Teased this recently, but wanted to share my take on this topic before the ball drops at midnight.

P.S. Saltine crackers are underrated.

ATLANTA - As 2023 winds down, and I go through my camera roll, 2023 was an eventful year.

In terms of Georgia Tech Athletics, specifically, it was a year full of change. A new head coach on the sidelines at McCamish Pavilion. A new era in Georgia Tech Football, led by former interim head coach Brent Key and the staff he was able to put together.

Each coach has had some significant recruiting wins in the last 12 months, and there's no better time than now to take a look back at the top five.

HONORABLE MENTION

Georgia State LHP/OF Cam Jones transfer to Georgia Tech (6/21)
Tucker RUSH CJ Jackson commits to GT over UGA, others (6/25)
Early evaluation, contact leads to commitment for G Naithan George (9/7)
Georgia Tech beats Maryland, others for Terps legacy G Jaeden Mustaf (9/14)
Rivals250 Fla. RB Anthony Carrie spurns Texas A&M, commits to GT (12/20)

TOP FIVE

No. 5- Kowacie Reeves returns home, transfers to GT from Florida​

- Reeves was a five-star coming out of high school, and in his time with the Gators, he showed flashes of being special. He just wasn't getting his chance to start, and as a result wasn't touching the ball enough to make the level of impact he was capable of.

After entering the portal and looking for a new home, Reeves had offers from schools all over the country.

Given the recruiting wins that have followed for Stoudamire and his staff, Reeves was the first big win.

No. 4- Warner Robins WR Isiah Canion flips from Notre Dame​

- Following a secret visit to the school, Georgia Tech WR coach Josh Crawford pulled off one of the biggest wins of the 2024 cycle for GT. Isiah Canion, thought by Notre Dame 'experts' to be locked in on his commitment to the Irish, had flipped to the hometown school.

For Canion, this was the end of his recruitment. He was not a fan of the buzz and interviews that go along with being a four-star recruit, and despite some shaky moments for the team on the field, Canion never wavered.

No. 3- Paul Moala transfers in to Georgia Tech by way of Idaho.. and balls out​

- One of the more under-rated additions to the 2023 roster, former Idaho LB Paul Moala came out of nowhere as a commitment to Brent Key and Georgia Tech.

With former LB Trenilyas Tatum looking as if he was ready to take the needed next step in his progression both on the field and off, the LB position seemed complete after spring football.

Something happened that indicated otherwise, and Georgia Tech became quite active in the transfer portal looking to spell Tatum, Oliver, and White.

Enter Paul Moala. It is unclear what other options he had at the time of his decision, but Moala was a critical part of a defense that did just enough to get Georgia Tech to bowl eligibility.

No. 2- Keylan Rutledge spurns Clemson, transfers to GT​

- Oh man, the roller coaster that took place on this one was unreal. Georgia Tech got in on Rutledge just after he entered the transfer portal and hosted him for multiple unofficial visits. Coming off of the first visit, a story was entered into the drafts on JOL to break his commitment, which was thought to be a matter of when, not if.

Clemson and new OL coach Matt Luke entered the equation, and pushed hard for a visit. Georgia Tech remained in contact with the former MTSU OL throughout the push, and went in-home as well.

The plan was for Rutledge and his family to visit Georgia Tech on Friday and Saturday, and from there go to Clemson on Sunday, and decide after.

Moments after dropping his family off en route back home, Rutledge got into a nasty one car accident, flipping his truck several times.

While the result was bumps, bruises, a totaled car, and a minor surgery, things could have been much worse.

He never did make that visit to Clemson.

Rutledge reached out to JOL just days later, after being discharged from the hospital. He wanted to give some fresh quotes for his upcoming commitment to OL coach Geep Wade and head coach Brent Key.

No. 1- Baye Ndongo flips from Rutgers to Georgia Tech​

- We've reached the end of the countdown. The No. 1 recruiting win shouldn't be too surprising, unless you don't follow GT basketball.

Baye Ndongo was a Top 130 recruit nationally last cycle. He was committed to Rutgers for over three months, but did not sign.

Georgia Tech head coach Damon Stoudamire was able to pry coach Karl Hobbs away from the Big Ten program, and the whispers began nearly instantly about him following Hobbs to Georgia Tech.

Ndongo let things play out, added some additional offers, but did in-fact end up choosing Georgia Tech.

The results? Going into the second-part of the 2024 season, Ndongo has already been named ACC Rookie of the Week three times, and the freshman forward is averaging 12ppg, 9.1 rpg, nearly 2 bpg, and is shooting 62% from the field.

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Uga is listed as a client as is Clemson. Did they get GT practice film?

Isn’t going anywhere. A video was made announcing the news. Yes, NIL is involved.
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GT is next up for them in basketball and football. Either we drive them into a deeper hole or serve as their rebound game. Let’s beat them like a drum.

Firstly - I think it's nearly unanimous that this was a grave error and that money has corrupted the sport. The "best team" argument (which is terrible in the first place) doesn't pass the s*** test - they would have put UGA in front of FSU if that was how they were doing it. They picked the the teams they wanted for money purposes.

Secondly - I realize FSU threw a temper tantrum this off-season and isn't a good guy in the grand scheme of things but if you want college football's integrity to be maintained, you gotta be able to put that aside for the betterment of the sport.

If you're GT, you now know you're screwed in future years if you're on the cusp of making the playoff as an at-large. If you're someone who ever played competitive sports, you know this shouldn't be how it works. So, how do you get the committee to course correct? To me the way is by screwing them over much worse than they screwed you. You boycott the bowl season. Watch how fast this fixes the problem.

Miami’s blunder leads to GT win. This never gets old.


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Man I loved this interview.

(Would love for our JOL lawyers to chime in) My understanding is that the one-time rule was recently struck down by an Ohio judge? I certainly understand why SCOTUS struck down the NCAA’s rule on NIL restrictions but I am scratching my head on this one. No student athlete is restricted from transferring every semester if they wish - this is simply about a rule to fairly administer competition. It seems that free transfer with no competition penalty will be the most damaging development for the degrading of fan interest of College football than any of the other recent changes. But…. Maybe there is a legal argument I don’t understand. Thoughts?

Only 2 ACC teams play all 8 ACC games against 2023 bowl attendees (GT & FSU). Only 2 ACC teams play all 4 ACC teams that did not go bowling in 2023 (Clemson & California)

Bowl Teams on 2024 Football Schedule

GaTech - 11 (8 ACC)
FSU - 11 (8 ACC)
Miami - 10 (7 ACC)
Duke* - 9 (7 ACC)
Stanford - 9 (7 ACC)
VaTech - 9 (6 ACC)
Virginia - 9 (6 ACC)
Pittsburgh - 8 (7 ACC)
Boston Co* - 8 (6 ACC)
NCState - 8 (6 ACC)
Louisville - 8 (5 ACC)
Syracuse* - 7 (6 ACC)
Wake Forest - 7 (6 ACC)
UNC - 7 (5 ACC)
Clemson - 7 (4 ACC)
SMU* - 6 (5 ACC)
California - 6 (4 ACC)

*BC, Duke, Syracuse, & SMU have one spot to fill on schedule

For those curious, UGA plays 8 total and 6 in the SEC.

GT sources were not aware of any change being made at this time both on and off the record.

Has entered the transfer portal, per source.

per footballscoop - Thacker and Tillman are out

I’ll share what we can.

Miami looks terrible. Must be the cold.

confirming Ken's report

Per our Adam Friedman-

FWIW I too have heard Georgia Tech making a push for Barnes Jr. but was taking it with a grain of salt due to them not having a DB coach. Something to monitor, for sure.

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.

I didn’t know he was retiring, but here’s his farewell column.

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How about a YouTube episode on what/who Key is searching for? We won't hold your opinions against you, except for @Russell Johnson --- we hold everything against him.

Is Key looking for a scheme & then a coach to implement it? Does he have guys in mind? Who do you think he is waiting on to finish bowl season? Is there a timeline?

Will there be any holdovers? Clean slate? Are we falling behind Texas State? Is Sherrer going to be full time DC? Will Thacker & Tillman pull a Felix and exit the coaches' portal? 😁

Thanks in advance @Kelly Quinlan and if it can't be done we know whose fault it is. 😁