- GTYH, does beesball host a regional this June?
- True or false...2023 QB recruiting drama will be peas to 2022 QB recruiting drama.
- True or false...Lonergan is Collins' to lose
- Fill in the blank...GTMBB needs _______ total wins to get to the Big Dance this year.
Knowing that Clemson is the gold standard, How do GT's football facilities & amenities stack up against the rest of the ACC?
KQ- The locker rooms are a push and related stuff, Clemson has a slightly nicer indoor as it is full-sized instead of GT's which is slightly shorter as I recall and they have better lighting, but that is pretty tame stuff. GT has the nicer stadium IMO. Clemson has much better coaches offices and some additional things that GT can't really have because of space concerns. Clemson has a lot of room around their football facilities unlike GT so that helps them and they have way more staff overall and a giant recruiting department.
Regarding your breakdown on how we ended up with a Thursday night, St Patrick's Day, first round of NCAAT Spring game, did CGC and the AA just not think this through with the timing of spring practice, or did they know and just determined that the early start to spring camp was worth the potentially bad timing of the spring game ?
KQ- They thought about that and they could've played it Wednesday but that didn't make sense either for other reasons and the option of moving it even earlier didn't work because it really ran into men's hoops. It still will run with men's hoops some which messes with me actually a little. Collins was dead set on not moving it back or splitting it across spring break so this was really the only option other than Wednesday.
I know this question always gets asked but I figure some names may change week to week due to commitments other places. Who’s the number #1 High School player on our list and Transfer Portal player?
RJ- Portal- TBD, I expect some movement there once the post-spring rush of activity heats up. That may be better for GT than landing Ian Mathews would have been, because they will have a chance to add someone with some semblance of experience at the college level. Of course, landing them depends on what Collins does with the staff opening that became public on Sunday after days of whispers within the industry .
HS- I’ll go with Dylan Lonergan. Pretty easy one to guess there, and doesn’t need much explanation either. There are other QB’s they are interested in, sure, but he is the top target. And has the green light to commit at any time.
KQ- The portal piece will come post-spring since school started, it will likely be whatever the staff feels they need help at.
In the mailbag, can we get tags (such as Hoops) at the start of each question similar to our thread tags to differentiate hoops, football, baseball, etc? Sometimes it's hard shifting gears between questions on different topics. It doesn't have to be on every question (some are general questions or multiple topics), but it would be nice for those questions that are obviously basketball, baseball, etc.
KQ- I would appreciate that when people ask vague questions that could be either sport.
Been hesitant to ask this question, but I'll shoot anyway.
Do you believe that the Collins staff is too analytical?
They really put a lot of emphasis on player measurements, test speed, player weight, lift numbers. I know every school does this, but this staff seems to put a lot more emphasis on it. Collins constantly talks about how tall player X is, how many MPH another player hits in practice, and how much weight someone puts up on the bench press.
This staff has signed only two players in the trenches that are below 6'4" (Akelo Stone and Grey Carroll, who are both 6'3"). This is by design, but is will they miss on the next Aaron Donald (6'0") or even a Shaq Mason (6'1")? Are they focused too much on the measurements and less about the football part of it?
KQ- So they have recruited a few guys outside of the Saban measurements, Key really likes specific body types but even a guy like Paula Vaipulu doesn't fit the mold there. There are quite a few guys who lean on the edges of that. So I don't think it is as specific as you think, they are taking a lot of guys that are on a 3-4 year development plan so they are going to lean on frames there.
On signing day, assuming Bonner and Delaine do not sign, will the class end up with just 15 signees? Is there room for anyone else? If so, who or what positions could we expect?
RJ- That is the expectation, yes. Look for them to be active in the portal post-spring, likely adding multiple players on both sides of the ball. WR, TE, a 4th QB, OL, DL, and LB are all real possibilities.
In light of Ivey news - what's your new projected front four in the fall?
KQ- It hasn't changed I've had the same grouping since the season ended.
FE- White
DT- Lockhart
DT- Chimedza
RE- Kennard or Domineck they were splitting reps at the end of the year
Being from my hometown and tired of hearing about the SEC players from here- How’s Sirad Bryant doing ?
KQ- He was doing okay, he missed some time during the season and then did well on special teams and got to travel a little bit. I expect they will be leaning on him harder to be in the top 3 this year. He was behind a lot of guys at safety in 2020, but they have cleared some room.
In the closing minutes of the first half when both Howard and Khalid had 3, why didn’t we bring in Saba? Is the coaching staff just not confident in his ability to play or is Josh just back to wanting a short bench and Saba is on the wrong side of the line?
KQ- His defense is pretty bad, Meka has been hurt and Saba is a little bit of a black hole. They went small and Miami was playing small so it was okay. Really you'd want to play Jalon Moore there but he is not ready defensively yet.
Second question, what’s the story with Tristan? Is he hurt worse than it seems, or is he less bought in than he needs to be? Saw he was in a cast today - but he just seems to not be bought in or CRAZY unlucky with odd lingering injuries.
KQ- He was back in the cast this week so I have no idea. I was a few feet from him at BC and I didn't notice anything with his thumb except for one play in that game where he grabbed it a little. Maybe he has a tendon thing, but it seems like he either has bad luck or might need to play through some stuff because Miles Kelly playing can steal his thunder because they are similar players, but Miles is a lot bigger and more physically gifted.
With the Big Ten expressing interest in deregulating division requirements and the SEC's expansion forcing it to abandon divisions, are you aware of the ACC is thinking of taking advantage of that to move to new conference play models?
KQ- The internal politics of the ACC make this unlikely because the Carolina schools and VT/UVA have to play each other every year except for Wake not getting to play UNC. I personally want them to split in the old ACC and new ACC and I think that would be a better split.
NEW ACC
Boston College
Florida State
Louisville
Miami
Pitt
Syracuse
Virginia Tech
OG ACC
Clemson
Duke
Georgia Tech
NC State
North Carolina
Virginia
Wake Forest
Do away with all rivalries except UVA and VT have to play every year as a non-conference game in years where they don't play in league play. Boom done. Yes it would be tough for the moment but I think FSU and Miami will regroup and VT is a sleeping giant to me still.
I have a few questions about walk-on Tyler Morehead. Do you know if the staff plans on putting him on scholarship this year since he was the 54th rated player in Georgia and 54th rated Safety for the 2021 year? It seems like he would be too highly rated a player to stay as a walk-on for a 2nd year. Do you know the situation that required him to walk-on for the 2021 recruiting season? Do you know where they are planning on playing him? He seems like he could play the Joker in the 3-3-5 or the Nickel in the 4-2-5. Is he a guy who could possibly be a starter type player in the future?
KQ- They don't have to put him on scholarship he should be on HOPE right now and maybe he gets a NIL deal which is what they can do with some in-state kids where they are lacking scholarships. How many starters are former walk-ons in GT history? It is about two or three every 10 years, so is it possible? Sure. Is it likely? No idea until I see him on the field. The only ones I can think of right now are Sean Bedford, Robbie Godhigh, Bailey Ivemeyer (mostly due to injuries), Will Lay and Djimon Brooks since 2009.
