Other than winning how do we grow the fan base and start filling the stands in football and also basketball in your opinion?
KQ- You have to aim to get young people in the stands and students. Marketing, giveaways and things like that work. I remember basketball gave away some TVs and stuff and that works pretty well. But winning really cures all for the most part. I thought the attendance was kind of soft in 2010 for example despite the Nesbitt Heisman hype out of the gate and having a preseason top-25 team. However that was likely not helped by the Kansas debacle in week two on the road. They still were drawing pretty strong much of that season and would kill for those numbers now.
Are there more support staff hires to come?
KQ- I think it is a constantly evolving process and there could be more hires. I do not have any stories in my drafts like I did with the last few hires except for the North Gwinnett coach because I simply forgot to write that one and then was in travel hell the day it came out.
Follow on question to the support staff one. At some point can we get a comparison of the numbers/positions of the current support staff to the previous one? There’s so much movement, it’s difficult to tell if we’ve added numbers, added or eliminated positions, just done a title change.. I’d like to try and understand how this support staff differs from the prior one both in approach and headcount. Realize there are probably still some moving pieces and this isn’t a completely straightforward exercise.
KQ- I will be happy to ask that question after NSD and try to get an answer. Just ask me again in two weeks and I'll pass it up the flagpole.
Ultimately winning is what really converts higher-rated prospects into signees. My question is a two-parter:
a) How much of the current recruiting targets and strategy are centered around a successful winning season / bowl game?
KQ- So I'll give you my answer on this, Russell may have a different one. Key and his staff are trying to trust their own evals and not waste time recruiting kids they have no shot at or would be tough rebound takes. I think Collins spent a lot of energy on guys they just were not getting at times and not enough time on guys who their own evals had near even footing. I think Collins was caught up in some star chasing at times.
What winning does is it allows to convert on some borderline high-level targets who might be on the fence about your program and jumping in. They've been on the wrong side of most of these for about six or seven years at least. So for example you don't get Justin Thomas to pass up playing CB at Alabama to play QB at GT if the program wasn't winning and didn't have something special to offer all-around. They got Jahmyr Gibbs through a perfect storm and he would be the exception or a guy like LaMiles Brooks in recent years. You should be able to get one or two, to be really good they need to be getting 3 maybe 4 of those a year instead of like one now or sometimes none. I think Key can do that.
b) How much of the above is more focused on under-the-radar prospects that we feel we can convert if the record this upcoming season doesn't pan out with a bowl bid?
KQ- A bowl bid or a strong season all-around and player development are two things that can fuel converting "some" of those guys, but the reality is most of the 2024 class will be committed somewhere prior to GT kicking off against UGA at the end of the season. So it will be the battles leading up to that and probably starting fast that will convert guys on the fence plus coaching changes at other spots and things outside of GT's control as well. Right now you lay that groundwork though. Again that is how they got Gibbs. It took certain kids committing certain places and Florida bungling his OV to make it happen along with the work the staff did led by Choice.
1) Around the time of Key’s hire, you indicated that you think a hard nosed, blue collar head coach is a better fit at GT. I wholeheartedly agree. Can you elaborate on why you feel that way, and do you consider that to be true for basketball as well?
KQ- I think GT is not a place where you are going to roll your helmet out and just beat teams with superior talent. It hasn't been that way since leather helmets went away in the time of like Coach Heisman if at all. GT is a hard place to go to school and play sports. The education piece is fierce. Some colleges are like the 13th grade or worse in some cases when it comes to the places they hide athletes so you have to have someone willing to roll up their sleeves and fight an uphill battle on day one. That is actually what I like about it to be honest with you. I think it makes the successes here seem harder earned.
The kids have to believe in themselves and play at the top end of their abilities to get there. Guys like CPJ or Ralph could get that out of them or coach Ross for example.
I think hoops can be different IF you have a high-level NIL structure that embraces what you have here in Atlanta and all the things that the culture brings in Atlanta. Honestly, Geoff Collins' shtick would probably work better in basketball here with the 404 and the culture stuff, but you'd need a coach like Jonas or CY to do that. A guy who doesn't drink soft drinks isn't probably going to appeal as much to those type of kids. You could turn it into what Auburn has as well with that NIL funding and a fun coach as well.
Or you can go the route they are with Josh where you build brick by brick. The issue for Josh is he has some bad bricks and didn't have the NIL money to fix it so they took guys like Lance Terry and Ja'von Franklin that are probably not good enough because of a lack of NIL money instead of guys who could make an immediate impact replacing misses like Rev's terrible big men commits and the PG situation.
Either way, they need to get the money that used to roll around back in the program IF you want to win again and be a player, but I think with hoops there are 4 or 5 paths to winning, GT has take the hardest one in the age of the portal.
2) At a certain point, I became convinced that Scooter was not making any meaningful contributions in any area to our football team, especially in the area of coaching. That’s when I knew he had to go. People say Pastner “knows basketball”, yet a lot of what we’ve seen on the court this season is maddening. You’ve said why he has failed to make major changes is “the million dollar question”. Even if newly discovered NIL money helps him attract better players for next season, from a strictly coaching standpoint, what meaningful contributions is Pastner making to the team that can make us feel good about our HC and not just money we’ve raised?
KQ- They ran completely different actions and sets against Cuse that worked with the high-low action, the issue in that game was Jalon Moore got three fouls like a 3-minute span of the game and that ended it and then he struggled to play when he came back in.
They've been making adjustments but they don't have a guy who can drive and score consistently or back down a defender. Miles Kelly was supposed to be that guy and he can't do it. Deivon Smith should be able to do it but he can't finish consistently and gets hit with charging calls because he telegraphs his moves IMO.
Pastner is a good defensive coach and not a very good offensive coach. They don't even run the system he ran at Memphis here offensively. He is basically like hiring a defensive coordinator who is a good recruiter as a HC. Where he has slipped up is with his staff setup IMO and the offense. They needed to junk the offense, it was very clear last year it wasn't going to ever work well with Rodney and they waited too long to adapt. I do not know why. That is my biggest question.
