack it at GT. What I'm saying is that there's quite a lot of help available to help athletes get through GT. And if our coaches efforts can help convince some kids who have good work ethic that it's worth expending some of that on using the help available to them academically then you'll see a lot more talented kids wanting to come to GT. I'm not necessarily talking about ready-made NFL kids. I don't doubt that you're right that a large percentage of those kids who are highly graded 5* kids won't be interested in what we've got but I think there are going to be those who are mid to high level 4* kids who will be interested but haven't been given any reason to feel it's worth it. And our new coaches are working extremely hard to start changing that perception. I think there are plenty of kids who have a lot of football talent (again, I'm not talking about the kids that Bama, Clemson, UGA, Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio State, etc... are all fighting for who are ESPN top 100 kids) who are willing to put in work to get interesting degrees and play in ATL with the vision of being relevant in college football.

I thought Brent Key's way of summing up what's cool about getting a degree from GT was fantastic. Did more than half of the room get it? Probably not. But when Brent Key, former GT player and former Alabama coach says it it carries weight and some kids listen. And possibly more importantly those mentors from the high schools and the programs where these kids go to get seen are listening. When they see kids that would fit they will be more likely to get them thinking about GT and that's huge. I should say that for the last 5 years I've had a kid in HS (and will for another 3 years) that produces a number of D1 players every year and both my kids have known and know some of those players. Some of them definitely fit the description of the kids who don't want to "play school" but some of them don't. So I'm basing my thoughts on what I see from the outside but also what I hear from talking to my kids about their friends.

 

[smathis30]

I’m not as focused on housing them as having enough space to teach them in classes. Ton of great students in metro Atl would be happy to commute if they could but get accepted.

Same things apply to housing as they do academic buildings, but they’d need even more space

 

[Animal02]

You are correct that the limited number of degree programs and the requirement for calc of some kind are limitations to some kids. And yes, there are a great many who don't want to "play school," as you put it. But I think you've under-estimated how many needles there are out there and what a coach and his staff can do to uncover some of those needles that didn't even know they were needles before. I'm not saying there are just oodles and oodles of kids out there who are suddenly going to be able to hack it at GT. What I'm saying is that there's quite a lot of help available to help athletes get through GT. And if our coaches efforts can help convince some kids who have good work ethic that it's worth expending some of that on using the help available to them academically then you'll see a lot more talented kids wanting to come to GT. I'm not necessarily talking about ready-made NFL kids. I don't doubt that you're right that a large percentage of those kids who are highly graded 5* kids won't be interested in what we've got but I think there are going to be those who are mid to high level 4* kids who will be interested but haven't been given any reason to feel it's worth it. And our new coaches are working extremely hard to start changing that perception. I think there are plenty of kids who have a lot of football talent (again, I'm not talking about the kids that Bama, Clemson, UGA, Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio State, etc... are all fighting for who are ESPN top 100 kids) who are willing to put in work to get interesting degrees and play in ATL with the vision of being relevant in college football.

I thought Brent Key's way of summing up what's cool about getting a degree from GT was fantastic. Did more than half of the room get it? Probably not. But when Brent Key, former GT player and former Alabama coach says it it carries weight and some kids listen. And possibly more importantly those mentors from the high schools and the programs where these kids go to get seen are listening. When they see kids that would fit they will be more likely to get them thinking about GT and that's huge. I should say that for the last 5 years I've had a kid in HS (and will for another 3 years) that produces a number of D1 players every year and both my kids have known and know some of those players. Some of them definitely fit the description of the kids who don't want to "play school" but some of them don't. So I'm basing my thoughts on what I see from the outside but also what I hear from talking to my kids about their friends.

You are being to reasonable and level headed for this board. You will soon be accused of not buying into the hype enough.
I agree pretty much with what you have said.....yes the kids are out there......until the last few months, there has not been the staff or the $$$$ to search out and find those kids.....IMO, I think we would have a better shot at landing some upper level kids by recruiting in the NE corridor and the midwest.....the one thing Tech has to those kids is the WEATHER. Competing head to head with the factory schools in the SEC will always leave us short. The posters that think we will be in the top 25 recruiting all the time IMO are fooling themselves. Can we move up a dozen spots from where we have been sure.......the extra staff and $$$$ to recruit will pretty much guarantee it.

 

[Animal02]

Same things apply to housing as they do academic buildings, but they’d need even more space

And then there is the parking issue as well.

 

[jojatk]

You are being to reasonable and level headed for this board. You will soon be accused of not buying into the hype enough.
I agree pretty much with what you have said.....yes the kids are out there......until the last few months, there has not been the staff or the $$$$ to search out and find those kids.....IMO, I think we would have a better shot at landing some upper level kids by recruiting in the NE corridor and the midwest.....the one thing Tech has to those kids is the WEATHER. Competing head to head with the factory schools in the SEC will always leave us short. The posters that think we will be in the top 25 recruiting all the time IMO are fooling themselves. Can we move up a dozen spots from where we have been sure.......the extra staff and $$$$ to recruit will pretty much guarantee it.

I'll try to hide my "reasonability" a bit better so I don't out myself too quickly...

I also completely agree that the extra staff and moola being spent are critical factors without which all the efforts would likely go for naught. I think you're going to see an expansion of the number of kids we can look at far and wide. It's not that CPJ and his staff didn't look in the same areas. But there's no way they could have focused enough attention on enough areas with the undersized and underfunded staff they had to do so. But with that additional money and people we can focus on more kids than before and that will pay dividends. I'm not sure we can be top 25 recruiting all the time, either. But I think we can be some of the time and if that translates to wins, and it should, then perhaps we become more of a fixture in the top 25 rankings every year. Our Coastal competitors have upped their game and now so have we in terms of investment. Hopefully we've got some excellent football minds on the staff to go with the incredibly gifted communicators and recruiters and if we can take a step up and help raise the level of competition in the Coastal and make it less of a laughing stock that people perceive it to be then who knows where we go from there but it should be in the upward trend. My expectation is that we should be looking at winning at least 8-9 games per year on average and beating UGA periodically (I'm not suggesting we should win 8-9 games THIS year). I don't generally feel that we'll be in the playoff conversation much but I hope I'm wrong.

 

[smathis30]

And then there is the parking issue as well.

West campus lots aren’t full with cars and tech is moving to a campus without Robards to drive on, so parking is a non issue

 

[GoldZ]

If it is that hard to get elite athletes into Tech academically, why did CPJ offer the majority of top recruits in metro Atlanta and the state of GA as well? Surely he wouldn't have offered them if they couldn't qualify or if he didn't think they could stay eligible. Imagine, for a moment that you are overstating the challenge. Then, maybe the high hopes won't seem so unreasonable.

Conditional offers smokey. Don't fall for the NTCollins baloney. We will definitely attract more kids without the TO, especially with the energy of CGC and staff. and what TStan is doing---however, the education in Fulton is still subpar (much less for football players)---the numbers are shocking and sad beyond belief among the demographic that includes the best, by far, players. It's even worse in Miss, SC, La, and Ala. There's a reason why our football player SATs are high (at one time the highest in D-1 public schools), while at the same time our differential between SAT scores of players vs regular students is also high (maybe also the highest in D-1).
What is of real interest is how we will net out losing the advantages of the TO vs improved recruiting while playing the same system as everybody else.

 

[takethepoints]

Conditional offers smokey. Don't fall for the NTCollins baloney. We will definitely attract more kids without the TO, especially with the energy of CGC and staff. and what TStan is doing---however, the education in Fulton is still subpar (much less for football players)---the numbers are shocking and sad beyond belief among the demographic that includes the best, by far, players. It's even worse in Miss, SC, La, and Ala. There's a reason why our football player SATs are high (at one time the highest in D-1 public schools), while at the same time our differential between SAT scores of players vs regular students is also high (maybe also the highest in D-1).
What is of real interest is how we will net out losing the advantages of the TO vs improved recruiting while playing the same system as everybody else.

Eggsackley. And, as Techster says, we'll know more about that in 2 - 3 years. I'm hoping that getting a more robust infrastructure for recruiting (I know, I know; hire a hall) and a new coaching staff will pay off to put us ahead of the game directly. Problem = as we turn up the heat, so will our opponents. It really is an arms race and we are presently way behind in it. Getting even is only the first step.

I don't envy Coach his job in trying to do that. I don't like hype, but if it helps with this …

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

You are correct that the limited number of degree programs and the requirement for calc of some kind are limitations to some kids. And yes, there are a great many who don't want to "play school," as you put it. But I think you've under-estimated how many needles there are out there and what a coach and his staff can do to uncover some of those needles that didn't even know they were needles before. I'm not saying there are just oodles and oodles of kids out there who are suddenly going to be able to hack it at GT. What I'm saying is that there's quite a lot of help available to help athletes get through GT. And if our coaches efforts can help convince some kids who have good work ethic that it's worth expending some of that on using the help available to them academically then you'll see a lot more talented kids wanting to come to GT. I'm not necessarily talking about ready-made NFL kids. I don't doubt that you're right that a large percentage of those kids who are highly graded 5* kids won't be interested in what we've got but I think there are going to be those who are mid to high level 4* kids who will be interested but haven't been given any reason to feel it's worth it. And our new coaches are working extremely hard to start changing that perception. I think there are plenty of kids who have a lot of football talent (again, I'm not talking about the kids that Bama, Clemson, UGA, Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio State, etc... are all fighting for who are ESPN top 100 kids) who are willing to put in work to get interesting degrees and play in ATL with the vision of being relevant in college football.

I thought Brent Key's way of summing up what's cool about getting a degree from GT was fantastic. Did more than half of the room get it? Probably not. But when Brent Key, former GT player and former Alabama coach says it it carries weight and some kids listen. And possibly more importantly those mentors from the high schools and the programs where these kids go to get seen are listening. When they see kids that would fit they will be more likely to get them thinking about GT and that's huge. I should say that for the last 5 years I've had a kid in HS (and will for another 3 years) that produces a number of D1 players every year and both my kids have known and know some of those players. Some of them definitely fit the description of the kids who don't want to "play school" but some of them don't. So I'm basing my thoughts on what I see from the outside but also what I hear from talking to my kids about their friends.

Will what Key said resonate with these kids when......oh nevermind. The board will melt down if I continue. Just don’t be surprised if kids we recruit hear different messages and don’t buy in as much as you and others, biased already to love these things about Tech, don’t fall in love also.

Hopefully enough will to help us compete at a high level consistently.

 

[Techster]

As to your RB recruit.......same observation could be make regarding the "old" system regarding a QB and Bama.

CPJ also needs to be given credit for Jordan Yates. CPJ sold Yates when he was just a 3 star QB, and Yates played his way to being a 4 star and the #6 dual threat QB in the nation. Yates would have easily been CPJ's top rated QB recruit.

Now CGC gets to benefit from it.

 

[MidnightJacket]

So what's the over/under on 4 star recruits in 2020 so that we can say which side is right on this?

 

[MidnightJacket]

Tech is at a point, if they are not careful of losing the "campus" feel and becoming an strictly urban college if the continue to pave and develop what little green space they have left.....as well as if they go vertical.

What's your definition of "urban college"? Having gone to both Tech and GSU, the two are light years apart in terms of campus feel despite being miles apart. Even since 2004, when I started as an undergrad, the campus is a much friendlier place to pedestrians and bikes. It's getting to the point that drivers are complaining about the lack of investment in additional parking and about the disappearance of drivable locations within campus. Aside from Tech Square ofcourse, but even the 5th St bridge is greener than any other bridge crossing the interstate in the city, off the top of my head anyway.

 

[jojatk]

Will what Key said resonate with these kids when......oh nevermind. The board will melt down if I continue. Just don’t be surprised if kids we recruit hear different messages and don’t buy in as much as you and others, biased already to love these things about Tech, don’t fall in love also.

Hopefully enough will to help us compete at a high level consistently.

Which part of how I described what Key said made it sound like a crap ton of kids will respond to it? There's plenty of reason for pumping the brakes just a bit so I'm not knocking what you're saying and in fact I think we agree for the most part that it's not going to suddenly be a landslide of NFL ready kids. In point of fact I actually said that I'd be surprised if more than half the room got it and probably only SOME would listen. I think you might be projecting what you think people who are excited are suggesting vs what I really said. And you didn't mention what I said might be even more important than the kids hearing what Brent said which was that those mentors in the room may get it and if some of them get it then perhaps they might not shy away from recommending kids listen to GT. Every little bit helps. Anything that can make a GT education sound a little bit cool help. All the small messages add up and if they help us get 2-3 more 4* kids in a class then it's worth it.

One could do a lot of digging on my posts on various message boards and wouldn't find me predicting a massive uptick in recruiting or wins. What one will find is that I think we can move the needle a bit upwards and instead of averaging 7 wins per year maybe push that up to 8-9 wins per year and hopefully be able to beat Georgia once every few years (which we did under CPJ and I will always love him and his coaches for that!!!). I don't predict we will be pulling in top 25 recruiting classes every year nor do I suggest we're going to be awash with 5* kids lining up to bust down the doors for our scholarships. So I feel like I'm pretty realistic in my expectations. But what I think we CAN do better is sell what GT is and why it's good because the kids already know what's bad and gosh knows they hear that all the time. So if we can just change a little bit of the narrative with cool ways of messaging then that's a good thing.

 

[4shotB]

So what's the over/under on 4 star recruits in 2020 so that we can say which side is right on this?

oh please no. I am interested in reading/discussing GT sports. Not so much the back and forth between zealots and their dogma and the need to "win the internet". This place has jumped the shark in this regard ever since the new coach has been on board.

 

[Animal02]

What's your definition of "urban college"? Having gone to both Tech and GSU, the two are light years apart in terms of campus feel despite being miles apart. Even since 2004, when I started as an undergrad, the campus is a much friendlier place to pedestrians and bikes. It's getting to the point that drivers are complaining about the lack of investment in additional parking and about the disappearance of drivable locations within campus. Aside from Tech Square ofcourse, but even the 5th St bridge is greener than any other bridge crossing the interstate in the city, off the top of my head anyway.

Sure it is for pedestrian friendly reminder than GSU....but at the rate it is going, green space will be such small percentage of campus. If they start going vertical as opposed to expanding outward, it will feel even more urban.

 

[InsideLB]

Your last sentence is key if true.

IMO the staff assembled is formidible from a credential perpective. OL coach from Bama. Collins himself coached at Bama, Miss St, & FL. Got Choice and Marco Coleman who know what it takes to get and stay in the NFL. Like the looks of Burton and the others as well. Consensus from commentators seems to be it's a good staff.

We shall see, AND I think there are logical reasons to expect our coaching will remain strong with the new staff.

I do appreciate Coach J and all he did VERY MUCH. IMO being psyched on the changes in no way pays him disrespect. The two are unrelated phenomenon. Coach J got us to two Orange bowls after none in over 50 yrs, ran a clean program, graduated guys, etc. He aint here anymore though so why go into all that now. Folks who didnt appreciate him never will.

 

[5277hike]

I'll try to hide my "reasonability" a bit better so I don't out myself too quickly...

I also completely agree that the extra staff and moola being spent are critical factors without which all the efforts would likely go for naught. I think you're going to see an expansion of the number of kids we can look at far and wide. It's not that CPJ and his staff didn't look in the same areas. But there's no way they could have focused enough attention on enough areas with the undersized and underfunded staff they had to do so. But with that additional money and people we can focus on more kids than before and that will pay dividends. I'm not sure we can be top 25 recruiting all the time, either. But I think we can be some of the time and if that translates to wins, and it should, then perhaps we become more of a fixture in the top 25 rankings every year. Our Coastal competitors have upped their game and now so have we in terms of investment. Hopefully we've got some excellent football minds on the staff to go with the incredibly gifted communicators and recruiters and if we can take a step up and help raise the level of competition in the Coastal and make it less of a laughing stock that people perceive it to be then who knows where we go from there but it should be in the upward trend. My expectation is that we should be looking at winning at least 8-9 games per year on average and beating UGA periodically (I'm not suggesting we should win 8-9 games THIS year). I don't generally feel that we'll be in the playoff conversation much but I hope I'm wrong.

Trying to be reasonable in my expectations, I think replacing the bottom 4-5 players a year with 4-5 that are higher rated than we have been getting is possible. If we do this for 4 or 5 years, depending on redshirting, we will have 16-25 higher rated players on the field than we would have. That is an upgrade at nearly every position on the field. If the coaching is solid, which I also expect, we should see an improvement in our record. Beyond these expectations, having younger coaches, many of whom played on the Flats, should also help improve the team. The proof of the pudding is always in the eating, but I see reason for optimism, and this is coming from a big CPJ supporter.

 

[iceeater1969]

Will what Key said resonate with these kids when......oh nevermind. The board will melt down if I continue. Just don’t be surprised if kids we recruit hear different messages and don’t buy in as much as you and others, biased already to love these things about Tech, don’t fall in love also.

Hopefully enough will to help us compete at a high level consistently.

Let me add this from experience
Son is hs coach and what is said about hs academic level is true - not getting better. As to the rah rah stuff he has had good success. When he took over as ad the program had never won district in football. He tried the yell at them fest and it worked for some. Then he started rah rah and recently went to the Row the boat Grab Your Oar. The stuff worked especially well on the marginal kids and the young ones. Yea its 2A but they have won 3 straight district championships AND EVERYONE is wearing those silly (to me) shirts at playoffs . One reason folks love it is players grades are up a full point and the need to discipline is less. At end of year I look at whose graduating and I say next year will be bad. But then next year there are kids doing their jobs and playing thier Bxxxx off.
At last years playoff game I wore a " Here' s your paddle " shirt . We are old.

So far cgc is doing great. Twit report.

He just retweeted a clip of Coach belichick saying
We come to superbowl all the time and gt and coach Collins were great hosts. They made us welcome and they have great facilities.

Imagine having to pay for that.
Getting that out to his 36000 followers is great PR - branding . Super bowl champs say good things about gt -- priceless.