These are quick quotes so they are not 100-percent line for line.
Been a while, it was the initial press conference since I spoke publicly. Been a crazy month putting together a recruiting class and staff. Been exciting and fun. Been nice to have the staff in place, nine-day period was a one-man show with some help from coach Johnson and his staff. They were respectful and love these players and this place. It was good to see CPJ last night cheering on the Yellow Jacket program. Went to the bowl game, not the result we wanted to send CPJ out the right way. I got to meet the players parents and families before we got into the winter conditioning piece and spring ball. It was a great experience and a good turnout. We had New Year's Break then a team meeting on Monday, got to meet the players out on the plaza and then into a team meeting to set a tone for the culture that is GT football.
For five hours a day, including today and tomorrow I'm having 15-minute meetings with the players, asking about positive experiences here and things they'd like to see improved upon. I've been blessed over my career, getting to know some great people. A lot of great people want to join us here in Atlanta. A lot of close friends have wanted to join us here while we build this the right way. We want to develop our players the right way and we've hired an amazing S&C staff. Carralla was named football scoop S&C coach of the year, he was at GT before and Miss State while I was there. Great job establishing the culture.
Ryan Horton was with me at FIU, he does an amazing job with player safety and conditioning.
We kept Zach Reed from the old staff.
Development and recruiting is a huge piece and we want the elite of the elite, Patrick Suddes is joining us from Auburn, he was the GM there and we were together at Bama under Saban, great friend, we retained Tevin Washington and Cody Moore will stay as well, they helped close out the class and five more guys who weren't on the radar we got to sign.
We brought the entire defensive staff at Temple, the defense I've been in-charge of the last seven years, Coach Thacker did a great job, we were a top 2 D in our league, Nate Burton is Co-DC and safeties coach, coached safety at Temple and top 10 group. Larry Knight will coach OLB/DE and he is a GA native and a great coach and recruiter. He will be the defensive RC. Jim Panagos who worked with GOL for six years and does an amazing job with the DL, the last two years at Temple we were tops in TFL and sacks at Temple.
Jeff Popovich from Boise State will coach CBs and defensive special teams, punt team and kickoff team.
Offensively Dave Patenaude had two of the three best offenses at Temple, I was a GA for him, we've known each other for 20 years, his offense have been record setters and the flexibility of implementing the spread and pro-style and the personnel in place.
Chris Wiesehan was the OL coach at Temple, will do TE/OT and offensive special teams PR and KR.
Tashard Choice was a great player when I was here with Gailey, great player and fiery and a local guy. Three finalists for RB coach of the year at North Texas.
Kerry Dixon we were together at UF, back-to-back SEC Championship appearances.
Brent Key will be the assistant head coach, offensive line coach and run-game coordinator.
We had a full staff meeting with the whole GTAA, led by Stansbury and got to know everybody and we are excited about the future.
We hit the ground running tomorrow and three hot and heavy weeks of recruiting to finish out the last bit of the signing class. Then we get to work.
ON FILM OF THE CURRENT PLAYERS
What I've been doing even on the plane watching recruiting tape then over the break Todd McCarthy our video guy, loaded up my surface with film of the entire season and special teams and all that. Been trying to watch some tape and I got it constantly rolling in that two-minute break between meetings. Teaching the full staff of what we do and then drilling down and tape over the last two years as well. When we get into Winter Conditioning we can really see what they can do. We are built on effort and we have guys who have tremendous effort, they have to earn their spots to be over the line.
ON THE DEFENSIVE STAFF
The thing that will matter is the branding and culture to get the recruiting piece to the level it needs to be at, I'll be heavily into it and defensively the staff meeting room, once we get the recruiting in piece, I won't be in there initially all the time, I won't have to be in there all the time.
ON THE LIMIT OF SIGNING AND VETERAN QB
We got some guys we are actively targeting and our plan is to be recruiting at an elite level and are right for this culture, there is not a set minimum #, but the places we need to be high priority and they have to be the right guys. After spring practice there will be another wave of grad transfer market, the nature of college football, we are not in a hurry and we've got some really good players who are excited about what we are doing.
ON GEORGIA CONNECTIONS ON THE STAFF
It is huge, I made sure I had that on the old staff at Temple, know brining back guys who played at GT, getting former players reengaged with the family and guys who are associated. Will Glover is one I haven't mentioned he is the 6th leading receiver all-time and played on a great offense here. I think that is part of the excellence here.
ON PATRICK COMING FROM AUBURN
When we took over at Bama in 2007, he was big on setting up the structure of what we did in Tuscaloosa and he understands the blueprint and you take the favorite things from different places and we base our recruiting on what Coach Saban does at Alabama, he was at Texas, Arizona State then Auburn, now he is in his hometown of Atlanta. Huge moving forward and helps stamp the GT brand and moving forward with our culture and our recruiting piece going forward.
ON EARLY ENROLLEES
One is a tight, having Tyler here to play TE, be the first in 11 years, having coached against him at UConn, he was maybe their best player and he help us with the offense. We got a big OT Jared Southers who played in the SEC at a great academic and a freshman WR and a freshman CB to jump start their career. The way we practice, there are a lot of repos
ON PRACTICE
There are special days for different days, we will get to the media policies and see how we practice and it is a lot of fun.
ON BJS PLAYING RUNNING BACK AND GUYS MOVING AROUND
Every meeting I had them tell me the different things they'd be good at. With Pat and Bruce it was a conversation, position flexibility is huge, our entire program is to have life after college, get a degree and hopefully develop into a NFL player. NFL wants guys who can do a lot of things, you have a larger chance to make it to your second contract. Every young man has talked about that and attacking the offseason program and being the absolute best you can be, give us something to base that on based on that process.
ON NUTRITION
Leah Thomas is in charge of that here, she is in the CFB HOF and has a done a great job with that and we want to be elite in every phase and the development piece and she and her staff do a great job, cutting edge of nutrition and company that with Ryan Horton to make sure our guys are developing at the highest level and some of the elite players in college football.
ON SPRING BALL
First Tuesday from Spring break, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday going forward.
ON SANTINO JOINING YOU ON SOCIAL MEDIA
He does a great job and we are connected at the hip most days and he is as creative as they come. We want to make sure he is selling what GT is and we are marketing our brand the right way here in Atlanta. I'm proud of Uniswag as Temple being the #1 uniforms and my wife was at the Parsons School of Design, she was excited by that. I call him Morphus and we were proud of what we put together and i think the white and gold is iconic and continue the great traditions of GT football. There are some things, but I do genuinely love our tradition piece.
ON LAST MEMBER OF THE OFFENSE STAFF
10th and final assistant is Brent Key, everything you want as a SA, once I was promoted as TE coach under GOL, Brent became our GA on offense and won National Championships and having him learn from coach Saban and bring that knowledge to GT and a place he loves and one of my closest friends and a big-deal about relationships and the relationships we added and our closest friends are relentless recruiters and they are tough and that is the kind of staff I've been blessed to assemble and they are so well-respected in our fields and what myself and my wife want to do at this great place, very humbling. Excited to get to work and get GT in the conversation with
