Some people are just insane apparently. I don't know how a GT fan can look at the realities of our school and not have it be blatantly obvious that it is very hard to recruit high level athletes to come here. It's not just "our negative perception", it's reality. The same basic things about our school that make it so academically elite present hurdles for our athletic department to clear. Acknowledging it isn't anywhere close to throwing in the towel and "accepting mediocrity". Pretending those difficulties aren't there is just really, really dumb (and will likely make you judge Coach Collins more harshly, if he struggles at all in bringing in the level of players you want). I really wish I could know what these fans are thinking, because I don't see any logic to it.
Keep in mind before our last 2 coaches was nearly 20 years ago, and the entire college football landscape was completely different back then. Recruiting budgets were peanuts (except for the occasional Trans-Am), there was no APR, no BCS, ESPN was only one network instead of controlling the entire narrative around CFB, etc, etc, etc. What we were able to do in that world is entirely different from what we can do in today's world. And BTW, this is decidedly not a "woe is us" post...I think we can absolutely compete for a shot at our division title, which gives us a shot at conference title, which gives us a shot at the playoffs. We just need to be smarter about how we go at it because our margin for error is razor thin compared to the Bamas, Clemsons, ugas, et al.
Would you change your tune about academics being an insignificant issue if Collins himself admitted that it provides some hurdles for us? It's not a crutch, it's just reality.
