Implications of GT being relevant in recruiting

[Animal02]

This. I never worked a day in my major field of study, but my degree always opened doors in every endeavor.

But do you think we should be trying to convince a kid that has his heart set on being a teacher, to come to Tech and major in business just to play football? IMO, it is morally wrong

 

[dressedcheeseside]

But do you think we should be trying to convince a kid that has his heart set on being a teacher, to common to Tech and major in business just to play football? IMO, it is morally wrong

I got no problem with that as that is the field I went into. It really did open doors for me. When they see Georgia Institute of technology at the top of the resume, it goes to the top of the stack.

 

[TechBurn]

I have to correct TechBurn--about the Memorial Stadium in Columbus--I played there for Columbus Hi and we had 17,000 for a Columbus-Baker game in 1963 (it sat 25,00 not 8000).

I stand corrected & am properly chastised!
I do remember as a kid going to a Green Bay Packers & Washington RedSkins exhibition game in that stadium!!

 

[Animal02]

I got no problem with that as that is the field I went into. It really did open doors for me. When they see Georgia Institute of technology at the top of the resume, it goes to the top of the stack.

Not if you a hiring a high school.phy Ed teacher

 

[MaconBacon IM88]

But do you think we should be trying to convince a kid that has his heart set on being a teacher, to come to Tech and major in business just to play football? IMO, it is morally wrong

HELL YES!!!!!

 

[Animal02]

HELL YES!!!!!

Nope..... completely wrong. Have no problem making an offer saying if you change your mind....but trying to pressure a 17-18 like that is completely wrong

 

[jojatk]

I was actually thinking about what happened with me ...I wanted to major in architecture....recruiter after recruiter said "change your major" so you can play football. It was a huge turn off. I think had I chosen just any major, in order to play ball, I would not have been successful at either. I see lots of posts saying, "oh, they can just major in this or that" I do not believe we should be recruiting kids that really do not have an interest in what Tech has to offer. I strongly disagree with the attitude of "well they can just major in business" .It really goes against the "Total man" concept. I really hope that the new staff is honest up front and recruit to those that have that interest in what Tech has to offer and not just because there is a position that needs filled.

I totally agree that we should not be recruiting kids who have no interest in what GT has to offer. I have no doubt at all that the staff are acutely aware, even more so than any of us since some of them are relatively recent players from GT, what the ramifications are of having kids come to GT who really shouldn't be here. And I'm not even talking about kids who can't handle the academics. I'm talking about the ones who CAN but really aren't here for what GT offers (and I think you and I are talking about the same kids). I don't think they look at GT academics as a commodity that just any other place has nor will they treat any of our academic offerings as anything other than the highly sought after programs they are.

 

[Animal02]

I totally agree that we should not be recruiting kids who have no interest in what GT has to offer. I have no doubt at all that the staff are acutely aware, even more so than any of us since some of them are relatively recent players from GT, what the ramifications are of having kids come to GT who really shouldn't be here. And I'm not even talking about kids who can't handle the academics. I'm talking about the ones who CAN but really aren't here for what GT offers (and I think you and I are talking about the same kids). I don't think they look at GT academics as a commodity that just any other place has nor will they treat any of our academic offerings as anything other than the highly sought after programs they are.

Several posters here think I and others are anti Collins.....not at all, but I am anti what these posters are trying to push.

 

[jojatk]

Several posters here think I and others are anti Collins.....not at all, but I am anti what these posters are trying to push.

Yeah I don't see you and most others as anti-Collins at all. I will say that the thing I appreciate most about Geoff Collins is that he doesn't look at GT like a factory school where the kids come to play football and have to go through the necessary evil of attending and passing classes. On the other hand he doesn't see any reason why the premium and, it's fair to say somewhat exclusive, education we have to offer should be a roadblock to recruiting high level athletes. That doesn't mean that every high level athlete would be right for GT even if they had the academic chops to handle it. But for the kids who have a desire to look out for life outside football (I am starting to realize that it doesn't have to be life AFTER football) and have interest in areas for which a GT education can help them prepare then it might be worth the effort to recruit them and try to convince them that it's worth all the hard work off the field.

 

[GTpdm]

This. I never worked a day in my major field of study, but my degree always opened doors in every endeavor.

I'll take that one step further. The whole "At GT you have to take calculus" gets thrown out here all the time, followed be the inevitable, "but I never use calculus in my job" responses that I've see here. Guess what? The ability to learn some calculus will open doors (definitely, at the STEM level, but also even at the business/liberal arts "Survey of Calculus" level). It does not matter if you "use" calculus every day(*); the point is that you've learned something about how quantifiable things change..and employers value that.

The whole, "if you go to GT you have to take calculus" meme needs to be replaced by, "if you go to Tech you will get a chance to learn some calculus, and it will open doors for you that would otherwise remain closed." This. Is. Truth. We need to sell it. I've seen a number of people here talk about what we as fans/boosters should be saying to promote our new recruiting initiative...this is one of them: we all need to get on board and emphasize that "having to take calculus" is not a negative—it is positive...a huge positive. In fact, it is a Super-Power that other programs will not offer to their student athletes.

Pass this by Coach Collins, and see what he has to say. Dollars for doughnuts he adds it to his felix-the-cat bag of tricks...

(*) As I tell my (physics) students every semester, "I'm not an idiot. I know that when you are working professionally ten years from now, no one is going to bust into your office freaking out and babbling, "ohmyGodthereisacrateslidingdownaloadingrampinthewarehouseandyouneedtolookupthecoefficientoffrictionandfigureouthowfastthecratewillbemovingwhenitreachesthebottomoftheramp!!!!" The point is that if you can develop the skills to solve that kind of problem, you can do a lot of other things that are way beyond what most people can do—and that is something that employers (big-time employers, not MacDonalds or WalMart) want to see.

 

[AE 87]

Yeah I don't see you and most others as anti-Collins at all. I will say that the thing I appreciate most about Geoff Collins is that he doesn't look at GT like a factory school where the kids come to play football and have to go through the necessary evil of attending and passing classes. On the other hand he doesn't see any reason why the premium and, it's fair to say somewhat exclusive, education we have to offer should be a roadblock to recruiting high level athletes. That doesn't mean that every high level athlete would be right for GT even if they had the academic chops to handle it. But for the kids who have a desire to look out for life outside football (I am starting to realize that it doesn't have to be life AFTER football) and have interest in areas for which a GT education can help them prepare then it might be worth the effort to recruit them and try to convince them that it's worth all the hard work off the field.

I think CGC brings a hopefully more productive style rather than a different attitude to Tech academics and recruiting.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

Say we start signing 10 of the top 50 GA recruits a year regularly.

I am not going to read through 9 pages of attacks by both sides of this fight, but I will say this: If we start signing 10 of GAs top 50 recruits regularly, meaning we average 10 a year, then we should be playing for championships soon, and not just the ACC type.

 

[MaconBacon IM88]

Nope..... completely wrong. Have no problem making an offer saying if you change your mind....but trying to pressure a 17-18 like that is completely wrong

Wait - let me make sure I understand. If someone (specifically student athlete) wants to enter academia as a profession and start their career with a degree at GT - we are NOT a viable choice for them? Who are you to say that the teaching profession is beneath someone with a GT degree?

 

[RonJohn]

I'll take that one step further. The whole "At GT you have to take calculus" gets thrown out here all the time, followed be the inevitable, "but I never use calculus in my job" responses that I've see here. Guess what? The ability to learn some calculus will open doors (definitely, at the STEM level, but also even at the business/liberal arts "Survey of Calculus" level). It does not matter if you "use" calculus every day(*); the point is that you've learned something about how quantifiable things change..and employers value that.

I would go further and say that having an understanding of calculus is important in jobs and even in sports and life. In my job I have tuned PID loops. You don't "need" calculus to tune loops. There are standard methods of finding the gains, but those methods usually in the field have to be tweaked. Understanding what Proportional, Integral, and Derivative mean in a general sense helps greatly when manually tuning. In sports, people understand things such as how far a football will travel in the air can be computed with equations from physics. However, I didn't get a general understanding of those equations during my physics class in high school. When I took calculus in high school; Bam! all of the distance/speed/acceleration equations just made sense. I didn't have to remember the equations, I could just picture a graph in my head and understand what was happening. I don't consciously think about it, but I am certain that there are other everyday things that I have a deep understanding of because of calculus.

 

[Animal02]

Wait - let me make sure I understand. If someone (specifically student athlete) wants to enter academia as a profession and start their career with a degree at GT - we are NOT a viable choice for them? Who are you to say that the teaching profession is beneath someone with a GT degree?

GT IS NOT a viable choice for everyone....in fact it is a viable choice for a very small slice of D1 level football players.

 

[stech81]

I have to correct TechBurn--about the Memorial Stadium in Columbus--I played there for Columbus Hi and we had 17,000 for a Columbus-Baker game in 1963 (it sat 25,00 not 8000).

Before my time 68-71 I would guess CHS won that would have been about their good times , want to say the won the state in 1967?

 

[ncjacket79]

GT IS NOT a viable choice for everyone....in fact it is a viable choice for a very small slice of D1 level football players.

We are not a viable choice for everyone but I would
suggest that “slice” is much bigger than you think.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I have to correct TechBurn--about the Memorial Stadium in Columbus--I played there for Columbus Hi and we had 17,000 for a Columbus-Baker game in 1963 (it sat 25,00 not 8000).

That's what I was thinking but I didn't want to say anything.

Columbus high played Decatur and Tompkins in playoffs that must have drawn close to 20,000

 

[Northeast Stinger]

We are not a viable choice for everyone but I would
suggest that “slice” is much bigger than you think.

Ah, there in is the rub. Just how big is this small slice?

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I stand corrected & am properly chastised!
I do remember as a kid going to a Green Bay Packers & Washington RedSkins exhibition game in that stadium!!

Wow. I did not know that.