Portal Watch 2022-23

kg01

Get-Bak! Coach
Featured Member
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Former USF TE Jackson Long committed to GT over several other programs showing interest in getting him. Pyron hosted him on his visit.

Thanks for defying the odds and posting some portal news in the portal news thread.

I expect portal activity to pick up for us next week. Word is we have a few guys who we’re working up portal packages for and might be visiting next weekend. So.. you may need to ice the thread for a week @kg01

you were saying game of thrones GIF


:sneaky:
 

Lil G

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
491
Not hating or saying the kid is bad cus I don't know, but he is a true freshman who didn't get any stats at USF from the looks of it, so he won't necessarily be producing this year.
Speaking comparatively with our TE production the past three years, do you think our guys are hard to beat out?
No trying to diss anybody and going off stats, their catching percentage is worse than probably a majority of the FBS.
Chip long came in preaching TE usage, but we probably ended up throwing to them 1-2 times per game, and I believe that was because we couldn’t trust them to make a play.
 

orientalnc

Helluva Engineer
Retired Staff
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Not hating or saying the kid is bad cus I don't know, but he is a true freshman who didn't get any stats at USF from the looks of it, so he won't necessarily be producing this year.
It looks like USF had six tight ends on their roster. Four caught passes for a total of 12 receptions. My guess is that USF is not throwing to their tight ends in their current offense. Neither of their two FR TE caught a pass. I do not think you can read much into those USF stats. I doubt he will be Brock Bowers next year, but he won't have beat out an NFL prospect to get PT with GT.
 

Northeast Stinger

Helluva Engineer
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9,562
Tampering with what, exactly? Collins isn’t employed by anybody else. He’s not pushing people to transfer to where he is. I doubt he has much, if any, communication at all with the current players. Nate McCollum actively campaigned for Key to be named head coach. I highly doubt he’s concerned about what Geoff has to say in that matter. It’s not like he’s commenting on their transfer posts saying, “Let’s go! Get out of Tech, it’s a bad situation.” He literally just retweeted it. It’s a nothing burger. He also retweeted his former Temple players’ announcements. Is that tampering too? Hate on GC all you want. I hate him for what he did to the football program, but he’s not really doing anything wrong here.

And if you’re going to bring up Paul, he was also posting things like this




And he “liked” this tweet


Paying attention to what former coaches are posting, re-posting, and “liking” on social media is weird. Especially if you’re going to call out one guy for “tampering” and not another one.

Coaches demand absolute loyalty to be successful. A former coach is absolutely tampering with the psyche of a program if he publicly follows and comments on former players where he used to coach. Professionals don’t do that.

The examples you gave of Johnson prove my point. Thank you for sharing them. He bit his tongue even with weekly attacks against him by Collins that lasted almost three years. When he did respond it was to defend himself not to undermine another coach’s work. As you pointed out. The one comment or like about a player was in support of that player’s enthusiasm for Tech. So clearly not the same thing.

It may be that you and I have a different understanding of professional standards. My concern has absolutely nothing to do with “hatred of Collins” since I’ve never hated the man. I just find him unprofessional.

The only analogy I can think of is it’s the night before your wedding day and your future wife’s fiancé keeps posting pictures of the two of them on social media. He’s just remembering the good old days, and he truly loves her, and wants the best for her, and it’s all innocent, but if he was a true gentleman he would just move on.
 

DiffusedAcorn

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
130
It looks like USF had six tight ends on their roster. Four caught passes for a total of 12 receptions. My guess is that USF is not throwing to their tight ends in their current offense. Neither of their two FR TE caught a pass. I do not think you can read much into those USF stats. I doubt he will be Brock Bowers next year, but he won't have beat out an NFL prospect to get PT with GT.
I hadn't dove that deep in research, but you make a good point and I sure hope it's the case.
 

RamblinRed

Helluva Engineer
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5,714
Reading back over recruiting articles it looks like Long was known as a good run blocker in HS (for a run heavy team) and then got G5 offers after catching the ball well at a 7-on-7 competition before his senior year.

He originally committed to Tulane in July 2021, but decommitted in November of 2021 and committed to USF.
 

Buzzbomb

Mello Yellow-Jacket
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12,014
Just had an OV to Iowa St. Multiple P5 offers, several G5 offers too. CBK handling his recruitment(still no WR AC named)…..
 
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