Your problem, among others is, and I hope it is not a Tech problem, the math of the thing. 15 players will get you a basketball team with depth -- you hope -- 15 football players gets you less than a fifth of what you need to play football with the big boys. Moreover, accepting the anecdotal "hardnose" as the baseline ignores the reality -- think Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State for instance -- that you better bulk up inside. Big time, to 295-315 pounds tackle to tackle.And that is the anecdotal rub. The Big Uglies, as my Tech friend refers to them. And if you want to play at the level of those I just named, make sure you get two deep at every position. It is not creeping toward 85 now, but galloping toward those 85 scholarships. Gets a bit harder, doesn't it?
That's how Vinny Testaverde got a Heisman--he and a bunch of other UM quarterbacks in the 90's would just sit and wait and wait for a receiver to come open. Your QB rating can be fantastic when you have a huge pocket and all day to throw.
Like Blake Bortles in Jacksonville this year?
You know, every football coach, every AD Tech has hired sings the same academic song. It is, as they say, in the book. Look it up: academics already are sold as a recruiting plus, so I am not sure where this "new" idea originated. (See countless recruit comments about the sales tactic to their parents.) But there it is, and every year a bunch of players say they chose GT "for the education" and every year the same players make their point and take the easiest course Tech offers -- note I said easiest, not easy -- to the easiest degree, and every year Johnson graduates them. Your "recruiting tool", my friend, is what got GT in this position in the first place. It is both funny and sad in a way that one proclaims the path is academic excellence, and then turns it over to the football coach to implement. (You're just the idea guy; how they do it is up to them?) Tech is what it is so stop kidding yourself that you're going to recruit 85 Sean Bedfords. Stop setting a ridiculous goal given Tech's own reputation and then blaming its failure on the latest football coach. Want to become a legitimate P5 annual power? Become a legitimate university and get some of those sociology, parks and recreations, criminal justice stuff. There. I just solved the problem. See to it.
