Local trip for this kid.

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Big physical safety type from Troup County.

Who were the 2 mystery recruits Kelly mentioned us going after?

Not like this
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Any close schools have portal wide receivers that we would be interested in? Would love to see Ted Hurst go into the portal. Plus it would cause a meltdown from their fanbase.

Have the success initiatives kicked in yet in the ACC and how exactly do those work again? Will GT benefit at all from being the most watched team in the conference?

KQ- I am uncertain how that works to be honest with you. There are probably a couple of posters who keep up with that stuff more than I do.

Is there any hope for fixing officiating or are conferences so dug in at this point with having their own league-affiliated officials? With the billions of dollars being thrown around on sports gambling, eventually something violent is going to happen to a ref who makes a bad call or a player who loses a game. And having conference officials is only going to contribute to the conspiracy theories when you look at a game like GT playing in Athens against a SEC brand with SEC officials and not being allowed to win the game.
IMO you could fix it with NCAA-wide officials or doing what bowl games do and have Big 12 officials work games like GT-UGA, but I don’t really see it happening.

KQ- There is zero incentive to de-centralize the officiating because the leagues want some level of control over it. That is the simple answer. There is no way that UGA would agree to having third-party officials for that game and you'd likely get the worst officials anyway because remember each league has a bunch of games so you'd get cross-eyed Joe and the rest of the worst of the Big XII alt-refs if you do that.

Troy Stevenson was a 4 star prospect. Was he injured? With the depletion of our secondary I kinda forgot all about him but never heard his name. What’s his situation?

KQ- Just because someone is highly rated does not mean they will play. He is a nickel right now and they had Shelley for most of the season, Syeed Gibbs and Omar Daniels and then CP Lee when they moved Daniels ahead of him. You aren't sitting one of them to just throw him into the rotation.

Aside from the added motivation this off-season are there any tangible positive things going on in the background as a result of the uga loss? (e.g. donors opening up their wallets, players that were on the fence deciding to run it back one more year, more urgency to go all in on the portal to win next year, etc)

KQ- I think the leadership buy-in is very high. That allowed President Cabrera to greenlight the raises for Brent Key and J Batt for example even though they are still paying off some dead money to GC3 and not exactly flush with cash. Some people have stepped up but there is a long way to go with getting to where Key and Batt want the football program in terms of financial support especially on the NIL front but that is changing rapidly as well over the next year with things moving in-house.

Last year you more or less said that no team not even Georgia gets everything they want when it comes to recruiting be it high school, or via the portal. What position do you think we come up short with besides line backer?

KQ- I think the WR position was lacking a marquee outside type and that looms larger with Eric Singleton Jr. cashing out in the portal. They made some attempts to get guys, but I think they fell short on a couple of key guys like Travis Smith for example who they made a strong push for late.

Will Key allow his grad transfers to travel and play in bowl game (they did the academic work and graduated). Or does he use this as the development for next years players while still focused on winning? Can early enrollees
Practice with team? I remember theother state team having high school kids come in early and practice for with playoff team.

KQ- Are you asking me if he is letting guys who are leaving play or guys who are coming in via the portal play. I think it is the second part and those transfers I believe are ineligible for the bowl game. Depending on when kids graduate and get their paperwork processed they can join the team for bowl practice, but cannot play in the bowl game unless something changed.

So we have NIL and Scholarships and no NLI’s. What binds a kid to a College as far as commitment?

KQ- They sign some financial aid agreements and things like housing that you would have to pay a lot of money to break out of. It is tricky to get out of those so you don't see a bunch of guys trying to get out of their signings when say a coach leaves for a better job in the December portal window. Most of those people would dip in the spring.

What’s the mood/vibe around the team right now? Obviously bummed about last week but is there a sense that they will come out of this stronger because of it?

KQ- They've been in exams and we haven't been around the team at all so it is hard to say. I think some are bummed that the bowl game is in Birmingham. It will take a few weeks to settle everything down.

Why is the ACC conference so bad in basketball this year? Is it bc the schools can’t keep up in NIL with other conferences?

KQ- I think it is a loss of elite coaches in a short span of time to retirements and there has been a pretty serious adjustment and you've had teams go through some really rough spells as well while the SEC has done a better job of upgrading some coaches and rosters. It's not a money thing, UNC spends more than anyone not named Kansas same with Duke.

Which young D Linemen will impress us next year.

KQ- Christian Garrett and Derry Norris on the bigger end of things and Andre Fuller.

My annual post season question....and when you have time.

How about a Report Card for all the redshirts going into 2025.

KQ- On the agenda when the portal closes.

Who are the two most underrated recruits from this cycle we signed

KQ- Cal Faulkner is just a great football player and he will find a role somewhere on the team IMO. I do like Fenix Felton a lot as well. I think folks are sleeping on him.

How much does Kirby pay the officials after each game?

KQ- Maybe that is where the old duffels of cash went from the old recruiting days. lol

From Kent State. Has been productive in his career.

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Does anyone know what hotel the team is staying at?

I’ve driven through Birmingham many times, but I’ve never stayed there.

I made reservations for 2 rooms at the Sheraton located just across from the stadium.
I think there is a Westin hotel located across from the stadium also.

I can cancel my reservation if anyone has a recommendation for a better hotel/location.

And has Penn State beating Ohio State in the national championship, including a 20-0 Penn State win over Georgia in the Final Four. (I could get on board with that.)

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Rivals forums provide a space for fans to talk about a variety of topics, often sports related but can be about many things related to their shared experiences as fans of their school. That said, the focus of the site and the revenue draw is based on having people connected with sports programs at schools and the recruiting system reporting on various things of interest to its subscribers. So why at this point in technological advancement, are the Rivals forums set up in a way that in order to find information from these "insiders", you have to read every post in every relevant thread? I love reading every single argument and meltdown that happens on here but c'mon, this is an outdated way to operate.

I appreciate Kelly (and in the past Russell and in the future Alex) creating new standalone locked threads where they can independently share information without getting clutter from everyone else (see Ex: Transfer Tracker 2024). But let's be honest, this is a janky workaround doing the best with what they have. It either kills conversation, or requires a second thread on the same topic in which a reader has to go back and forth if they want to discuss, and it's annoying to link posts between the threads.

The solution to this is simple. Allow site owners/mods (or everyone) to create special threads that can do both at once. On one panel you get the stream of information from the insiders. In another panel is a forum thread to discuss said information. This allows you to see both things at once and tools should be included to allow users to reference "insider" posts in the discussion panel. If a regular user makes a post that the owners/mods find should be part of the "reporting" panel, allow them the ability to add that post into the stream of intel.

This really shouldn't be that big of an undertaking, and would greatly improve Rivals' product and useability. It would elevate the profile of their insiders on the site which is only a benefit to their business. There may be small challenges in figuring out how to fit everything into a mobile interface, but overall a competent programmer should be able to complete this undertaking in a reasonable amount of time and cost. This seems like an easy win for Rivals, and something that should have already been done before 2024.

To a productive player from the FCS from Lithonia...

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From Jacksonville State...

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Monday, December 9, 2024


THE FLATS – Off to the best start since 1977-78, Georgia Tech women’s basketball jumped into the national rankings on Monday, being slotted at No. 25 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.

Coming off a dominating 78-42 win at Mercer on Sunday, the Jackets moved to 9-0 on the season. Georgia Tech is one of only 10 teams nationally, and the only team in the Atlantic Coast Conference, to remain undefeated on the season. The Yellow Jackets have picked up marquee wins early in the season, topping South Dakota State and then-No. 21 Oregon in Hawai’i to claim the Hawaii North Shore Showcase, while edging Mississippi State in the SEC/ACC Challenge. Georgia Tech delivered the first losses of the season to both Oregon and Mississippi State.

On the young season, the Yellow Jackets continue to lead the ACC in assist/turnover ratio (1.51) and three-point defense (24.1 percent), while holding a top-5 position in assists (17.67 assists per game), rebounding (42.67 rebounds per game), scoring offense (averaging 80.2 points per game) and scoring defense (limiting opponents to 54.9 points per game). Nationally, Tech is No. 7 in assist/turnover ratio and rank in the top 20 in rebound margin and three-point percentage defense.

Three Yellow Jackets are averaging double-figures offensively to pace Tech on the season. Freshman Dani Carnegie is leading the Jackets at 13.9 points per game. She also leads all freshmen in scoring in the ACC. Meanwhile, junior Kara Dunn follows closely behind Carnegie, chipping in 13.4 points and a team-best 6.9 rebounds per game, while Tonie Morgan contributes 11.4 points on average.

The Yellow Jackets return to the national rankings for the first time since the 2021-22 season when they spent 14 weeks in the top 25. The highest AP ranking in program history is No. 11, reached on Feb. 7, 2022. Tech was tabbed No. 10 in the WBCA Coaches Poll during the 2011-12 campaign.

Georgia Tech is one of five schools in the ACC in the national poll, joining No. 8 Notre Dame, No. 9 Duke, No. 14 North Carolina and No. 22 NC State.

The Yellow Jackets return home for a midweek tilt in McCamish Pavilion against Louisiana Monroe on Wednesday, Dec. 11. Tip is slated for 1 p.m. on ACC Network Extra.

Week 6 Poll – Dec. 9, 2024
1.UCLA
2. UConn
3. South Carolina
4. LSU
5. USC
6. Texas
7. Maryland
8. Notre Dame
9. Duke
10. Oklahoma
11. Ohio State
12. TCU
13. Kansas State
14. North Carolina
15. West Virginia
16. Kentucky
17. Michigan State
18. Iowa State
19. Tennessee
20. Michigan
21. Iowa
22. Ole Miss
NC State
24. Nebraska
25. Georgia Tech

A safety originally from Marietta that won conference rookie of the year after a huge freshman season at Richmond.

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Is this right? Just saw it on twitter. Not a good look for ACC if true.

From my interview with him. Gives some good insight on what led to the decision to flip to Tech and what kind of player he is.