Bruce Wayne
Helluva Engineer
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While working on a Senior Appreciation thread for Synjyn I read this:
"Days said drills and techniques he learned at Tech with quarterbacks and B-backs coach Bryan Cook, graduate assistant Steven Sylvester and former Tech fullback Mike Cox, who has returned to campus to complete his degree, were similar to those he has practiced at the all-star workouts."
I have a very unscientific impression that Tech is a football program which routinely draws back its pros to complete their degrees at rates higher than any number of assorted other college football programs. Does anyone else have that impression? I would love to see a study on the percentage of pro athletes who either finished their degree before leaving Tech or complete it after turning pro versus the percentages of similar athletes from a selection of factories and other programs Tech competes with in recruiting.
Since my anecdotal impression is more than enough to "run with" an idea in the message board world, I make the following claims:
1) Tech offers undergraduate degrees of such value that even our football pros want to return and complete their degrees at a high rate.
2) Tech is located in a perfect place for former players who want to continue their education or simply have access to fantastic training facilities during their offseason workouts. Look at how often Calvin Johnson trains at Tech and how he even brings his NFL QB (ex-UGA player) with him. That means they don't go up to Athens, which brings me to point three.
3) Tech is located in a city that is very easy to travel in and out of (not talking about rush hour traffic but about being an airline transit hub) and still economically friendly for a large-sized city, so conducive to maintaining a residence even as a professional player in other cities or to our former pros just returning for short stints to train or attend class.
Clearly, recruiting rules prohibit any untoward use of a school's professional alumni athletes to go after high school kids. I am not talking much about the "oh look over there high school recruit . . . it's Calvin Johnson running routes with Matt Stafford in our indoor practice facility!"
My point is about an additional layer of positive attributes that the Tech football program has to point out when selling itself. Certainly the kind of academically competitive kids Tech recruits is somewhat self-selecting for the program to end up seeing many of its pro athletes return to finish degrees. However, this fact can then be utilized to promote an increase in that same culture and so is one more way to appeal to the bright academic high school recruit who also has serious pro aspirations.
"Days said drills and techniques he learned at Tech with quarterbacks and B-backs coach Bryan Cook, graduate assistant Steven Sylvester and former Tech fullback Mike Cox, who has returned to campus to complete his degree, were similar to those he has practiced at the all-star workouts."
I have a very unscientific impression that Tech is a football program which routinely draws back its pros to complete their degrees at rates higher than any number of assorted other college football programs. Does anyone else have that impression? I would love to see a study on the percentage of pro athletes who either finished their degree before leaving Tech or complete it after turning pro versus the percentages of similar athletes from a selection of factories and other programs Tech competes with in recruiting.
Since my anecdotal impression is more than enough to "run with" an idea in the message board world, I make the following claims:
1) Tech offers undergraduate degrees of such value that even our football pros want to return and complete their degrees at a high rate.
2) Tech is located in a perfect place for former players who want to continue their education or simply have access to fantastic training facilities during their offseason workouts. Look at how often Calvin Johnson trains at Tech and how he even brings his NFL QB (ex-UGA player) with him. That means they don't go up to Athens, which brings me to point three.
3) Tech is located in a city that is very easy to travel in and out of (not talking about rush hour traffic but about being an airline transit hub) and still economically friendly for a large-sized city, so conducive to maintaining a residence even as a professional player in other cities or to our former pros just returning for short stints to train or attend class.
Clearly, recruiting rules prohibit any untoward use of a school's professional alumni athletes to go after high school kids. I am not talking much about the "oh look over there high school recruit . . . it's Calvin Johnson running routes with Matt Stafford in our indoor practice facility!"
My point is about an additional layer of positive attributes that the Tech football program has to point out when selling itself. Certainly the kind of academically competitive kids Tech recruits is somewhat self-selecting for the program to end up seeing many of its pro athletes return to finish degrees. However, this fact can then be utilized to promote an increase in that same culture and so is one more way to appeal to the bright academic high school recruit who also has serious pro aspirations.
