JOL Mailbag 7/21 Sponsored by Auto-Owners Insurance
- The Buzz - Members Only
- 9 Replies
We’re less than a month out from Josh Perry’s decision. What’s your gut saying?
KQ- I assume you mean Josh Petty and got autocorrected. My gut still says FSU, but I know GT is still working hard to close that one. I hope to have a little more info on that this coming week.
In 2022, we scored 5.4 ppg in the 4th quarter. Last year we were 9th in the country with 10.2 ppg in the 4th. Is this attributed to Buster getting better and better as the game gets deeper?
KQ- Well the 2022 offense was dreadful at times because of the QB issues and injuries there so it is hard to compare. I think some of it is second-half adjustments by Buster and the offensive staff (something missing since CPJ left) and a lot of it was Haynes King being more willing to run the ball downhill in the second half of games and impose his will on the ground. When he did that it opened up the entire offense so much more.
Is James Forest’s staff position of special assistant to the head coach an administrative position only, i.e., no coaching, recruiting, or on sidelines during games?
KQ- GT has all of their coaching spots taken, there are 5 now. So he won't be coaching and doesn't have the experience to jump into that role. Can he help with other stuff? Yes. Can he recruit off-campus? Not unless Damon pulls one of the three people allowed to recruit off campus off the road. He isn't going to be doing Damon's paperwork either. That role is typically more of an advisor/ambassador-type role. I can ask Damon when I see him or talk to him soon about how he envisions that role.
Tech has transfers from different levels of football and from conferences (for example Ivy League) with different outlooks for their athletes. Do any of the portal transfers have a difficult time assimilating into the Ga Tech program? Is it the talent level or adopting Key's culture or both that is the toughest part for the transfers?
KQ- That is an issue across college football and not limited to GT. I think a guy like Jack Barton who transferred in and then left from Furman was just overmatched physically at this level and it wasn't going to work out. I think Jackson Hawes will have a great season for GT and he came from Yale so that isn't really what determines that. I think there are some kids surprised by the academic piece and you've seen some of them have to work hard to overcome obstacles like Ahmari Harvey for example and others who didn't and have left already who I won't mention. For transfers the fit, the culture and the level of play are all considerations and sometimes it doesn't work out which is why Thomas Gore is here for example after going to Miami which wasn't a fit for him.
Is there a list of the folks on GT's NIL committee? I believe I know 2 of them, but wanted to see if this is public knowledge or flies under the radar?
KQ- No, they keep most of the NIL Collective stuff buttoned up. Most business people are not exactly interested in becoming overly associated with spending money on college athletics like that outside of the ego-driven types like Shapiro at Miami. The majority of major donors for collectives are quiet about it.
I was thinking about the upcoming UNC matchup this year. My understanding is Key doesn’t hate his predecessor like the GT fanbase, but I was curious if Key has any extra motivation for his offense to do particularly well that game. Wanted to get your thoughts.
KQ- I think the fans have a very different view of Geoff Collins than Key or many people including myself. I think Key saw him for what he was and was trying to help his school with an eye toward the scenario that played out if things went poorly and Collins couldn't pull out of it. Key actually loves GT, but he has moved on once he got the job full-time. He coached his ass off for Collins though and was in tears after the loss at UCF that got Collins fired ultimately because he was so frustrated by the loss. He wants GT to win. That is his main driver. He will occasionally get a kick out of a funny GC3 story, but he always says he is looking forward and not backward.
I know you generally don't get involved in the laundry topic, but do you have insight into what we are doing with Adidas? It seems like we communicated clearly we want better treatment or we want to look elsewhere with our half in / half out 2 year agreement.
My understanding has been that the driving factor for GT has been athlete gear not fan stuff or general marketing awareness and branding, if that is true do recruits care that we don't have the newest template or the wordless logo? Additionally, is there any real performance impact to our athletes from material science etc? The black jerseys in a hot, humid day game was stupid but was that us or adidas who did that?
I am particularly interested in if you think GT AA wants more from the team's apparel or not. If we haven't been doing it well do you see JBatt making improvements? It seems wild to me that we have all this internal knowledge on material science and are not a leader in the field (see speedo's polyurethane Olympic swimsuits which were outlawed for bringing an unfair buoyancy benefit). Same thing to a lesser extent with Ticketing Process / queues in the stadiums for food and beverage, etc. Let's use those process engineers to go full fix-sigma ham on the problem set and be the best KQ org in the country.
KQ- For those who were following along at the time, I kind of said I expected GT to resign with Adidas in a short-term deal because the market dynamics are no longer there for massive payouts for schools, GT wasn't in a position to negotiate from a power position given how bad the sports were during the majority of that deal and that was the best business decision for GT not knowing the dynamics of the marketplace or even where the ACC or college sports will stand in 24 months.
I have no idea if they want more apparel or not or how it sells or how much of that is on J Batt's radar. I can tell you winning sells more jerseys and having full stadiums and arenas sells more gear and will make Adidas or whoever GT has a deal with sell more stuff. The athletic piece has to give people a reason to be proud to wear and buy more gear too.
As far as recruits go, NIL is way more important now than who you are aligned with for shoes or clothing.
