Some of the forums used to be on the home page, but that looks to have gone away this week. Is that by design or just me?
KQ- They are retooling the FP look at the moment. Some of the modules like the forum topics and other things are not on there at the moment. I'll have to go back and find out what they are doing. I missed our last tech session while I was in NJ with my in-laws with the Rivals engineers.
How is an official basketball visit similar or different from an official football visit?
KQ- Still have the hotels and dinners and stuff, but a lot of it is bonding with the players and they'll go down and sometimes shoot around with a kid or play a little HORSE or whatever at some places. I'm not sure if that is legal or not, but it happens at places. It is similar that they have presentations on various things like academics or life after hoops and meetings with the coaches, tours, films and dinners and stuff. Things are just tailored more to the personality of the kid because unlike football you typically have one or two OVs at a time and not like 5-15 kids like football all on an OV.
Do they have official visits in other sports?
KQ- Yes and I sometimes see the kids in other sports on their OVs and they all have their own subset of rules. I've bumped into one for a non-rev sport at the airport randomly as well.
In light of the Mega Millions thread, let's say your Batt and you're offered a ~100M lump sum blank check. What would you put that money towards? For instance, you could pay off a large part of the stadium expansion debt to get some of that off the books. Or you could tell that donor to redirect ~50M to NIL so we get some top 5 classes.
What would you do?
KQ- I'd figure out the way to give myself the most breathing room with my budget, if that means endowing scholarships or paying off a chunk of debt or whatever that is, that would be my move because I can allocate more money down the road to pay staff by doing that versus some grand gesture. Maybe you give $5 million in cash to each B1G president for a vote if it ever comes up J/k.
Anything in practice that you seen so far worth noting? Anyone surprised you from a physical standpoint? Anything else stood out?
KQ- Not really and we are pretty limited on what we are allowed to talk about and what we actually see and they haven't been in pads yet either. I'd say that Eric Singleton Jr. has clearly lived up to the hype that I kept mentioning and hearing about over the summer as you've seen now multiple players and coaches call him out. Everyone usually looks good before the pads go on, so I tend to not get too worked up about anything I see or hear until the start playing real football. As I said elsewhere, I was a helluva flag football receiver, in pads getting hit was a different story.
Are Oregon Washington and FSU are playing in a different conference next year?
KQ- Yes, yes and no, but I kind of hope FSU tries to buy themselves out just to see if it really kills their program or not. It is kind of like wanting to see a crash when you watch a car race.
How do you feel about the team after watching a few practices in comparison to previous years?
KQ- I think Key runs a really solid football program and the attention to detail and actual coaching is what I would want to see. I can't really get into the weeds on this for a multitude of reasons as stated above.
Any surprise standouts we haven’t talked a lot about yet?
KQ- Nothing yet, I've got my ear to the ground. The stuff that will be impressive will not be in the parts of practice I get to watch anyway. I am going to lean on my sources to get that information.
I'm guessing that CBK will go at it alone with his gut on making a call to go for it on 4th down, but do you think he might rely on someone like Buster to help him with clock management/calling time outs?
KQ- Generally most coaches lean on their coordinators as well as the book (aka the tendencies chart that most coaches use) . What typically happens is a coach pings his coordinator and asks him how he feels about what the call would be and how confident he is they have something dialed up. The effectiveness of the blocking in the game will also factor into that. On timeouts, the coordinators definitely are involved with that to a point as well because they will ask for time if it is needed on any side of the ball or if they think they need to regroup and Key and usually someone else non-coordinator on the staff will be doing the math on the timeout situation and when to burn them. Being organized was a major issue under Collins and that led to some shitty timeouts. Key being a new head coach will probably have a few growing pains getting the feel for it as well.
Will Leo Blackburn play this year? I know he is out on rehab for now, but thought I read somewhere that he might return during the season.
KQ- You read that on here. I have heard the optimistic timetable would be sometime in October or November. He is dying to play so if there is no risk of additional injury or anything and he is cleared I think he will play if he can. With rehab, you just never know though. I'm sure the staff is proceeding with the expectation he won't play and if you get him back then that's great.
Will Avery Boyd finally see the field and contribute?
KQ- He will have to be consistent and healthy. The health think has always held him back more than the even consistency. He is a great kid and has a lot of talent, but he has struggled to stay healthy throughout his time here with injuries. I think he would be the third X WR right now behind Janneh and Blaylock. I'd say that on the other side, it is probably DJ Moore/Chase Lane and Eric Singleton in some order as well on the outside. Boyd will get his shot to earn that PT though. They'll get him plenty of work in camp.
We have multiple GT alumni as members of our football staff. Some of these have significant pro experience.
What impact is this having on recruiting?
Key
Coleman
Tillman
Joe
Others?
KQ- @Russell Johnson can weigh in
