Recruiting strategy, not the star system, is the issue.

[CLHarperJackt]

Though the star system of today didn’t exist, GT did bring in some highly regard recruiting classes under Ross and O’Leary.

Besides being good coaches, a major reason that Ross and O’Leary were effective at GT is that they each cast a wide recruiting net. I remembered there being a number of players from the Northeast on the Ross/O’Leary teams. I appreciated that GT was a national school and our teams reflected a national presence.

Take a look at the 1990 roster.

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools...90--9/misc_non_event/1990-football-roster.pdf

The 1990 team roster shows:
15 players from Florida,
11 players from NY
6 players from PA
4 players from MD
3 players from OH
2 players from NJ
5 players from SC,
5 players from TN
4 players from NC
3 Players from AL,
1 Player from LA
1 player from AZ
1 player from VA
in total 59 of 132 players listed were from out of state, near 45% of the team, with 22 being from north of the Mason Dixon line.

It was a mistake for GT to begin concentrating more on the state of Georgia in lieu of the recruiting up and down the east coast, especially given the school's more pronounced name recognition and prestige out side than inside the state. Since the retirement of Homer Rice, it is like a basic concepts -- GT is a science and engineering school, and there are only so many science and engineering football and basketball players in the nation to be had, much less in a single state; so in order to consistently compete in these sports, casting a much wider recruiting net than the neighboring schools is a must -- easily seen from afar become not readily apparent upon entering into the GT athletics department.

Or maybe the concepts are perfectly apparent to all, but as a matter of policy with all things being equal GT now prefers to award sports scholarships to lesser players from in state than to better players from out of state.

 

[RLR]

I couldn't disagree more. I'd be more than happy to get 90% of our players from GA or a state that touches it. New York is a trash football state. It has the 3rd largest state population & yet it produces maybe 2 good prospects a year. No, seriously. look it up. I'd take a top 100 GA player over a top 10 NY player any day of the week.

PA and NJ might be slightly better. But have you ever met anyone from PA or NJ? They move down south & won't shut up about how superior their landfill state is. The east coast folk are educational snobs. I don't really buy into this mystique that they think GT is so awesome. They're too busy inflating the prestige of Penn, MIT, Harvard, Yale, all the ivys, all the liberal schools that you've never heard of that charge 80k tuition a year, all the private religious schools. GT is a public school. Carpet baggers find public schooling less appalling than gluten. Especially a public school in the stupid, hillybilly south. At least go to Vandy or Duke if you go slumming, said them there guidos.

Also, the east coast isn't really the biggest fanboy of engineering. idk why this myth is so prevalent. The U.S. legal code is threatened by the left coast computer code. Harvard can't be too thrilled about Stanford's rise in the 21st century. Wall Street - meet the blockchain. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. Entertainment and information publishing companies, please step aside so Netflix and Amazon can sprint past you. Marketing and advertising firms, your google ads bill is due. Engineers are building tunnels up under the east coast & robbing them blind.

Not to mention, the South doesn't go up North begging for people to come down here. The North comes here, to the terminus. It's the trap - it's the premise behind this entire city & institution. You either stay here & start grinding. Or you leave and we take your money. And by money I mean your auto industry. Stock exchange. Corporate headquarters. etc.

In summary, I'm fine with recruiting Maryland and VA. If recruits want to come here from Louisiana, California, or Australia - super. But other than that, please continue to concentrate our efforts on the South. Hell, I'd be fine with recruiting only a 30 mile radius of GT. We definitely won't find Cam Newton or Eric Berry in NY. And I doubt we find anyone better than Nesbitt or Dwyer.

To Hell with New York.

 

[stech81]

It seems people are never happy I remember people being upset back then because we did not Recruit well in Georgia . I happy with the players we got.

 

[Skeptic]

I couldn't disagree more. I'd be more than happy to get 90% of our players from GA or a state that touches it. New York is a trash football state. It has the 3rd largest state population & yet it produces maybe 2 good prospects a year. No, seriously. look it up. I'd take a top 100 GA player over a top 10 NY player any day of the week.

PA and NJ might be slightly better. But have you ever met anyone from PA or NJ? They move down south & won't shut up about how superior their landfill state is. The east coast folk are educational snobs. I don't really buy into this mystique that they think GT is so awesome. They're too busy inflating the prestige of Penn, MIT, Harvard, Yale, all the ivys, all the liberal schools that you've never heard of that charge 80k tuition a year, all the private religious schools. GT is a public school. Carpet baggers find public schooling less appalling than gluten. Especially a public school in the stupid, hillybilly south. At least go to Vandy or Duke if you go slumming, said them there guidos.

Also, the east coast isn't really the biggest fanboy of engineering. idk why this myth is so prevalent. The U.S. legal code is threatened by the left coast computer code. Harvard can't be too thrilled about Stanford's rise in the 21st century. Wall Street - meet the blockchain. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. Entertainment and information publishing companies, please step aside so Netflix and Amazon can sprint past you. Marketing and advertising firms, your google ads bill is due. Engineers are building tunnels up under the east coast & robbing them blind.

Not to mention, the South doesn't go up North begging for people to come down here. The North comes here, to the terminus. It's the trap - it's the premise behind this entire city & institution. You either stay here & start grinding. Or you leave and we take your money. And by money I mean your auto industry. Stock exchange. Corporate headquarters. etc.

In summary, I'm fine with recruiting Maryland and VA. If recruits want to come here from Louisiana, California, or Australia - super. But other than that, please continue to concentrate our efforts on the South. Hell, I'd be fine with recruiting only a 30 mile radius of GT. We definitely won't find Cam Newton or Eric Berry in NY. And I doubt we find anyone better than Nesbitt or Dwyer.

To Hell with New York.

Sons of the Confederacy extend a hale and hearty invitation. The South will be back. Next time don't be so reluctant to share your views.

 

[swampsting]

Ross and O'Leary had contacts and networks up that way through their previous coaching stops.

PJ has a very good network in Georgia and Florida. And there's a lot of guys coaching in Georgia who played for him when he was OC or HC at Southern. And the guys I know who are coaching and played for him love him. They may not always have a kid who can play at Tech. But I'm willing to bet they'll look out for him

 

[CuseJacket]

From August 2015

Map shows the states with the best college football recruiting situations

 

[ATL1]

How bout this? Close better.
Be better salesmen & women.
The past two weekend OV's produced one commit, that's inexcusable. This is a critical part of your job duties.
Close.

BTW
I'm NO DAMN Confederate and never will be, so miss me on all the Yankee eff NYC talk. If the kid got the smarts, can play, and has interest in GT, get him. I don't give a damn if he's from Timbuktu.

 

[iceeater1969]

Look at texas.
State looks big, but football is only in east 1/3. East Texas has lots of profootball players. Real problem for gt = rural schools are just ok academically , but major metro suburban schools are good. Nw la and east tex have very few colleges within 200 miles. For 15 years my son coach hs 90 -120 mi east of dallas = he says the kids that can get scholarship will go where ever to get them out the rural area and then move to the city.

Will post some experience he has had trying to steer his plyers to fbs and gt.

 

[Skeptic]

How bout this? Close better.
Be better salesmen & women.
The past two weekend OV's produced one commit, that's inexcusable. This is a critical part of your job duties.
Close.

BTW
I'm NO DAMN Confederate and never will be, so miss me on all the Yankee eff NYC talk. If the kid got the smarts, can play, and has interest in GT, get him. I don't give a damn if he's from Timbuktu.

Is that in northern Mali? (And if a guy posts an all-star rant like that, even if it doesn't make much sense, I for one appreciate it. The board needs to be more rant literate.

 

[TechTravis]

Look at texas.
State looks big, but football is only in east 1/3. East Texas has lots of profootball players. Real problem for gt = rural schools are just ok academically , but major metro suburban schools are good. Nw la and east tex have very few colleges within 200 miles. For 15 years my son coach hs 90 -120 mi east of dallas = he says the kids that can get scholarship will go where ever to get them out the rural area and then move to the city.

Will post some experience he has had trying to steer his plyers to fbs and gt.

Wait, what? Dallas is still in NW Texas, right? They play some damn ball in the Dallas area. Westlake is out there, Dallas Carter, a million others I'm sure I can't think of at the moment...

 

[CuseJacket]

MAPPING THE 2016 BLUE-CHIP RECRUITS

 

[CLHarperJackt]

It seems people are never happy I remember people being upset back then because we did not Recruit well in Georgia . I happy with the players we got.

I was not one of those people. It was just bait from Dawgs, and I never have and never will understand those who swallowed it whole. If GT were consistently bringing in top 10 and 20 recruiting classes and winning 9 to 11 games, why would it get under the skin of some fan that half the players are not from Georgia?

 

[GlennW]

As we all know, GA Tech have some of the most rigid Admission Standards for Football Players in the entire Nation, but during the Ross/O'Leary days, we Allowed the Coaching Staffs to take "exceptions" to the Program to bring in many Players who normally wouldn't qualify. When Paul Johnson came in, not only was the Program put on NCAA Probation and he lost Scholarships, but the NCAA is measuring how the players are progressing towards graduation, and our graduation rate, and he is being limited as to how many "exceptions" his Staff could take, so it's not fair to try to compare how PJ has to recruit versus how they did.

 

[TechTravis]

MAPPING THE 2016 BLUE-CHIP RECRUITS

holy cow. I apologize. Dallas is further west in my head. As someone who's spent considerable time in that part of Texas, I should know better. Mea culpa.

 

[CLHarperJackt]

As we all know, GA Tech have some of the most rigid Admission Standards for Football Players in the entire Nation

NCAA is measuring how the players are progressing towards graduation, and our graduation rate, and he is being limited as to how many "exceptions" his Staff could take,

You are making my point for me.

Rigid standards + limited exception + require progress ---> you start with a limited pool of potential recruits in the entire nation. So why would you further handicap yourself by concentrating your search efforts in a single state?

 

[Jerry the Jacket]

I think our strategy is sound. Assess your needs by position and class balance. Project those needs on a rolling 4 year plan. Target those that possess the aptitude, character and skills required to gain entry, be successful and contribute to the program as early as possible. Build relationships with those targets via their parents, guardians, high school coaches. Build a network that allows continuous follow up and leverages social media/technology to the best extent possible. Focus, focus, focus on those top 5 candidates at each position of need, monitor their progress and always be closing, asking for their commitment as early as possible in the process.

That is what we do. At the end of the day, despite your best efforts, you are still going to miss on 50% or more of them in terms of what they actually contribute to the program once they are here. You just can't measure their ultimate heart, desire, commitment and dedication to excellence to a degree that provides any level of certainty. You can try your best but you can never guarantee it.

Ultimately, that is why our success rate at the end of the line is as good as 90+% of our competitors. The other less than 10% are just luckier than we are and have built in advantages that we just can not compete with. So all this hand wringing and gnashing of teeth is a waste of time. But you may proceed doing it if it makes you feel better.

Go Jackets!

 

[CLHarperJackt]

Target those that possess the aptitude, character and skills required to gain entry, be successful and contribute to the program as early as possible. Build relationships with those targets via their parents, guardians, high school coaches.

Are there more of players possessing the desirable attributes of these targets to be found within the state of Georgia or up down the East Coast?

 

[takethepoints]

I think we are doing about reasonable. Last year we had the 2014 season to recruit from and got good results. This year we had a 3 - 9 year to recruit from and I suspect that made the close sales harder. It happens. The remarkable thing is how good a class we got, given the circumstances. We pretty much hit our targets and got some key players to switch.

Should we hope that 2014 became the average class we get at Tech? Yes, but we can't do that every year. I trust the coaches's judgment on this and we'll see about the question after next year's results.

 

[augustabuzz]

Sons of the Confederacy extend a hale and hearty invitation. The South will be back. Next time don't be so reluctant to share your views.

And an aside, Florida has more population than New York.

 

[ClydeBrick]

I am all for getting the best available student athletes that want to come to GT to get an education and play football. Sometimes those SA's come from Georgia, sometimes they come from other states. I am not a football coach and certainly not an expert in football talent. However, even without staying in a Holiday Inn Express last night, I know that a kid that plays like a Deshaun Watson in HS that comes from a part of the country where HS football comes in third behind baseball and lacrosse may not actually be able to play like a Deshaun Watson when that kid plays in the ACC. I must not be alone in this understanding as I have seen comments on highlight videos that appear to 'highlight' the lack of competition a player had rather than how good the player may actually be.

I believe that the paid professional people that the GTAA has on staff know how to best spend their limited resources - money and time - to do the best that they can to get the student athletes that will succeed at GT in the classroom and in athletic competition.

I refuse to subscribe to the theory that some GT 'fans' have that CPJ and his team sit around content to cash the checks that they receive, phone-in their jobs and not worry about quality of the program they administer.


(note to the OP - the last sentence is a general one, not directed toward you)