I had not seen this mentioned before. It looks like a portion of Marietta St. would be closed and developed by Tech.

Included would be a soccer/other use stadium, and other much needed athletic fields.

This would be an amazing new development for Georgia Tech.

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ATLANTA- Georgia Tech continued preparing for the annual spring game on Monday with a shorter practice following a heavy scrimmage on Saturday. After practice, defensive line coach Marco Coleman, secondary coach Travares Tillman, and special teams coordinator Ricky Brumfield spoke to the media for the first time this spring about their respective groups.

The Jackets coaching staff will decide on a roster format and other details about the spring game this week so the media session was focused on each position group and how those units have looked this spring.

Brumfield detailed how he ended up joining Georgia Tech from FIU where he worked under a friend of head coach Brent Key and a former Yellow Jacket as well, Mike MacIntyre.

"Coach Key knew a lot of coaches that coached with or knew personally. What I appreciate is I know he did his background check and he talked to maybe ten coaches in regard to me coming here. So when a position became available, he had some people reach out to him regarding me and they gave him a good recommendation. I paid them well to do that for me," Brumfield said jokingly.

Brumfield spent four seasons at Virginia as the special teams coordinator for Bronco Mendenhall before heading down to Miami to join MacIntyre's staff in his first season with the Panthers.

"Having familiarity with the conference and a high academic institution, it just all worked out," Brumfield said. "Coach Key gave me an opportunity to be here and I'm blessed to be here."


Brumfield said they were working on punt height in particular with David Shanahan as he noticed that was a major issue with the punt coverage and caused some of the returns last year, he is looking for him to steadily improve. He said Shanahan has a great leg and he is an athlete back there and willing to learn which is the biggest thing. He said he worked on some other technical points as well.

Brumfield said he understood why they went with the shield last year after having punts blocked and he said when you do that you have to be very specific about who you have covering kicks downfield and they have to do their job and Shanahan has to give them some height too and understand that part of it as well. He said it is a work in progress to get all those things in line.

I asked how R-Fr kicker Aidan Birr is coming along off his knee injury that caused him to miss the last year and he said that he is very smooth. They have not had him fully extended yet doing kickoffs, but he is kicking well on PAT/FG and they are able to rotate him and Gavin Stewart on that. He said one thing he likes about Birr is he is not rattled when he misses a kick. He has been impressed with his temperament. He wants to see how he competes when he is fully healed and back to 100% in the fall.

Brumfield said he would love to have a different guy for punt, kickoff and FG/PAT if possible because that keeps everyone fresh and everyone engaged. He said that leg fatigue can be a thing during the season if you are doing two or all three things with one guy so he likes when guys have their own specialty.

Brumfield said that Coach Key has emphasized special teams and he allows him to work in periods throughout the practice to work on teaching different aspects of it as well as 11v11 periods and individual periods. Key has shown how important it is and even with meetings and letting him run the special teams aspect of things, has been very impressive to him.

I asked about punt return and Brumfield said his main goal is fielding the ball and getting it back to the offense. He said he doesn't care if the PR guy runs a 5.0 flat 40, they have to catch the ball. Malik Rutherford has been doing a good job with that and Christian Leary has been doing a good job as well as Rodney Shelley and DJ Moore are the guys working on PR. He said making a guy miss after they field it cleanly is really important with PR and he said he talks about getting chunks of land back for the offense with his return guys to flip field position.

I also asked about KR, he didn't get into specific players, but he said it is similar to PR, but the difference is the KR gets hit every time they return the ball and you have to have a guy who can take some contact and hold on to the ball and they have to trust their technique and the scheme with that.

Brumfield said he expects in the spring game they will do some kickoff and return as well as punting and FG/PAT. How much is live and the format of that will be determined in meetings this week.

Ken was back and asked about Key giving him autonomy to use who he wants from O/D for special teams units and he said that you have to be smart and you don't want your starters on all four special teams because you will wear them out, so he wants to use them the right way like maybe using a sub if you are pooch punting instead of the starting whatever. He has to help take care of the bodies of the players. He said that is something they are working on this spring, building quality depth across the various phases and then understanding the player loads and when he needs to give someone a play to rest.

Jeff Goodman just confirmed my report on Rutgers associate head coach Karl Hobbs heading to Georgia Tech.

Here you go.

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GOING TO BE A TWO OR THREE POST LIST, FYI

PROSPECTS WITH OFFERS-
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NO OFFER YET-
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Can’t imagine this doesn’t help our recruiting messaging. So many times we hear about the engineering program rankings, but this appears to be focused on management. Certainly engineering grads could factor in to “management consulting” salaries, but I’d be shocked if isn’t a great talking point for us!

Among the updates- unlimited amount of official visits for recruits.

Wild Wild West upcoming.
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Alright alright alright.

Tonight’s format is going to be a little different.. rather than answering live and locking the thread at the end, I’m going to leave this thread open until 10ish.

Once locked, I’ll begin answering questions once I get back home from picking up my wife from an influencer event.

Let the fun begin..

P.S. Kelly and I have a content treat for you guys on Saturday 🙂

ATLANTA- Wednesday marked the final media availability for Georgia Tech football prior to the spring game. The Jackets will have a walk-through at Bobby Dodd Stadium on Friday and then practice #15 will be the annual spring game on Saturday in Bobby Dodd Stadium. A trio of defensive players spoke to the media on Wednesday, safety Jaylon King, defensive tackle Akelo Stone and defensive end Sylvian Yondjouen.

For King, this spring marks his return to the field after breaking his tibia in the Pitt game in week five last year on the road. He was only cleared to run just before the start of spring ball.

"It has been slow and steady progress," King said of his return to the field. "It was really weird. I didn't think I would have to teach myself how to walk again, but for the first month or so I had to walk heel-to-toe without swinging my leg out and things like that. After the December break, around mid-January, and into February things started picking up and I was able to start jogging and running. Then around early March, I was able to turn and cut without feeling much pain or as much stiffness around the leg area."

The injury and severity of it came because of a pre-existing issue with a stress fracture in his leg he was trying to play through and a fluke moment in the Pitt game turned that into a full-on break.

"It was an issue that we were watching starting back in the summer. I had stress fractures throughout my leg so we were just trying to monitor it and try to make it through the season. Unfortunately during the Pitt game, I got into an awkward situation and the tibia ended up fracturing and snapping," he said. "I ended up getting a couple of pins and a rod down the leg."

King said spending time off the field gave him a different appreciation for the whole game because he could watch the entire team without just focusing on his spot and he got to watch the offense more and learn why they were doing things and why they worked or didn't work and that gave him some perspective on how to play defense better.

King said the competition has been fun in the safety room this spring and they are always sharing tips and trying to help each other. It is not a cutthroat thing.

King said during his injury he was in team meeting and then would do rehab and he would watch the installs at practice and he would try to help Clayton Powell-Lee with stuff from the sideline.

King said his confidence is slowly coming back in his leg, he said he is at about 80% right now but he can do all the drills, it was just very weird when they started doing them again.

King said that he has been impressed with the two transfer LBs, Andre White Jr. has been out some with an injury, but he really has enjoyed watching Braelen Oliver in front of him this spring and how quickly he has learned the schemes.

When asked about comparing his experience under different head coaches, King said that Coach Key is very straightforward and only cares about ball. He really could careless about what goes on if it doesn't help to win and to bring "GT back to glory."

King said that Key has done a nice job of mixing the types of practices to give them quality reps and be physical, but pull back when needed, he said it makes it seem like it isn't more physical than the past, but the quality of work is probably higher now.

King graduated in the fall with a degree in Civil Engineering, he said the toughest part about it was once he got high enough up in his program they ran out of people who could tutor him in the AA so he had to use more peer groups. He is aiming to start his master's at GT in building construction this fall.

Next up was Akelo Stone, I asked him about his strides on the field this spring, he said he has been more focused on and off the field and he is trying to just take each day as it comes instead of getting caught up in other concerns.

Stone said that having Coach Coleman back is cool and he had already built a relationship with him off the field. He said as far as technical coaching goes, Coleman wants them to use their hands more than they did last year and that wasn't a huge part of their game last year, he wants them to be very violent with their hands. He thinks all the DL are playing at a high level.

I asked him about Brian Baker being on staff, he said that he has been very beneficial as a guy who coached at the highest pinnacle of the game and he has tremendous football knowledge, but he preaches that it is about fundamentals and technique and that is what makes great DL, he said he is a great compliment to coach Coleman.

I asked Stone about the young DLs, he said that KJ Miles, Horace Lockett, Shymiek Jones and Jason Moore are all grinding and trying to get the techniques down and improve every day. He said that has been the overall approach for the DL as a group.

Stone said the toughness thing you could see with him as a position coach on the staff and he knew once he became the head coach that toughness would be part of the DNA of the team. Stone said that you could really see that in the workouts and how hard they worked and how tough Coach Key wants them to be. More weights and things of that nature.

Yondjouen was up last and he said he has been really inspired by watching Keion White's journey. He said last year Keion had that giant club on his hand and was just playing so hard and he has seen guys get drafted, but not really his position group so it is inspiring to all the DLs, it shows how real and attainable it can be through hard work. He said he is dreaming about joining him in the NFL and he would likely be the first Belgian football player in the NFL.

He said that White taught him about toughness playing through all the stuff he had to deal with like the club or the leg injury and just being focused on helping the team and doing your best job.

Yondjouen said he will still watch tape of himself from four years ago and he looks at everything as a teaching rep and a chance to correct things, he thinks he will be a lot more productive this year.

Ken asked him about something we see at the end of practice, the DL doing up/downs and he said that is caused by false starts, coach Coleman wants zero false starts and that is about mental toughness and not physical toughness so there is no excuse for doing that.

Brandon Collier the guy from PPI who helped get Yondjouen was there watching practice and I spoke with him and asked Yondjouen about the journey from being a guy who hadn't played real competitive football to a potential starter in the ACC, he said there have been a lot of ups and downs since he got to GT and even just understanding what the O-line is doing to what the QB is doing has changed completely. He said when he started playing he would just play his gap and whatever happened there happened, but he has learned to understand the game and how to impact it and why and what the offense is trying to do and how to read his keys so he can follow the game easier and react at a higher level. He just didn't have that base knowledge coming in.

Yondjouen also said the workouts were more focused in the weight room with AJ Artis and then transitioning that work to the field is more tangible than with the prior staff.

Yondjouen said that coach Key is really straightforward and if you do something wrong you know it immediately. He tells you the truth and there is no other way. No one is lying about what you can and cannot do. Everyone there is trying to get better and coach Key is the one pushing everyone.

I asked him about the competition with ET (Etinosa Reuben) and Josh Robinson and he said that they are really cool with each other and can correct each other and everyone is just working hard.

Yondjouen said it would be a big deal to get into the NFL for him and the kids back home. Yondjouen apparently still talks to hundreds of aspiring Belgian kids who want to play college football and tries to help them from here. Collier said that Yondjouen is constantly sending him kids to look at and try to help. He takes a lot of pride in it and wants to help expand the NFL footprint and CFB footprint in Europe.

I’ve confirmed that Rivals100 DL D’Antre Robinson will be taking his second GT visit of the spring this weekend.

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Login to view embedded media Login to view embedded media Greco visited yesterday. This is one he has been hoping for.

FRI: GT RHP Luke Schmolke (Fr., 1-0, 8.00 ERA) vs. VT TBA
SAT: GT TBA vs. VT TBA
SUN: GT TBA vs. VT TBA

Craver was unable to make his scheduled visit last week, so he rescheduled for this week. Greco could very well leave today with an offer, though nothing is guaranteed of course
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Also visiting today are huge groups from Douglass and Collins Hill, as well as a five-star LS, Jay Williams from Heritage HS and a highly-rated K/P Grant Chadwick. Also Mill Creek ATH Justin Content.

THE FLATS – Georgia Tech women’s basketball placed three Yellow Jackets on the 2022-23 All-ACC Women’s Basketball Academic Team on Thursday, as announced by the league office. Carmyn Harrison, Inés Noguero and Cameron Swartz all earned the prestigious honor.

The all-academic team features 86 student-athletes with at least one from each of the ACC’s 15 programs. The recognition is the first for all three Yellow Jackets. Minimum academic requirements for selection to the all-ACC academic team are a 3.0 grade point average for the previous semester and a 3.0 cumulative average during one’s academic career.

A sophomore forward from Memphis, Tenn., Harrison appeared in 22 games for the Yellow Jackets this past season. She contributed offensively in six outings and pulled down a career-high seven rebounds in Tech’s season-opener against Georgia State on Nov. 10. An earth and atmospheric sciences major, Harrison played a season-high 13 minutes against the Panthers.

Noguero completed her freshman campaign appearing in 19 games, earning the start in six. She averaged 11.0 minutes per game and scored a career-high 16 points against Florida State on Jan. 1. Noguero recorded her first double-figure scoring outing against Central Michigan, contributing 10 points in the win. The biomedical engineering major hit multiple three-pointers in four games, highlighted by four against the Seminoles.

The third Yellow Jacket to represent Georgia Tech was fifth-year senior Swartz, who led Tech in scoring this past season, averaging 12.7 points per game. Swartz averaged 30.1 minutes per game and scored in double-figures in 22 games. The fifth-year history, technology and society major connected on a team-high 50 three-pointers and finished second on the team with 31 steals. Swartz recorded two 20-plus point outings scoring 24 points against Clemson and 20 against Virginia Tech.

To view the complete list of honorees, please click here.

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Will be Logan McGuire.

Auburn throwing righty Chase Allsup

It appears as though the 2nd time around CMC is making much greater inroads to higher caliber DL prospects. If you believe that's true, what is your guess as to the cause?

RJ- Marco Coleman did not just become a great recruiter overnight. IMO, it is more telling that the situation around the program, the direction of it, and the overall feeling nationally about Georgia Tech has changed in the way that it has.

Marco played a big role in the 2020 class, which pretty consistently seems to be forgotten. Yes, Jeff Sims was an offensive player, but Marco had a big influence on that one. Same with Miles Brooks.

He was the primary recruiter for other high-profile signee Jared Ivey as well.

Colemans development, IMO, was stunted by the state of the program he was coaching at in the years that followed at GT.

As players began to see through what the former head coach was doing, recruits and their parents did too. Coleman learned a lot in this chapter of his coaching career about what does not work when it comes to recruiting.

At Michigan State, Coleman was ready for a breakout. He had a job at a program that was as high as it had ever been on a national stage, and was able to thrive. In his one full recruiting cycle in East Lansing, Coleman showed why many believe he has a future in this whole coaching football thing, while also silencing a lot of critics who believed it was just beginners' luck in the 2020 class. (or that he signed over-rated players)

The relationships he built while there at Michigan State, a school that recruits nationally including GA, FL, and several other areas that GT also recruits, have only grown stronger since he returned home.

Those relationships have led to some high-profile visits. Usually what comes after the visits is more visits, which are followed by commitments.

You may have already posted this info but any update on where our staff salaries are respective to the rest of the ACC? Are we above the basement now?

KQ- Which sport? I assume you are asking about football since hoops hasn't been hired yet. They are still low relative to the higher end of the league, but I think they are out of the bottom two now. I'll have to check over the spring as that is a constantly evolving thing and I usually won't know for sure until then.

I apologize if this has been asked - but the rapid sequencing of most of our big men hitting the portal within a couple of days - would it be fair to say that they all had a clear (and similar) conversation with CDS? In other words, is it fair to assume CDS did not express a positive impression of their fit with his plan? Or do you think each one had a totally different motivation?

KQ- I know Rodney Howard had been thinking about his future for some time even if Josh Pastner had stayed around. I think it was time for him to find a situation that fit him better. Jordan Meka had been frustrated for some time with his role and lack of development and minutes. His family wanted him to stay, but he made that decision on his own. I am not sure what the deal was with Cyril Martynov, but I think being a really young guy and losing the people you knew best made it easy for him to leave. I'm sure Damon had frank conversations with each as well about their roles and what not. I do not think though he would've wanted all three to go in because that will be harder to replace now, you are talking about 4 big men leaving the program now with Ja'von Franklin exhausting his eligibility and so far only one coming in. You still need two more guys.

What’s the mutual interest now between Blue Cain and GT? Is he going to visit again? Does landing Reeves lessen the likelihood of landing Cain?

KQ- No one really knows what is going on with Blue right now. He has gone radio silent and is taking visits to other schools. Damon has reached out to him and they are recruiting him. Reeves does not play the same position. Blue is a combo guard and shooter, Reeves is a true wing/slasher. So there is no impact there IMO.

What should we expect the quality of O line play to be in the 4/15 game? We read how they are much improved and working on chemistry. But then they must turn to our DL to improve depth. Is this year’s version more, the same, or less athletic than the past three years?

KQ- I think the first-team OL is pretty solid. I am unsure if Jakiah Leftwich will play as he has been out since the first scrimmage so you are likely to see Paul Tchio at RG and Jordan Williams at RT thinning out the #2 OL and Jordan Brown has been out all spring as well so that takes two guys out of the two-deep, but I think they have enough bodies to field two solid OLs. You are looking for execution and effort right now. It should be decent.

With the way things are rapidly progressing in College Sports so fast you might say out of control - what do you see the NCAA trying to change rules wise first- Portal Changes to make it tougher or NIL money structure to keep money from becoming outrageous?

KQ- I think there will be a reckoning coming either during an economic downturn or as these TV deals turn into albatrosses for ESPN/FOX and that will cool some of the nonsense off. I think there will be more rules and probably some other thought that will need to go into it to survive but the next few years could be very tough.

NM

Is there any good consistent GT podcasts out there? I know the once a month or every couple weeks podcast that are out. Drinking with the jackets, JOL, the hive, whatever Bryce Koon attempts to do. Is there any that you know of that just talks GT athletics casually? Bryce is a strange cat, Rod is painful to listen to, Kelly and Russell are the best but the podcasts are few and far between. Any suggestions?

Like I've said I've been working many angles trying to piece together what is going on.

I've not had multiple sources tell me they expect Rutgers Associate Head Coach Karl Hobbs to come to Georgia Tech as Stoudamire's lead assistant. He has been with Steve Pikiell since 2016 at Rutgers. Hobbs was the head coach at George Washington from 2001 to 2010 and was on Kevin Ollie's staff at UConn 2011-16 after that and before that was Jim Calhoun's assistant at UConn from 1993-2001. He has a pair of national championship rings as an assistant coach at UConn in 1999 and 2014.

This may also explain all the smoke about Ollie and Stoudamire, this might be what was going on there, Ollie was pushing for his former coach to be on Stoudamire's staff. Hobbs would help recruit the DMV (DC/Maryland/Virginia) and the Northeast.

Hobbs was trying to get the head job at Manhattan but they went with John Gallagher who is the poor guy who quit at Harford after they announced they were dropping from D-1 to D-2 and he quit right before the season.

I am still hearing there is a strong possibility of Pershin Williams skipping USF and joining the GT staff on the bench. Neither Russ or I can get anyone to confirm that yet one way or the other, but there is still a lot of smoke. He would be the 3rd assistant most likely. Williams would give them help in Georgia with recruiting and based on other possibilities that is a big deal.

Another name that keeps coming up is San Diego State 3rd assistant JayDee Luster who worked for Stoudamire at Pacific and was a GA at Arizona when Stoudamire was an assistant there. I have a hard time seeing this one. Luster is working in his hometown for a team that just played fo the National Championship Game. If Stoudamire pulls him, consider that a pretty big win for GT. He has zero ties outside of the West Coast but could open up some recruiting grounds.

Another thing to keep in mind is Stoudamire can use his connections to hire coaches who no longer want to be on the road to help via this new pathway. That is likely going to be new positions (maybe the special assistant to the head coach for example) in addition to current positions.

Still digging, but I wanted to give you what I am hearing. Obviously, this can all change in the blink of an eye depending on coach movement, etc.

I have no info on which former players could be involved, BJ Elder appears to be remaining on staff. He could also help coach via the role below.


Earlier this year the NCAA supported an increase in the number of basketball coaches who may be employed & provide technical/tactical instruction to student-athletes from four to six with the understanding that the two additional coaches may not contact or evaluate prospective student-athletes (PSAs) off-campus; in addition, the two additional coaches are subject to individual associated with the prospective student-athlete (IAWP) legislation.

KEY POINTS

The institution’s head coach must be designated as one of the four countable coaches who may recruit off-campus.

All six countable coaches may simultaneously provide technical and tactical instruction to student-athletes. In other words, all six coaches may provide on-court instruction during practice.

The institution must designate, to the NCAA, the four countable coaches who may contact and evaluate prospective student-athletes off campus and the two countable coaches who may not.

An institution may temporarily replace one of the two countable coaches who may not engage in off-campus recruiting activities if the staff member is unable to perform any or all duties because of extenuating circumstances.