Recruiting: Anything we can learn from.....

[stech81]

My reason for asking the question is that so far this recruiting season Vandy is an outlier. If we had this class so far, people on this board would be turning back flips. With the exception of the Franklin years, they haven't done much recently.... which is precisely the point. And they didn't just relocate to Nashville.

First at 65 I'm not going to turn back flips. Second it's Vandy and if it helps them beat uga than great. Third I try not to get too worked up about recruiting because 50% won't be on the same team they signed with to play all 4 years. Fifth I'm happy with the job our coaches are doing at recruiting . And last, the one thing I worry about is will the price of beer go up before the season starts?

 

[GSOJacket]

Agree with all of your points (I'm 77). Just wondering.

 

[slugboy]

Of the college players I grew up with, they almost all wanted to be players or coaches some day, and some of them went into education. That's an option at Tech through joint degrees with other schools, but it's not the easiest one here. Going to Vandy for an education degree seems like a waste to me, but there are people doing it, and it probably makes it a lot easier to get 4* and 5* commits.
I think Stansbury has the right idea for Tech to recruit to our culture and our strengths, and it's going to start paying off. Homer Rice seemed to have the right idea too, and we lost our way. I only wish we'd had Stansbury as an AD 8 years ago.

 

[GSOJacket]

Yes, he understands, so I'm hopeful he makes good calls. Most of the kids signing to play FB/BB at P5 schools today are probably thinking more about an undergrad NFL/NBA 'degree' than what they're going to major in - in spite of the very low odds they'll ever get there. The kids we recruit are more the exception. I believe CPJ's stint at Navy helped make him a great fit for Tech's culture too.

 

[UgaBlows]

I would mainly attribute Vandy's uptick in recruiting to Derek Mason, he's a good dude and kids like/respect him

 

[Bruce Wayne]

If someone wants to dive deeply into Vandy recruiting and read up on their fan boards then maybe we can gain insight into why they are having success in recruiting. But without specifics as to how they are suddenly landing higher ranked recruits there is nothing to go on as regards evaluating if Tech can learn something from them.

 

[Yomanser]

Vandy?? They look very much like 'the Duke of the SEC' and have almost always had difficulty recruiting football players against their state university rival, but as of a few minutes ago, Scout had them ranked #20. Ten commits: five 4-star, five 3-star, all top 100 players at their positions (from #6 to #79). Did their athletic director find a way to clone James Franklin or what?

Vandy is having a historic recruiting class this year. This is an aberration; they are generally not this good at recruiting, and while this class will be extremely good for them (and frankly, the quality of guys they are getting are underrated even and the overall quality will be better than several SEC teams), this recruiting success will not last. There is nothing that GT can take from this that we don't already know

 

[DrJacket]

At the risk of being a little melodramatic, let me tell you a story.

The year was 2013. Ole Miss suddenly won the commitment of Laremy Tunsil and Robert Nkimdeche. Eventually, they finished with a Top 5 recruiting class. Add to these the now-familiar names LaQuon Treadwell, Evan Engram, Tony Connor and Austin Golson. One day, I said to @MrsDrJacket "Something smells over in Oxford. You can't go from being the doormat of your league-- even the doormat of the SEC-- and suddenly start landing the highest-ranked recruits in the land. Not overnight. That's too much culture change to explain in one class."

I still hold to that theory. I watch Tennessee in much the same way lately. I had said a similar thing about UNC a few years ago, as they were getting in the mix for recruits they had no business competing for. Sometimes it takes a while to surface. But, I believe these overnight recruiting successes are tough to pull off without something being wrong. Could the "right" coach/staff set up shop somewhere and swing the desirability of a school quickly. Of course. We see it only very occasionally. James Franklin did that somewhat for Vandy when he went there. But, James Franklin ain't there these days.

Am I saying that Vandy is cheating? No. But, I am saying they bear watching for a while. Closely. If they're clean, then they've got no problems to worry about.

 

[AlabamaBuzz]

I do wish we had some more majors - I would still want them to be ranked amongst the best programs of their type in the country, no matter what they were. BUT, we need some more majors, in my opinion.

If it only helps us land a couple more recruits a year, adding a program or 2 would be worth it.

 

[PBR549]

At the risk of being a little melodramatic, let me tell you a story.

The year was 2013. Ole Miss suddenly won the commitment of Laremy Tunsil and Robert Nkimdeche. Eventually, they finished with a Top 5 recruiting class. Add to these the now-familiar names LaQuon Treadwell, Evan Engram, Tony Connor and Austin Golson. One day, I said to @MrsDrJacket "Something smells over in Oxford. You can't go from being the doormat of your league-- even the doormat of the SEC-- and suddenly start landing the highest-ranked recruits in the land. Not overnight. That's too much culture change to explain in one class."

I still hold to that theory. I watch Tennessee in much the same way lately. I had said a similar thing about UNC a few years ago, as they were getting in the mix for recruits they had no business competing for. Sometimes it takes a while to surface. But, I believe these overnight recruiting successes are tough to pull off without something being wrong. Could the "right" coach/staff set up shop somewhere and swing the desirability of a school quickly. Of course. We see it only very occasionally. James Franklin did that somewhat for Vandy when he went there. But, James Franklin ain't there these days.

Am I saying that Vandy is cheating? No. But, I am saying they bear watching for a while. Closely. If they're clean, then they've got no problems to worry about.

Good observations Dr. I believe that Mason is a good recruiter and hopefully everything is on the up and up but time will tell. I know the HS coaches like him and I feel like he's a high character guy. Recruiting is not the whole story however. He needs to make something happen with the guys he has now. If not he won't be around to coach these great recruits!

 

[Sideways]

Of the college players I grew up with, they almost all wanted to be players or coaches some day, and some of them went into education. That's an option at Tech through joint degrees with other schools, but it's not the easiest one here. Going to Vandy for an education degree seems like a waste to me, but there are people doing it, and it probably makes it a lot easier to get 4* and 5* commits.
I think Stansbury has the right idea for Tech to recruit to our culture and our strengths, and it's going to start paying off. Homer Rice seemed to have the right idea too, and we lost our way. I only wish we'd had Stansbury as an AD 8 years ago.

I am quite certain, that the athletic department at Georgia Tech is in good hands. Similarly, Coach Johnson and his staff have begun to make clear progress in recruiting. It is remarkable how long it takes a new football staff at Tech to fully come to grips with the peculiar challenges that are presented in recruiting at the Institute. After fits and starts over the past 8 years, we are just now becoming a force to be reckoned with on the recruiting trail. Outstanding job is being done by our coaches.

 

[Sideways]

Good observations Dr. I believe that Mason is a good recruiter and hopefully everything is on the up and up but time will tell. I know the HS coaches like him and I feel like he's a high character guy. Recruiting is not the whole story however. He needs to make something happen with the guys he has now. If not he won't be around to coach these great recruits!

Coach Mason is a good man but Butch would sell his mother down the river for a 5 star he wanted badly enough.

 

[PBR549]

I am quite certain, that the athletic department at Georgia Tech is in good hands. Similarly, Coach Johnson and his staff have begun to make clear progress in recruiting. It is remarkable how long it takes a new football staff at Tech to fully come to grips with the peculiar challenges that are presented in recruiting at the Institute. After fits and starts over the past 8 years, we are just now becoming a force to be reckoned with on the recruiting trail. Outstanding job is being done by our coaches.

Couldn't agree more!

 

[Techster]

If you look at where GT fits into with respect to our profile, you would probably group us in with schools like Stanford, Northwestern, Duke, Vanderbilt, UVA, etc. From an academic and athletic standpoint, those schools are more our athletic peer than say Clemson, FSU, UGA, USC, Ohio State, NC State, Tennessee, etc. We belong to that unique subset of academically elite colleges that also competes at the highest tier of college sports.

That said, if you look at what we've accomplished in the past 2 decades, you could argue we've been the most consistent football program in that peer group over that span. Stanford has probably surpassed us recently, but GT has had the most consistent long term success. Even if you go outside of our peer group, GT has been a consistently good program. IMO, it's not a matter of learning from anyone to be a good program, we've been a good program for two decades. Vandy in the last two decades isn't even in the same discussion with GT. IMO, it's more a question of what can GT do to take the next step into becoming a consistently VERY good to elite program. I think we're on the very cusp of being a VERY good program that's consistently knocking on the top 25. As the OP touches on, it starts with recruiting, and CPJ has taken a couple of steps in the right direction.

 

[Sideways]

If you look at where GT fits into with respect to our profile, you would probably group us in with schools like Stanford, Northwestern, Duke, Vanderbilt, UVA, etc. From an academic and athletic standpoint, those schools are more our athletic peer than say Clemson, FSU, UGA, USC, Ohio State, NC State, Tennessee, etc. We belong to that unique subset of academically elite colleges that also competes at the highest tier of college sports.

That said, if you look at what we've accomplished in the past 2 decades, you could argue we've been the most consistent football program in that peer group over that span. Stanford has probably surpassed us recently, but GT has had the most consistent long term success. Even if you go outside of our peer group, GT has been a consistently good program. IMO, it's not a matter of learning from anyone to be a good program, we've been a good program for two decades. Vandy in the last two decades isn't even in the same discussion with GT. IMO, it's more a question of what can GT do to take the next step into becoming a consistently VERY good to elite program. I think we're on the very cusp of being a VERY good program that's consistently knocking on the top 25. As the OP touches on, it starts with recruiting, and CPJ has taken a couple of steps in the right direction.

It is true that in recent years Stanford has outperformed us from a national perspective. However, the last time we played them in a bowl we beat them although we were a significant underdog. Willie "Big Play" Clay gathered in a punt in the fourth quarter with the return eventually leading to the game winning field goal. Willie said there was no way he was going to fair catch his last punt return as a Jacket. Your point of GT being on the "cusp" of becoming a very good program is well taken. We are almost there just a little more patience and a few breaks in this recruiting class and during this season will have us about where we were during the O'Leary era. It has been a long time coming, just about a generation.

 

[forensicbuzz]

It is true that in recent years Stanford has outperformed us from a national perspective. However, the last time we played them in a bowl we beat them although we were a significant underdog. Willie "Big Play" Clay gathered in a punt in the fourth quarter with the return eventually leading to the game winning field goal. Willie said there was no way he was going to fair catch his last punt return as a Jacket. Your point of GT being on the "cusp" of becoming a very good program is well taken. We are almost there just a little more patience and a few breaks in this recruiting class and during this season will have us about where we were during the O'Leary era. It has been a long time coming, just about a generation.

I'm not sure if you're overlapping games or coaches or what. Last time we played Stanford was in the Seattle Bowl (under McWhorter, because O'Leary just resigned). We beat them like we did in the 1991 Aloha Bowl, with O'Leary running the defense.

 

[Techster]

It is true that in recent years Stanford has outperformed us from a national perspective. However, the last time we played them in a bowl we beat them although we were a significant underdog. Willie "Big Play" Clay gathered in a punt in the fourth quarter with the return eventually leading to the game winning field goal. Willie said there was no way he was going to fair catch his last punt return as a Jacket. Your point of GT being on the "cusp" of becoming a very good program is well taken. We are almost there just a little more patience and a few breaks in this recruiting class and during this season will have us about where we were during the O'Leary era. It has been a long time coming, just about a generation.

Would LOVE to play them now. I think the next 2 seasons will be very good ones for us, and Stanford is predicted to be one of the top teams in the PAC12 over the next few years.

Possible matchup in one of the New Years bowls is far fetched.

 

[CuseJacket]

AJC: Three Vanderbilt football players involved in double shooting over stolen cell phone

Hopefully GT recruits don't learn this from Vandy's recruits.

 

[GTpdm]

AJC: Three Vanderbilt football players involved in double shooting over stolen cell phone

Hopefully GT recruits don't learn this from Vandy's recruits.

Yeah, and you can add this to the reason why we don't want to be like Vandy:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...ayer-found-guilty-in-rape-of-unconscious-stud

 

[Sideways]

I'm not sure if you're overlapping games or coaches or what. Last time we played Stanford was in the Seattle Bowl (under McWhorter, because O'Leary just resigned). We beat them like we did in the 1991 Aloha Bowl, with O'Leary running the defense.

Good catch. Yes, my "sometimers" had kicked in. Of course, I was thinking of the 91 bowl. I had forgotten about the Seattle Bowl win. Coach Mac did a great job for that game. Not bad for a former bulldog. (I think?)