FOOTBALL RECRUITING Note on an LB target to follow moving forward..
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BASEBALL Logan Bogue..
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Has entered the transfer portal, I have learned.
Bogue pitched 1.2 innings this season, allowing 2 ER on 2 H, with 5 BB and 1 K.
Bogue pitched 1.2 innings this season, allowing 2 ER on 2 H, with 5 BB and 1 K.
FOOTBALL Podcast with me previewing Gt
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I helped out a young broadcaster with his podcast yesterday talking Gt
Q's Take Sponsored by Inteleca: Naming Rights Deal the Right Move
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Thanks to our new sponsor Inteleca for helping bring back Q's Take my weekly look at things around GT and college sports from my vantage.
Kicking the debt can down the road and trying to win big on a budget in the ACC was a formula that Paul Johnson somehow made work, but even the gas ran out of that can as the divide grew in his final years at Tech and his frustrations grew to the point of quitting. Two different ADs hired men's basketball coaches that other schools fanbases were on the verge of turning on and that turned into one NCAA Tournament appearance and one ACC title over 12 years.
Like someone with massive credit card debt, Georgia Tech needed to tackle its budget numbers. The debt service for the stadium expansion and other projects rolled into that was eating up ten-plus million a year in the budget. That led to cheapness for Paul Johnson, Josh Pastner, and even to a lesser extent Geoff Collins when it came to who they could hire and the size of their support staff and the quality of their on-the-court/field staff. That contributed to a lot of losses and downward attendance in the two major revenue sports for GT further staining the bottom line.
AD J Batt came in with the marching orders to fix the financial side of things from President Cabrera and to fix the on-the-field product. They have been chipping away with various projects since last fall including the scholarship match program "Competitive Drive Initiative" and other projects and fundraisers.
The good news is there is more money coming via the ACCN deal, ticket sales should pick up with both major sports under new head coaches and both of those coaches are under favorable contracts that are not breaking the bank for GT.
Still, they need to turn over every rock to find money wherever possible.
That leads us to one of the easiest ways to make money without having to do much other than annoy some longtime fans and that is selling the naming rights to the stadium or part of them. In this case, as the AJC reported the deal is with Hyundai the auto manufacturer who is aiming to pair up with Georgia Tech on multiple levels including athletics. Per our sources this should be a lucrative deal for Tech and the Jackets are far from the only program with this happening.
Most schools that do major renovations or replace buildings rename them after wealthy alums or sell the rights. We all saw that when they tore down the AMC and the McCamish family got the naming rights for the new arena.
With NIL becoming a big draw for donations now, the leadership is trying to be creative with revenue streams. Folks should support this and the idea that they are trying to be creative in fielding a competitive product rather than borrowing more money or underfunding sports. Tech also has to pay out a smaller buyout to Josh Pastner and a very large one to Geoff Collins. Luckily by hiring Key and Stoudamire, they avoided having to pay buyouts to other programs.
This was a necessary move to increase cash flow and try to balance the books while Brent Key and Damon Stoudamire try to fill their respective venues with quality products over the next few years.
It is the right move. Will everyone love it? Hell no. Do I have people bitching at me privately about it? Yes. Do they understand why they are doing it though? Yes.
This is a weird time in college sports and a transitional moment on so many levels and I'm sure that Batt is keenly aware of that. He is trying to position the program for the future and sometimes you have to say goodbye to the past to do that.
Kicking the debt can down the road and trying to win big on a budget in the ACC was a formula that Paul Johnson somehow made work, but even the gas ran out of that can as the divide grew in his final years at Tech and his frustrations grew to the point of quitting. Two different ADs hired men's basketball coaches that other schools fanbases were on the verge of turning on and that turned into one NCAA Tournament appearance and one ACC title over 12 years.
Like someone with massive credit card debt, Georgia Tech needed to tackle its budget numbers. The debt service for the stadium expansion and other projects rolled into that was eating up ten-plus million a year in the budget. That led to cheapness for Paul Johnson, Josh Pastner, and even to a lesser extent Geoff Collins when it came to who they could hire and the size of their support staff and the quality of their on-the-court/field staff. That contributed to a lot of losses and downward attendance in the two major revenue sports for GT further staining the bottom line.
AD J Batt came in with the marching orders to fix the financial side of things from President Cabrera and to fix the on-the-field product. They have been chipping away with various projects since last fall including the scholarship match program "Competitive Drive Initiative" and other projects and fundraisers.
The good news is there is more money coming via the ACCN deal, ticket sales should pick up with both major sports under new head coaches and both of those coaches are under favorable contracts that are not breaking the bank for GT.
Still, they need to turn over every rock to find money wherever possible.
That leads us to one of the easiest ways to make money without having to do much other than annoy some longtime fans and that is selling the naming rights to the stadium or part of them. In this case, as the AJC reported the deal is with Hyundai the auto manufacturer who is aiming to pair up with Georgia Tech on multiple levels including athletics. Per our sources this should be a lucrative deal for Tech and the Jackets are far from the only program with this happening.
Most schools that do major renovations or replace buildings rename them after wealthy alums or sell the rights. We all saw that when they tore down the AMC and the McCamish family got the naming rights for the new arena.
With NIL becoming a big draw for donations now, the leadership is trying to be creative with revenue streams. Folks should support this and the idea that they are trying to be creative in fielding a competitive product rather than borrowing more money or underfunding sports. Tech also has to pay out a smaller buyout to Josh Pastner and a very large one to Geoff Collins. Luckily by hiring Key and Stoudamire, they avoided having to pay buyouts to other programs.
This was a necessary move to increase cash flow and try to balance the books while Brent Key and Damon Stoudamire try to fill their respective venues with quality products over the next few years.
It is the right move. Will everyone love it? Hell no. Do I have people bitching at me privately about it? Yes. Do they understand why they are doing it though? Yes.
This is a weird time in college sports and a transitional moment on so many levels and I'm sure that Batt is keenly aware of that. He is trying to position the program for the future and sometimes you have to say goodbye to the past to do that.
FOOTBALL RECRUITING JOL Projected 2024 class: July Edition
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Look for this to be a monthly feature moving forward.
Also, with so many commits, look for an earlier start to the next cycle (2025) than you may be used to.
Enjoy.
-RJ
georgiatech.rivals.com
Also, with so many commits, look for an earlier start to the next cycle (2025) than you may be used to.
Enjoy.
-RJ
JOL Projected 2024 Class: July Edition
The July dead period is off-and-running. The coaches on staff at Georgia Tech, led by Brent Key are enjoying some
FOOTBALL RECRUITING GT has four-star TE Ryan Ghea’s attention following June visit
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JacketsOnline - GT has the attention of four-star Milton TE Ryan Ghea following June visit
The recruitment of four-star Milton TE Ryan Ghea is heating up. Ghea has an impressive offer list which includes the
georgiatech.rivals.com
JOL Mailbag 7/10 Sponsored by Auto-Owners Insurance
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Kelly, what's your plan for Ireland? You planning to go and cover the game only or take part in one of the GT travel packages?
KQ- I'll definitely be there. My wife will be going as well but she probably won't go to the game this time. I think we are going to go over to Scotland or the UK for a bit and then tour around Ireland and she is going to come back home to my sons while I stay back for the game. I like to travel my own way and book all my own stuff so I won't be using a travel package.
The last time GT played there was my honeymoon and my wife and I flew over 10 days before and did a grand tour of Western Europe clocking about 1,000 km in a rental car across Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany and then a few days in Ireland. There are some other parts of Ireland I would like to see this time and also I'd like to go up to Northern Ireland as well. I'm hoping my mom who has been researching our family history can come up with some places for me to check out because both sides of my family came from Ireland prior to moving to the US.
Do you believe that the transfer portal is affecting the way coaches play their guys?
For example. Let's say player X was a 3* in high school and he couldn't get the offers he wanted so he went to a smaller school. He's now on the college campus and looks like a 5* stud in practice/weight room. If he shows out, you know he'll take the NIL and leave.
Do coaches have a dilemma of how to play him and how much?
KQ- That scenario absolutely not. That is how you get fired. You can't hold guys back. If someone is doing that they will be unemployed soon or lose their locker room.
The scenario I am hearing about impacts schools that are paying HS kids as it creates issues in the locker room with the guys who have been playing and making less money, it impacts motivation for some of the kids and coachability as well.
Any word on how this visit went? Any chance you or Russell can interview Sacko like you do football recruits after their visits?
KQ- We've tried, the issue is from what I've gathered he doesn't speak English well enough to interview and no one knows how to get in touch with him either. There are 0.0 interviews with him on any network or even the basketball sites. We will keep trying but that is tough to crack.
It’s getting close and I’m excited to see what BF’s offense will look like. I feel like every aspect of the team will be much much better just simply with better Coaching as a whole. I’m still realistic in my W/L record predictions but my question is should I also be a little more realistic in the offensive scheme changes and giving more time to develop?
KQ- The fate of the offense will come down to a few simple ingredients and how they meld together on the field. The first is the skill guys like the wide receivers, they have slots but the outside guys are exclusively guys who have either played very little or haven't played here much or have limited career production outside of Abdul Janneh at the FCS level, Chase Lane at Baylor and Dominick Blaylock at UGA those three transfers and Blaylock has missed 25 career games to injuries to this point.
Let me illustrate my point.
Career Receiving #s in college
Abdul Janneh 54 rec, 694, 10 TDs at FCS level
Chase Lane- 48 rec, 617 yards 2 TDs
Dominick Blaylock- 35 rec, 548 yards, 6 TDs
Leo Blackburn 5 rec, 81 yards, 1 TD
If you go to 2022 production it looks worse aside from Janneh who had his one big season last year
Blaylock 15 rec, 225 yards, 1 TD
Lane 7 rec, 76 yards, 0 TDs
James BlackStrain has one career target that is the next most experienced dude. That's it.
Malik Rutherford is the only really experienced slot guy. Christian Leary had 64 career snaps at Bama and one career catch.
So they will need a lot to happen there.
The RB spot will be a key as well. How does Dontae Smith hold up? What do they get from Tre Cooley and how quickly can Jamie Felix and Evan Dickens assert themselves into the mix?
The TE production I do think will be better if everyone is healthy. I think both Dylan Leonard and Luke Benson's injuries messed them up last year and their position coach got in their head for whatever reason and that didn't help. Brett Seither is really hellbent on making the most out of this upcoming season to show he is a lot better than people think he is.
I think both Zach Pyron and Haynes King can run the offense so that is an improvement over really the QB situation since maybe TaQuon Marshall and Matthew Jordan going back like six or seven years.
You have several players as future adds to GT 2024 football class. That will be great if they come to GT.
One is committed to Miami. One has others projecting UGA. One hasn’t said much about anyone or even started visiting.
What gives you a good or 51%+ feeling about these players ending up at GT?
KQ- This is a question for @Russell Johnson and he is usually pretty good with his projected classes all things being equal.
* As he enters for his first full season as head coach, how do you think CBK will prepare for the clock management responsibilities he will now own? That was one of my few nitpicks last season in a couple end of half/game situations after CBK took over.
KQ- I think there is a learning curve for all head coaches when it comes to that stuff and he is keenly aware of those situations you are mentioning. Key has been studying and working his ass off to try to get ready for the challenge. Coaching live is obviously very different so it will come down to how he handles it, but I can also say having covered two pretty respected HCs over the years in Paul Johnson and before that the religious guy at the school to the East, there were times I would question calls or clock decisions even with guys considered to be excellent game day coaches.
* With the pending Northwestern fallout, do you think programs around the country will begin deep diving and eliminating any types of perceived hazing activities that may be ongoing within their programs?
KQ- I had no idea stuff like this happened anymore. I figured in the day and age of cell phones it would be very difficult to pull the stuff I saw in HS and declined to participate in. Back then you could opt out by just throwing fists or whatever, but who knows what the culture is like at a school. That sounded like some weird frat boy shit to me.
It is a little odd to me that this hasn't leaked out prior to now given how long it supposedly went on and if it was as well-known as people say.
Schools constantly check on their SAs in different ways and a lot of complaints about various things are fielded throughout an athletic department so I'm sure some schools that had some complaints are quaking in their boots at the moment hoping someone doesn't lawyer up.
