Looks like he got his degree today and he is DAMN proud of it.

The last slide of his IG post is a video. He says to Brent Key, "I am so damn proud of you. You got this program turned around."

This almost brought tears to my eyes for how much he appreciates the school and coach.

Link to his IG. His most recent post.

https://www.instagram.com/quezjackson4?igsh=MXg0MDhrNnJzZDZoNw==

Has anyone been by the bookstore to see if the new Adidas Jerseys have come in? Mine finally bit the dust this past week.

THE FLATS – Twenty-nine student-athletes are among the Georgia Tech students that will graduate from the Institute in commencement ceremonies held this weekend at McCamish Pavilion and Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field.



The Yellow Jackets’ 29 graduating student-athletes includes 27 receiving bachelor’s degrees and two – football’s Will Scissum and Brett Seither – that have earned master’s degrees.



The graduates were celebrated during Tech athletics’ traditional graduation brunch on Friday, which featured the graduates receiving their special graduation stoles that recognize them as student-athletes during the commencement ceremonies. Graduates Avery Boyd (football), Bailey Chapin (softball) and John Watkins (men’s track and field) were featured speakers at the graduation brunch.



Georgia Tech athletics’ full list of graduates includes:



Football

Zeek Biggers (business administration)

Leo Blackburn (business administration)

Avery Boyd (literature, media and communication)

Jordan Brown (business administration)

Christian Burkhalter (literature, media and communication)

Kaleb Edwards (business administration)

Weston Franklin (business administration)

Quez Jackson (history, technology and society)

Abdul Janneh, Jr. (business administration)

Christian Leary (literature, media and communication)

Ben Postma (business administration)

Zach Pyron (business administration)

Corey Robinson II (business administration)

Joshua Robinson (business administration)

Will Scissum (master’s – civil engineering)

Makius Scott (business administration)

Brett Seither (master’s – international security)



Softball

Bailey Chapin (biology)

Madison Dobbins (literature, media and communication)



Men’s Swimming and Diving

Wiggo Frohde (industrial engineering)

Batur Unlu (computer science)



Men’s Track and Field

John Watkins (electrical engineering)



Volleyball

Laura Fischer (business administration)

Tamara Otene (history, technology and society)



Spirit

Carol-Anne Collins (literature, media and communication)

Taylor Ellington (civil engineering)

Matthew Kozlowski (mechanical engineering)

Amelia Mutert (biology)

Stephanie Vagelos (biology)

My sister just sent this to me and I’m trying to figure it out. Such a cool nostalgia filled thing for when anyone of us was growing up. They literally replay media from that specific decade. AND they have it from the 50’s to the 00’s. Explore and lemme know what y’all think. Even has the old school tv static!

The portal is a bit of an ever-moving target as I'm finding out my first cycle covering it for this job, but I think everything is updated on the tracker.

I'll hopefully have updates on a few guys at some point today. Getting ahold of portal targets is more difficult than high school kids sometimes because of their schedules and agents/middle men being involved more. But I'm trying!

My source on him visiting is me because I saw him walk through the building alongside E-Joe with my own two eyes while we were waiting on player media today.

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We had media with the players in the team meeting room today due to our normal spot being used for transfer visitor photoshoots. So the normal working area after media wasn't available afterwards. I'm headed home and will get notes and quotes up as soon as I can this afternoon.

But of note, Haynes King said he expects to be back next year as of now. He said you never can say anything 100 percent, but he is planning on returning for another season at Tech. He also said he feels good physically and close to 100 percent after the last game and a couple weeks to get healed and rested up.

Got some good stuff from King, Jordan Williams and LaMiles Brooks today. I'll have it up later. Headed for the house now.

Later this week. From Columbus and had a huge freshman season at Penn.

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Paperwork starting to come in for several of the commits as they officially turn from commits into signees...

Starting with Andre Fuller Jr. ...

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Was the first commit in the 2025 class so might as well be the first signee.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.- Georgia Tech football coach Brent Key met with the media on Thursday in the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame along with Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea ahead of the 2024 Birmingham Bowl.

"I've said bowl games are about matchups and getting matchups that are the most entertaining for the fans and most competitive for the teams," Key said. "A lot of teams are already looking forward to next season, but our mentality is this is a chance to get extra practices in and to be able to prepare for a game and for next season, but the main thing is to send the seniors out with a win and compete for one more time as this version of the 2024 Georgia Tech football team."

Having both Key and Lea as alums of their respective programs adds more to the game as well in Key's view.

"To get the matchup that they have with Vanderbilt and us, two head coaches that are both alums that played at their respective schools and it being a storybook kind of season for Vanderbilt and two schools from an academic standpoint that are so highly regarded worldwide makes this a great game," Key said.



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Key said he has people on his staff dealing with all the ticket requests from people back home.

Key said that he isn't a believer in momentum and they've had 3-4 weeks off now and they are busy practicing and will practice tomorrow. The team believes in each other and they have fun playing the game and the staff have done a great job this year of preparing the whole team. They are excited about the opportunity to play Vandy.

Key was asked about Belichick getting the UNC job, he said he didn't know about it until 7 pm last night and they aren't on the schedule so he doesn't really have an opinion one way or another.

Key said that he has been filtering all the portal stuff through the staff and then mainly focusing his energy on the guys actually visiting. He said they are watching 100-200 kids down stairs and then it filters down to maybe 50 and then the assistants bring a couple of those to him. He said it comes in waves though.

Key was watching portal film in the car (they drove over) and will watch it going back on kids.

Key said he is pleased that the ticket sales have been good for the game and he hopes GT fans show up to send out the senior class on the right note.

They've been working with the younger kids this week in practice and Key said they have development periods for one hour on Thursdays for those kids but they are going to do a little scrimmage tomorrow with them.

Key said that he is working hard to keep his staff together and he has had those conversations about keeping the group together and he joked he hopes they are busy recruiting and not talking to people about other jobs.

I asked if he thinks he thinks they'll hold onto everyone who hasn't gone in the portal and he said that the players that are here will play and the players that aren't won't.

Key said that there are so many external factors at play with the kids and the media and social media these days and when they leave he isn't looking in the past or worrying about anything, he is focused on building the best roster he can for a championship next year.

I asked him if it is special both his bowl games have been connected to his past playing UCF last year and then coaching back home in Birmingham this year, he said it seems like the UCF game was 10 years ago right now, but he said it is pretty cool and he is running out of things he is connected to, Chad interjected he could play Alabama next year in the playoffs and Key decided not to crack a joke about that.

Key was in a good mood and we pretty happy.

It appears that are staff is now going after players that have excelled at smaller programs. We appear to be trying to pick off the cream of the crop with these type players.

We don’t “seem” to be targeting as many P4 studs. It seems to me that these guys have been injured players or guys that look great but may not have “the hunger” to succeed.

Why does this make sense?
A. Hungry guys working hard for an opportunity.
B. Lower cost because you are giving them more exposure instead of a ton of cash.
C. You aren’t getting someone else’s cast off.
D. You can get smart and talented guys that value a GT education (Ivy League, Grad Transfers)

We have to be adaptive to the market and get the best we can for our investment.

This was the first surprise of the portal season for Georgia Tech as he wasn't on our list of expected departures. Tough one. Good player. He'll get paid by someone in the portal.

For a visit.

The former Woodward Academy standout had more than 80 tackles this past season at Florida Atlantic.

This one has been a little bit on the down low this week, but apparently the linebacker from Nebraska, Mikai Gbayor, will visit Georgia Tech tomorrow and/or Saturday and has canceled all other visits after that.

He visited Missouri earlier this week and will decide between those two soon.

Gbayor had 49 tackles, one sack, three pass defenses and two fumble recoveries this past season for Nebraska. He has two years of eligibility remaining. He's 6-2, 230.

In the portal from Alabama. Four-star 5.9 in the 2023 class.

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Picking up offers left and right.

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As they try to add a special teams piece to the 2025 class in February. Pretty impressive stats for a high school senior with 14-of-18 field goals this year, including two from 50-plus. Also had 53 touchbacks.

ATLANTA- Georgia Tech men's basketball coach Damon Stoudamire and his team will head up to Milwaukee this weekend to face Northwestern in Fiserv Forum home of the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday afternoon.

Stoudamire is excited to his team back on the road in an NBA arena after a great experience last year in Madison Square Garden when the Jackets knocked off Penn State in overtime.

"It is a good experience on both fronts," Stoudamire said. "Being able to play Northwestern this year just like we played Penn State last year in Madison Square Garde, I actually shared one of my greatest moments as a player and then as an assistant coach for Boston came in Milwaukee. As a coach, we were down 3-2 backing in 2022 and (Jayson) Tatum goes in there and goes for 40 and we took them to gave seven and went back to Boston and closed them out so that was a great moment."

The Jackets have navigated injuries to two starters over the last two weeks with Javian McCollum sidelined with a lingering concussion from the Cincinnati game and Kowacie Reeves battling a foot injury during a tough stretch against ranked teams on the road in Oklahoma and North Carolina. Stoudamire says he feels like his team is heading in the right direction after playing both of those teams close shorthanded.

"The most important thing for me and even talking to them is that we are going in the right direction," he said. "Most people win or lose, and don't get me wrong there is a left-hand and right-hand column, but I think in our case, we either win or we learn and we just got to keep learning and don't allow built-in excuses and we are right there in games, but there are a couple of things we've got to clean up and that is the excitement I have going into this game Sunday."

On McCollum's status, Stoudamire borrowed a term from Tech football coach Brent Key and said he is hopeful his senior guard and top-scorer will be back.

"I'm hoping he will be back for this game," he said. "Anybody who knows me knows you don't need practice, you just got to get in there and play. So having that extra body would be good and we've missed him, missed his shooting, and missed his veteran presence. Having Javian back for Sunday would be great news for the team."
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Stoudamire said that the team still has to learn the value of each possession and that was big late in the UNC game as they squandered some opportunities throughout the game and it cost them late.

Stoudamire said the defense has been improving and they played really well at UNC, Elliot Cadeau hit a tough three that was well-defended late to win the game for the Heels, but they are playing well and it will payback in wins if they keep playing hard on D.

Stoudamire said this week they've worked a lot on scripted situations for late game and then done a lot of indy work and detail-focused practices.

Stoudamire said that Darrion Sutton will likely be ready to go on Sunday coming off a hamstring injury, but his role is TBD, he is hoping there are no setbacks between now and then.

Stoudamire expects a physical game from a veteran team in Northwestern.

On Jaeden Mustaf, Stoudamire said he has to learn that he can't run guys over and at his size he has to take what the D gives him and that could be a pull-up jumper and he needs to hit those and that is what better guards will do. He said he is big on analytics and there are a lot of very successful guards that are good in the mid-range game and in the paint with short shots and Mustaf needs to play like that. He said he loved Mark Price and he was 75-80% on pull-ups and he wants Jaeden to master that shot.

Hey, it’s poll time

SMH!

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