Yellow Jackets 2020 Class

[dressedcheeseside]

The hype train, mantra is not for u or the fans , it's for the recruits.

When u START into business ( say its engineering consulting where u have to get clients to pay for services , if u can quickly get a good number of quality emengineers to commit to join. You never get the really good engineer first as he has a great job. Once he sees the company is quickly up and running u have a chance for him to come in with a ready made partner position. The top gt recruits watch the film on thier future class mates and look at coach Collins and the players tweets ( hype) .

I hope we get more 4 stars as we round out the class. The fast start is what is vital TODAY.

How does it help us close on the 4*'s waiting to commit late in the process when they see our ranking plummet?

It also makes me wonder about our level of commitment to the commits. I wonder if we are playing the game full factory. What I mean is it's ok for commits to keep their recruitment open and take as many visits as they want but, at the same time, we'll keep trying to upgrade their position. Iow, we don't close down recruitment of their position. If we get better recruits to commit later for their position we either pull their offer or just stop the "love". Kids get the message real quick when you go from daily contact to none whatsoever.

 

[smokey_wasp]

How does it help us close on the 4*'s waiting to commit late in the process when they see our ranking plummet?

It also makes me wonder about our level of commitment to the commits. I wonder if we are playing the game full factory. What I mean is it's ok for commits to keep their recruitment open and take as many visits as they want but, at the same time, we'll keep trying to upgrade their position. Iow, we don't close down recruitment of their position. If we get better recruits to commit later for their position we either pull their offer or just stop the "love". Kids get the message real quick when you go from daily contact to none whatsoever.

I think you're looking at it backwards. It definitely wouldn't help us close on the 4 stars if we were waiting on them and languishing in the 50's or worse in the rankings with few commitments. They would look at that and say "Yep. Same old GT". I think our current strategy is a smart one. We have as much momentum as anyone in recruiting right now. Our ranking will be high enough not to drop out of the top 25 before the blue chips decide.

To your second question, remember that all of CPJ's commits were given the opportunity to sign, and in fact, we kept recruiting them. The only ones we "iced out" were the ones who decided not to sign early. I don't expect that it would be any different for guys that CGC recruited himself.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

To your second question, remember that all of CPJ's commits were given the opportunity to sign, and in fact, we kept recruiting them. The only ones we "iced out" were the ones who decided not to sign early. I don't expect that it would be any different for guys that CGC recruited himself.

I would hope this is the case. However, I have to be skeptical. If "elite" recruits want to join late but we already have "lesser" commits in place, who's to say what CGC will do? CPJ openly and repeated told recruits and the press that he was shutting down recruitment of a position once it was full. "If you commit to us, we commit to you." So far, I haven't heard CGC say the same.

Right now, it obvious "commits" are allowed to be less than fully committed. One would logically assume the opposite is also true.

 

[smokey_wasp]

I would hope this is the case. However, I have to be skeptical. If "elite" recruits want to join late but we already have "lesser" commits in place, who's to say what CGC will do? CPJ openly and repeated told recruits and the press that he was shutting down recruitment of a position once it was full. "If you commit to us, we commit to you." So far, I haven't heard CGC say the same.

Right now, it obvious "commits" are allowed to be less than fully committed. One would logically assume the opposite is also true.

The previous policy had the flaw of leaving you largely helpless in the case of late flips that you didn't see coming. I think it's just a matter of managing your numbers. I don't think we are going to accept commitments that we don't intend to honor. We are saving room for all the elite guys we are going after. That's my take, anyway. We'll see how it shakes out.

And I should add, don't sleep on the guys we are getting commitments from, as it is. These guys haven't taken a snap in their senior season yet. I fully believe some will be elite and the others have the potential to be quality contributors and quality depth. These aren't just placeholder players.

 

[slugboy]

I can see and understand the strategy being used by the staff. Create a lot of hype by getting the early high rating by having high numbers even if they’re just three stars. But there’s a pitfall waiting ahead. Our rating is going to slowly decline over time. Week after week it’s going to get worse and worse and worse as other programs start to fill up. What does that do to the hype train?

I don't think our strategy has much to do with recruiting rankings, but they're a side effect. Collins has been successful as a recruiter here under O'Leary and Gailey, then also under Saban at Alabama, plus Miss State, Florida, and Temple. You have Key as a recruiter. This is a crack recruiting staff that knows what they're doing.
I don't think he's taking players he doesn't want early to generate hype. He's taking players he wants, and they're signing early. Unlike Pastner last year, he's saying yes to players who can build a team.
Mack Brown is also a sharp recruiter, and has the same number of recruits and about the same ranking as we do right now. It doesn't seem like a "recruiting bubble".
Will we end up in the top 10? Possibly, but a lot of things have to go right.
Will we end up in the top 20 or top 30? Really likely.
Is that better than we've been in years? Yes.
Are we doing better recruiting than we have since 2007? Signs point to yes right now.

 

[AlaGTech]

We'll need more 4-stars to stay in the top 25....

I'm predicting we end up with at least SIX 4-star or better.

I think the bread and butter of the 2020 class will be the high 3-stars (5.7 on the Rivals scale). Somewhere in the 10-12 range.

That should be enough to put us solidly in the Top 25.

 

[UgaBlows]

I am trying to be realistic, and until we see a significant number of 4 star guys (at least 4-6) choose us over factories, especially big nasties, I am going to keep it real. I am rooting for this staff - they still have to consider who they offer and whether they will focus on the academic side enough to stay eligible. This is not and has never been easy, but again, rooting for a top 25 class with several 4 star recruits.

From what we've seen from recruiting so-far You’ve got to think that is very possible in the coming years to get a big load of 4 star recruits and maybe a 5 when these coaches have been recruiting rising highly rated kids for 2-3 years to come to Tech, it’s just not realistic to expect that in year 1.

 

[Rammy]

I’m curious, if we had the old staff in place, how many recruits do you think we would have at this point and the quality of recruits?

 

[GoldZ]

I'm predicting we end up with at least SIX 4-star or better.

I think the bread and butter of the 2020 class will be the high 3-stars (5.7 on the Rivals scale). Somewhere in the 10-12 range.

That should be enough to put us solidly in the Top 25.

Isn't there a minimum of rating diff between our recent 3 star signees so far and the 3s that CPJ routinely signed? Seems the claim that our current 3s are superior to our past 3s is a bit of a reach for promoting the juice. What I think is real and tangible is our social media comments from a lot of HS players, which bodes well for the future.
The most accurate posts here are those that say "let's just let it play out". Only then will we know if we are "factory processing", if grad rates plummet, or Fulmer Trophy rankings rise. Trying to settle such now is only creating grounds for civil war which is the very last thing our relatively small support base needs. Look, we had a hard to match game day coach the past decade who took us to Orange Bowls and who took a knife to a gun fight in Athens 3 times and won. His successor is creating a tremendous buzz for the program that is likely to pay off, at least imo. By pay off, I mean more Ws eventually, without the 3 risky areas mentioned above, otherwise we lose our uniqueness.

 

[WreckinGT]

I’m curious, if we had the old staff in place, how many recruits do you think we would have at this point and the quality of recruits?

Judging by past history we would have 0-4 recruits at this point and they would be a mix of low to high three star players.

 

[smokey_wasp]

I’m curious, if we had the old staff in place, how many recruits do you think we would have at this point and the quality of recruits?

You can never tell for sure because every cycle is different. However, last year on this date, we had three commits, all 5.5 (low 3 *). Don't see a reason we would have had a significant bump this year.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

Yes, I agree. The “current 2020 recruiting rankings” are currently wayyyyy too early.

True. But better to be where we are today than say....#50 in the country.

 

[GTRambler]

True. But better to be where we are today than say....#50 in the country.

Oh I agree it’s definitely better now. No doubt about it! Credit goes to CGC and his entire staff.

Hopefully there will be no flips when the pressure builds the closer we get to national signing day.

 

[GoldZ]

Judging by past history we would have 0-4 recruits at this point and they would be a mix of low to high three star players.

So....the core of our next class is set at 3 stars at or near a .850 rating. The end result of our past few classes have been at 3 stars at or near a .840 rating. Does the fact that we have more at this stage mean there is an order of magnitude of difference? Evidence that we are getting a little frothy bout things is the silly comparison to ugag's ratings---ridiculous.

 

[smokey_wasp]

Are we the only fan base that tries to kill our own hype? Goodness, it is exhausting.

 

[stinger 1957]

The elites come later in my opinion, I think we will get our share of them.
This is just me personally, but I would not dare try to outguess this staff on recruiting strategy, folks these guys have been around, they've seen it all, I have absolute confidence they know what they're doing, I see it working and I think we're going to be really surprised how well we do with this class when it's all said and done. All IMO of course.

 

[Milwaukee]

IMO, so far we have gotten a modest bump in recruiting due to the coaches working very hard, and all the hype. But , unless we AT LEAST match last year's W-L record, go to a bowl and win it ( or at least show up- not like last year), the momentum will grind to a halt.
TOP players don't want, or need, to work through a rebuild taking 2-3 years. I am optimistic we can match/ exceed last year's record, but that will be COACHING , not recruiting or hype.

This year's results will not impact the momentum whatsoever. Give it time.

 

[DieselTeeth]

The elites come later in my opinion, I think we will get our share of them.
This is just me personally, but I would not dare try to outguess this staff on recruiting strategy, folks these guys have been around, they've seen it all, I have absolute confidence they know what they're doing, I see it working and I think we're going to be really surprised how well we do with this class when it's all said and done. All IMO of course.

I'm with you stinger.. impressed with 5 months on the job. Excited to see what the next 3 - 4 years bring. I think 2021 class should give us a good look at what's to come. Need to land some gun slingers, and nasty OL, DL in 2021. I believe this staff knows they must prove their worth, with recruiting and coaching to finish in top 25 next year, and build upon that. GT is a team that has not been able to get over the hump and stays right on the outside looking in most years. We need to break through to maintain traction and momentum with recruiting. Look at what Oregon and Washington have done in the past decade. Just need the spark to light the fire. We are always so close.

 

[Milwaukee]

True. But better to be where we are today than say....#50 in the country.

What did you do with Whiskey??

 

[Milwaukee]

Are we the only fan base that tries to kill our own hype? Goodness, it is exhausting.

They still mad. Bump em.