Thanks to our sponsor Inteleca for helping bring back Q's Take my weekly look at things around GT and college sports from my vantage.
A year ago uncertainty filled the hearts and minds of the JOL community as Georgia Tech AD J Batt was operating his first coaching search as the head AD of a Power Five program just a few months into his new gig as athletic director. He often joked about not knowing where the
maker was. The football search was a thorough one with lots of plot lines, but ultimately Brent Key prevailed and became the head coach at Georgia Tech.
Four months after that hire, Batt pulled the plug on Josh Pastner after a pair of underwhelming seasons coming off his ACC Championship. Pastner didn't have the resources to compete with his ACC peers at the time and many including myself thought that Batt would punt and give him one year to sink or swim. Then he very quickly hired Damon Stoudamire from the NBA after a quick series of discussions aided by NBA scheduling having Stoudamie and the Celtics in town. Ironically Stoudamire was only available because Stoudamire was passed over by the Celtics brass for Joe Mazzulla a fellow assistant coach on the Boston staff when Ie Udoka was suspended and later fired due to team policy violations stemming from an inappropriate relationship within the organization.
Both coaches had to rebuild their respective programs and find a way to develop proof of concept in a small window to hit the ground running with mismatched rosters.
Key overhauled the Georgia Tech offense hiring almost an entirely new staff except for QB coach Chris Weinke and kept part of the defensive staff that helped him win games as the interim head coach. The overhaul of the offense worked and the defense fell apart early before evening out some under interim DC Kevin Sherrer in the back half of the schedule. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't always fun to watch, but the Jackets got to a bowl game and finished on the plus side of .500 for the first time since 2018, Paul Johnson's last season. Key got the Jackets back to what he said should be the bare minimum floor for the program.
The offense found ways to use players like Jamal Haynes and Haynes King with short resumes and turned them into an All-ACC level performers. Key will now overhaul the defensive side of the ball this coming offseason.
Stoudamire's squad minus one of his best players Lance Terry this season and with Miles Kelly mired in a horrendous shooting slump nearly won the Diamond Head Classic, upset two top 25 teams already and sit at 8-4 going into ACC play next week at Florida State. That ties for the best start for the Jackets since 2016-17 Pastner's first season at Tech when he won ACC COY guiding another mismatched team to the NIT Championship.
The Jackets are likely to have a similar finish to Pastner's squad in the ACC, clawing through a gauntlet of a schedule with hopefully a NIT bid at the end of the road.
The football team reached a third-tier bowl and avenged a loss to UCF last year that got GC3 fired.
Both teams are loaded with young talent and have top recruiting classes coming in for 2024.
Both teams have young stars who need to develop and refine their game but are getting the attention of national media now in Eric Singleton Jr. and Kyle Efford on the football side with Baye Ndongo and Nait George on the hoops side.
Stoudamire resurrected the career of Kowacie Reeves just like Key did with King who was also a high-profile HS recruit who hadn't lived up to the hype at their previous school.
Where this all leads to I have no idea, but it is encouraging and interesting to see some of the early parallels between football and hoops. Things are trending the right way. Sustaining that success and building them up is important as well.
Anyway, enjoy the holidays. I'll be traveling to California tomorrow so that means there will be tons of breaking news for the Jackets.
A year ago uncertainty filled the hearts and minds of the JOL community as Georgia Tech AD J Batt was operating his first coaching search as the head AD of a Power Five program just a few months into his new gig as athletic director. He often joked about not knowing where the
maker was. The football search was a thorough one with lots of plot lines, but ultimately Brent Key prevailed and became the head coach at Georgia Tech.Four months after that hire, Batt pulled the plug on Josh Pastner after a pair of underwhelming seasons coming off his ACC Championship. Pastner didn't have the resources to compete with his ACC peers at the time and many including myself thought that Batt would punt and give him one year to sink or swim. Then he very quickly hired Damon Stoudamire from the NBA after a quick series of discussions aided by NBA scheduling having Stoudamie and the Celtics in town. Ironically Stoudamire was only available because Stoudamire was passed over by the Celtics brass for Joe Mazzulla a fellow assistant coach on the Boston staff when Ie Udoka was suspended and later fired due to team policy violations stemming from an inappropriate relationship within the organization.
Both coaches had to rebuild their respective programs and find a way to develop proof of concept in a small window to hit the ground running with mismatched rosters.
Key overhauled the Georgia Tech offense hiring almost an entirely new staff except for QB coach Chris Weinke and kept part of the defensive staff that helped him win games as the interim head coach. The overhaul of the offense worked and the defense fell apart early before evening out some under interim DC Kevin Sherrer in the back half of the schedule. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't always fun to watch, but the Jackets got to a bowl game and finished on the plus side of .500 for the first time since 2018, Paul Johnson's last season. Key got the Jackets back to what he said should be the bare minimum floor for the program.
The offense found ways to use players like Jamal Haynes and Haynes King with short resumes and turned them into an All-ACC level performers. Key will now overhaul the defensive side of the ball this coming offseason.
Stoudamire's squad minus one of his best players Lance Terry this season and with Miles Kelly mired in a horrendous shooting slump nearly won the Diamond Head Classic, upset two top 25 teams already and sit at 8-4 going into ACC play next week at Florida State. That ties for the best start for the Jackets since 2016-17 Pastner's first season at Tech when he won ACC COY guiding another mismatched team to the NIT Championship.
The Jackets are likely to have a similar finish to Pastner's squad in the ACC, clawing through a gauntlet of a schedule with hopefully a NIT bid at the end of the road.
The football team reached a third-tier bowl and avenged a loss to UCF last year that got GC3 fired.
Both teams are loaded with young talent and have top recruiting classes coming in for 2024.
Both teams have young stars who need to develop and refine their game but are getting the attention of national media now in Eric Singleton Jr. and Kyle Efford on the football side with Baye Ndongo and Nait George on the hoops side.
Stoudamire resurrected the career of Kowacie Reeves just like Key did with King who was also a high-profile HS recruit who hadn't lived up to the hype at their previous school.
Where this all leads to I have no idea, but it is encouraging and interesting to see some of the early parallels between football and hoops. Things are trending the right way. Sustaining that success and building them up is important as well.
Anyway, enjoy the holidays. I'll be traveling to California tomorrow so that means there will be tons of breaking news for the Jackets.
