Eric
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Great interview with CPJ
- Thread starter Eric
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IronJacket7
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Lol. Beat me to it. This is a great article.
SidewalkJacket
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Hope its ok to post this excerpt... Extremely relevant to all the recruiting talk that goes on here, and good news IMO!
Up until last year, Johnson said, he was permitted to have 20 percent of the signees fall below the school’s admissions standards so long as they met NCAA qualifying standards, signees termed by the program as exceptions.
“(Peterson) said, with the success we’ve had, he would give me more leeway if I thought guys could make it through,” Johnson said.
Johnson said that Peterson removed the 20 percent cap and gave him autonomy to offer scholarships to prospective players as long as they were NCAA qualifiers, which are a lower standard than Tech’s.
It is not a privilege that Johnson said he intends to abuse, if for no other reason than practicality.
“It would be really stupid for me to go sign 20 guys and they’re miserable because they can’t do the schoolwork, then they make you miserable and everybody around them miserable,” he said.
But the liberty has been freeing. Johnson and his staff believe they can gauge whether a high school player will have the drive to make it through Tech, regardless of his transcript and standardized test score. In the past, when those candidates fell below Tech’s admissions standards, it often meant they had to give up recruiting them.
“What happened was, you’d get the recruiting board and you would have them — exception, non-exception,” he said. “And you would have to make a choice on who you were recruiting. Because if you were going to take five (exceptions), well, as soon as you hit the five, (you couldn’t recruit any more) and now we don’t have to do that.”
Up until last year, Johnson said, he was permitted to have 20 percent of the signees fall below the school’s admissions standards so long as they met NCAA qualifying standards, signees termed by the program as exceptions.
“(Peterson) said, with the success we’ve had, he would give me more leeway if I thought guys could make it through,” Johnson said.
Johnson said that Peterson removed the 20 percent cap and gave him autonomy to offer scholarships to prospective players as long as they were NCAA qualifiers, which are a lower standard than Tech’s.
It is not a privilege that Johnson said he intends to abuse, if for no other reason than practicality.
“It would be really stupid for me to go sign 20 guys and they’re miserable because they can’t do the schoolwork, then they make you miserable and everybody around them miserable,” he said.
But the liberty has been freeing. Johnson and his staff believe they can gauge whether a high school player will have the drive to make it through Tech, regardless of his transcript and standardized test score. In the past, when those candidates fell below Tech’s admissions standards, it often meant they had to give up recruiting them.
“What happened was, you’d get the recruiting board and you would have them — exception, non-exception,” he said. “And you would have to make a choice on who you were recruiting. Because if you were going to take five (exceptions), well, as soon as you hit the five, (you couldn’t recruit any more) and now we don’t have to do that.”
SidewalkJacket
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that's just gross right there...
dressedcheeseside
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The best part of what he said is what he didn't say. He didn't say we're getting back to basics. Even though I think we will in large part, I also think we'll be adding new stuff, stuff more akin to JT than to Vad. I'm excited.
His comment "I think we've got guys who want to do what we're going to do, which is important..." is very telling, imo.
His comment "I think we've got guys who want to do what we're going to do, which is important..." is very telling, imo.
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Jacket Bracket
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Great news! It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few years. We should expect recruiting classes like this year (or even better) in the future. Between this and a potential early signing period, we have reason to be optimistic.
southernhive
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Those of you who want to change coaches every three or four years....This is one reason why it is important to stick with CPJ. Coming from Navy, he understands the academics necessary to complete a degree at GT. He has now gained the trust of the President due to the grad rate of his players.
00Burdell
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I'm not sure it is possible to overstate the significance of this development.
I'm going to assume that Bobinski had a hand in this. The first thing mBob did when he got here is give CPJ three new staff members to aid in recruiting. Now, all the sudden, the Hill is backing down.
CPJ, God love him, does not have the diplomatic skills to have pulled this off on his own.
MGTfan
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I don't think it's as big of a deal as some of you are making it out to be. He's still not going to go out and get the same players that UGA/Bama/FSU go after. He still has to get players who are capable of passing the classes at Tech.
Whiskey_Clear
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But now he has the freedom to target those he thinks can / will succeed. In the past he did not have that freedom. That limited his pool of "star" players interested in Tech. May not get us in the rivals top 20 but this is very significant IMHO.
SidewalkJacket
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I agree that no "flood gate of 5 stars" will commence. However, this will absolutely make our recruiting process less stressful for the coaches, and will help prevent a few of those defections or instances of us "backing off" a recruit as a result of low scores (assuming we believe the kid can succeed).
Whiskey_Clear
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What was said about the Oline play.
MGTfan
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I'm not saying it won;t help, but I don;t think we are really going to see a big difference. Especially since he could use exceptions on 20% of the class already. I just don;t believe there are that many star players out there who can;t meet the academic standards who actually want to come to Tech.
AE 87
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ATL1
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lol autocorrect.
ATL1
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I think it will help in recruiting, maybe not dramatically, but it will help. There is concern for overuse and still want to make sure that kids have the mentality to come in and perform well in the classroom.
I think the comment on the OLine are very interesting. What did he change or implement that will effect positively the OLine?? I really would like to know.
I think the comment on the OLine are very interesting. What did he change or implement that will effect positively the OLine?? I really would like to know.