Do you know when away tickets for football will go on sell?
KQ- No clue, I checked back in my email to see if I had the date from last year and I don't see it.
You mentioned Williams will be moved back to tackle, what happened to Corey Robinson at LT?
KQ- Nothing, Corey is playing LT, Williams would play RT and there will be a three or four-man rotation at tackle with Robinson/Brown/Leftwich at LT and Williams/Leftwich at RT. Brown may also play some guard. They actually have depth and this is where they will start off, but anything can happen. Corey is still very young despite having played so much last year so he needs to develop more if he wants to remain the starting LT this upcoming season. You also still have Tyler Gibson as a potential guy at LT if he is ready to play.
Do you think CDS will go after Simeon Wilcher?
KQ- He did, but Wilcher is going to St. Johns to play for Slick Rick
Do we have enough quality offense lineman to get us bye this year including injuries?(We all know they are going to be some throughout the course of the year)
KQ- I think this is the deepest the OL has been since I've covered GT in terms of quality depth. It makes sense it would take this long when you think about how hit-and-miss OL recruiting is. They are 4-deep at OT with Robinson/Williams/Brown/Leftwich, five deep at guard with Fusile/Scagilone/Williams/Tchio/Brown and three-deep at center with Franklin/Best/Fortson plus all the other newbies who they can redshirt and guys like Tyler Gibson who could end up in the OT rotation and push Brown to guard full time for example.
I saw a report about next year's budget (by Ken's replacement). It said the new budget has money to pay salaries to positions previously filled by volunteers. Any chance that could lead to the return of DMo?
KQ- Not exactly, that will be a pretty large expenditure as he is getting really good money at SC and they had to bump him to keep him around. There are people putting together something to lure him back as a separate thing. Whether that comes to fruition anytime soon is anyone's guess.
On the Big Board of offers, are the names written out in any order?
If not, is it possible to order them by priority (to make it clear who is a top target for a position). Or to put recruits in buckets such as A list, B list, etc.
That would help understand if someone is visiting or committing, is that a top target or not.
And mentioning that A/B status on the threads where visitors are listed out would save us some clicks in cross referencing who is in what bucket.
KQ- I used to do that and then people got bitchy and petty when they took someone off my B-list because we don't have time to update this all the time and also there is a lot of specifics into how that list is made. It is more important after August when it is really trimmed down and that is when I'm more inclined to do that. They are still evaluating kids every day and the GT board is constant movement with the staff so that is almost an impossible task. The big board is a list of the guys we think are important to watch with offers. What you want is a hot board and we haven't done those in a long time, but it is something to consider.
Could you please explain the actual transfer rule? I thought when the rule was changed a couple of years ago, you were allowed one “free” transfer unless you were a grad transfer. I think there was also an exception clause if your coach left? Anyway, did this rule later get changed? It seems Iike some guys are transferring 3 or 4 times.
KQ- What you said is what the rule is, you get one free transfer at the same level unless you have a grad transfer or a waiver. Some kids will graduate in 3 years with AP credit and stuff like that so you might see some younger guys moving around, but that would be why. If they move down they can use that second transfer up like the old days as well.
We have co-OCs and co-DCs. What is the division of duties? I’m particularly interested in which coordinators will call in-game plays and adjustments . Thanks.
KQ- That is a question for Brent Key, not us. Buster Faulkner is the offensive play caller and Andrew Thacker is the defensive play caller. A good coordinator will use his staff to help make adjustments in the game even CPJ would do that and get some input from the guys in the box as an offensive play caller for example. The co-coordinator thing is about organization and game planning and getting paid more (in some cases). There is also one top person. Clemson had Co-OCs with Tony Elliott and Jeff Scott, but Elliott was the actual guy calling plays.
Do you think the offense could be primed for a huge year this year or are we going to see only modest improvement?
KQ- I have zero idea of what to expect. The last few years have been so bad at times on offense overall for a whole season with a few bright spots that I am hopeful it is just more consistent and they figure out the playmakers and move the chains. I don't know what the bar is for it good or bad.
So at some point I’d love to hear your thoughts on how coaches successfully navigate team chemistry and, dare I say, culture, in the age of the transfer portal. When you have so many new pieces every year coming in and some of them starting, how do you keep unity and cohesiveness? I feel like we have a ton of churn here at Tech but some places - A&M, Ole Miss - seem to have just staggering amounts of it.
KQ- It is a problem if you don't have strong leadership at the top both on the staff and within the locker room from the players. GT definitely has a strong leader now in Key and some very strong assistant s as well and some guys that are quiet leaders that help control the locker room. They don't have a guy yet to really be the main leader on the team, that is something that should come, but you have to set expectations and see them executed. You will always have a few turds in the punchbowl and that is where the coach and the leaders on the team need to handle things. The teams that have been good at that tend to have more success. I think this is what you saw in some ways come out when Key took over. That whole swing in confidence and play was pretty directly related to him cleaning up some culture issues that festered under the previous management. Even guys like Nick Saban are learning how to navigate these chummy waters and the more NIL money that is in play the shady it gets.
Just dropping a reminder to ask if you’ve heard anything about new player jerseys for sale, since it seems like you know at least 1-2 ppl who may be familiar with that stuff.
KQ- I can check tomorrow on that.
In the live you talked about how you will be interested to see how CDS sets up the schedule opposed to how CJP did. Can you explain how the schedule set ups work? Like is it more on the coaches or does the AD handle it?
KQ- In hoops the HC generally sets the schedule. So coming off the ACC Title season, Josh thought that spring and summer he would have Moses and Jose back so they set up a schedule to help RPI and seeding that had some really tough non-conference games. Last year it was a much milder schedule. Every team has a budget as well to work with and GT had some weird guys that were from covid cuts like the 2 home/1 away with Georgia State that came out of that or the aborted away/home UAB series that came from the AD side. Mostly they just have to work within a budget. I was with Josh last year at some event maybe the ACC meetings and he got a call about playing in a tournament in NYC for example for 2023-24. So some stuff is done way ahead of time with those things. I don't believe that deal ever went through, but the Diamond Head did a year out. Other buy games happen in the spring/summer so playing Clayton State or Savannah State or SC UpState can often be done much later in the game.
The coaches try to weigh what they want to accomplish pre-season and the games they have to play. For GT they have the SEC/ACC Challenge and UGA off the rip plus the Diamond Head so I'd be surprised if there are any other major non-conference games and everything else might be just buy games with maybe one other medium-type game like NIU or something.
Not sure if you’ve had any significant convos with J Batt yet, but if you had to guess, what are his top 3 things he needs to get done before the end of summer in regards to athletics/facilities?
KQ- Before the end of summer, I'm not sure much will be done other than them finishing up the football facelift that is ongoing for facilities. I think they are working on ticket sales and revenue streams for the upcoming fall sports and making sure that is all squared away plus donations and NIL stuff (as much as he can help with that).
I admit this question is strange, but I'll ask anyway. The new NCAA Football video game is coming out next summer. I see NFL players care a lot about their Madden ratings. Do you believe the video game will make college kids extra motivated/incentivized to perform better on the field?
KQ- I think you will see a shitload of kids tweeting 40 times videos and other highlights to EA to try to move the needle on their rankings. I'm sure there will be hurt feelings over the ratings and rankings in it. You should see some of the shit we deal with just over HS rankings.
Russell will add his part
