FOOTBALL RECRUITING Tech and Miss State even for LB AJ Rice after OV to the Flats
- The Buzz - Members Only
- 7 Replies
JacketsOnline - Tech makes a push for State LB commit A.J. Rice
Madison Academy (Ala.) linebacker A.J. Rice committed to Mississippi State over a year ago but Georgia Tech has pulled..
georgiatech.rivals.com
JOL Mailbag 6/11 Sponsored by Auto-Owners Insurance
- The Buzz - Members Only
- 13 Replies
Any movement on CDS hiring an assistant?
KQ- I have not heard of any changes yet. For now, it seems like BJ Elder is sticking around on the bench. I'll do some digging.
I have two questions, and one might have to wait for coach availability.
When you see times and measurements posted from prospect camps, who is doing the timing? Are you (and/or Russell) keeping your own watch?
KQ- No I am not hand-timing kids. I can find out through sources times whether it is at GT or some other camp. I know a few hundred coaches and staffers across the country at this point as does RJ. We are getting the times as taken by people testing through hard work and hustle.
Whenever you get to talk to Buster Faulkner, and it’s not a Tech specific question more of a football philosophy thing, can you ask him what his favorite old school Air Raid concept is, and what he liked better in the Hatch Attack version?
KQ- Yes, that is something I could ask him about. That is probably something you should bring up in late-July or August when we have media avails again.
— When Hall got the 3-year extension in May of 2022, was it ever explained why Danny Borrell also got a 3-year extension? At the time of the announcement, GT was on the wrong side of the bubble with 3 weeks left in the season and Borrell’s staff had the 2nd worst ERA of all 60+ teams in the Power 5.
KQ- You know the answer to this question, he is currently working at NC State and no longer running any athletic program.
— The Hall part of my question goes back to when you were probably dialed into baseball more. Over the 4 season stretch 2015-2018 he went 51-68 in ACC reg season plus 1-9 at the ACC Tournament for a 52-76 aggregate. That’s Brian Gregory territory and why IMO the vitriol is worse in present day even though the last few years haven’t been nearly as bad as those years. Was Danny ever closed to being replaced back then?
KQ- I had stopped following it at that time and RJ wasn't at all.
Miss FutureCast. Do you plan to have similar feature? Otherwise it seems that it is just wait-and-see with no earlier insight.
KQ- I'll speak for Russell as I'm sure he has the same opinion I do. Things are so nuts right now with NIL and recruiting that it is very hard to make those calls and then stay on top of what is happening with a lot of kids so it tanks our numbers. For example, if a kid decommits from GT, most of the time we stop following them. Our current setup doesn't reset our picks at that time so then RJ or I have to try to keep track of this kid as to not tank our percentages. It has been a growing problem and GC3 with all the weird takes and drops made it hard as hell during that period. RJ does a perfect class thing and will often say I'm predicting X, Y or Z to happen, but our current system is hard to deal with. If it would just reset on the decommit, we would make a bunch of predictions to be honest.
Any work being done by headquarters to address (or even explain) the random “whiteout” when scrolling through threads?…frustrating to say the least & I’m certain I’m not the only one in the community experiencing it…
KQ- I don't see that so if you don't mind send me a screenshot and I'll find out what the deal is. I have a big meeting with Rivals brass at the end of the month and can look into stuff like that.
(basketball) do you think there is a good chance GT lands Dame Sarr.
KQ- Good, I'm not sure. There are often obstacles with international kids that are beyond my scope of figuring out. For example, can he get into school? Is there are a buyout from his current EU team that someone has to pay for him to play basketball somewhere else? What is his visa status? What is the timeline like to get him in for a visit? I'll see what I can find out.
Do you think GT has a chance of making the tournament in basketball next year?
KQ- Depends, if they front load the ACC schedule again it will make it hard as hell. They had a pretty lousy schedule last year that somehow they managed to upset teams on, but it really wore the team down over time having to play so many top teams early in the year. Non-conference matchups are also a key. We only have a few of those that are known.
So thinking that the two main sport’s football and basketball- which of the two would you say is further along in getting its program back on track to being more than just a name?
KQ- I think football is further along in terms of the funding, depth of roster/experience combo and engagement. Hoops had terrible attendance last year for most of the games and that has to change. I think there are a lot of interesting pieces with hoops, but GT football has a top-25 offense back and mildly average defense will have them in the ACC hunt. Hoops has two really good pieces in Nait George and Baye Ndongo and then some nice role players like Lance Terry and Javian McCollum, but they are going to need some younger guys to fill big roles to get it hopping. I am also curious how the Xs and Os and all that shakes out as Stoudamire gets more of a roster built to play in the style he wants to play in.
In Recruiting- do you think kids pull the trigger and commit due to the team winning, the trust of words from Coaches or seeing other kids commit and they do?
KQ- All of the above, but here is the thing that Key is having to do. He is trying to make it cool to go to Georgia Tech again because the team will be good and you will be developed both on and off the field. That is what he is trying to sell. That is why they are picky with commits. They could have three or four more guys right now including two 4-star guys who I am not a huge fan of committed if he was doing what the last guy did and chasing stars and rankings, but he is looking at the overall fit and the locker room piece just as much as anything else. They trust their own scouting and not rankings or anything else on kids and especially not who else has offered. Eric Singleton Jr. is a great example of that or Ethan Mackenny from last year's team.
In a hypothetical scenario, Danny Hall decides to hang it up and retire. What kind of coach would look for to replace him? What kind of traits would you look for in a coach that could bring the best out of this Tech team.
Bonus: any specific names in the college baseball coaching world you think would be good fits for Tech?
KQ- I'll leave the second part as a grenade for @Russell Johnson to consider pulling the pin on. As far as a coach goes when Danny leaves, I am looking for someone who knows Georgia youth baseball. That is the cornerstone of where Tech needs to build out the program. Start getting them on campus young and build up the time on campus each year and those relationships and that will blossom into success on the diamond. You can backfill with the portal and out of state kids, but if you just recruit, Georgia and Florida, you can have the base pieces for a successful program IMO.
I know it was said that we were done taking people out of the portal, but at one point Russell said we were interested in some one in Austin Peay. Any idea what happened, or am I just delusional?
KQ- A kid named Sam Howard who went to Tulane because he is getting the starting job there. GT wasn't going to offer absolute playing time to a kid from Austin Peay when you have experienced guys on your team already and a lot of talent in that room.
Interesting email this morning
- The Buzz - Members Only
- 4 Replies
Since most schools send parking to media via their in-house parking system I’m on email lists for about 20-30 schools and I keep them on so I can share interesting emails with my GT contacts on how school X is using email to ask for NIL or whatever. I got on the Ga State one from the basketball game there two years ago. They sent this one out today.
Recruiting Rumor Mill: Jasper Parker and others
- By Adam Gorney
- The Buzz - Members Only
- 8 Replies
The latest on many top prospects here:
n.rivals.com
Rivals.com - Recruiting Rumor Mill: Busy June nears the midpoint
Four-star Florida State commit Javion Hilson visited Texas over the weekend.
n.rivals.com
Q's Take: Sponsored by Inteleca: Key and staff pull off epic recruiting weekend
- The Buzz - Members Only
- 10 Replies
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.
Brent Key and his staff pulled off an epic weekend with six commitments on Sunday from five official visitors from that weekend plus one from the previous weekend's OV slate, DB Fenix Felton. The group is headlined by 4-star commits CB Dalen Penson and WR Samuel Turner, but there is depth across the committed players.
It was a big day for GT, but a helluva slog for us.
I knew that, going into the weekend, I would be in deep trouble. I spent the majority of last week either at a camp, 7v7, or in an airplane. I flew from Atlanta to Portland, Maine with my mother on 6/1 skipping my high school reunion in the process. Then I flew back from Maine to Atlanta via NYC on Monday—three flights in under three days. I helped RJ a little bit at the two Corky Kell camps knowing I was heading back out on Wednesday night to Tampa for the USF Mega Camps on Thursday and Friday. Flight #4 to Tampa on Wednesday. Saturday morning after two days ROASTING in 96-degree Tampa for mega camps that started at 10:30 am and run until 7:30 pm, I flew back to Maine via NYC again to get my mom. We flew home on Sunday afternoon. I spent Sunday morning helping turn some of Russell's interviews and then using the free Wifi on Delta I wrote three commitment stories and two other stories on the flight back from Maine and then after driving to the North GA Mountains to drop off Mom, then back home finally at 9:45 and then a pair of late-night commits in Dalen Penson (RJ story) and Sam Turner (my story). It was insanity, but a cool insanity.
RJ was balancing his parental duties and church around interviewing a dozen kids. Hell, we still have a few interviews we haven't had time to turn from OV weekend 1.
So that's the background of what is going on and what I've been up to.
What has Brent Key and his staff been up to? Kicking ass and chewing gum and they've run out of gum or Zyn in Key's case
.
There are a lot of reasons why the weekend went as well as it did, but ultimately everything comes back to what Key is doing and how he has set up the program. The players are salesmen, the staff are salesmen and saleswomen and the coaches are able to close because of all the groundwork that has been laid whether that is raising money for NIL (folks should be giving because they will need to work hard to keep these players), building his culture around the program where everyone is bought in and cares (a far cry from the previous regime after the first 6-9 months) and of course the things that Georgia Tech can offer and the city of Atlanta offers.
The staff knew of the commits yesterday before they were public. We are sitting on a little more news on that front as RJ has alluded to that should come out in due time. Still, the topper to all of this and my laying out of my plans is Brent Key was on the phone recruiting late pushing for the ones they didn't get, trying to get kids committed elsewhere to visit, and working a day a lot longer than RJ or my day on Sunday or any that we worked last week.
It is very cool to see the ground floor of the building analogy that Key likes to use coming together. This is an exciting time for GT fans and the work should be applauded by fans as it was yesterday. No one is working harder than Key and his coaches right now and that is very good for Georgia Tech football.
Brent Key and his staff pulled off an epic weekend with six commitments on Sunday from five official visitors from that weekend plus one from the previous weekend's OV slate, DB Fenix Felton. The group is headlined by 4-star commits CB Dalen Penson and WR Samuel Turner, but there is depth across the committed players.
It was a big day for GT, but a helluva slog for us.
I knew that, going into the weekend, I would be in deep trouble. I spent the majority of last week either at a camp, 7v7, or in an airplane. I flew from Atlanta to Portland, Maine with my mother on 6/1 skipping my high school reunion in the process. Then I flew back from Maine to Atlanta via NYC on Monday—three flights in under three days. I helped RJ a little bit at the two Corky Kell camps knowing I was heading back out on Wednesday night to Tampa for the USF Mega Camps on Thursday and Friday. Flight #4 to Tampa on Wednesday. Saturday morning after two days ROASTING in 96-degree Tampa for mega camps that started at 10:30 am and run until 7:30 pm, I flew back to Maine via NYC again to get my mom. We flew home on Sunday afternoon. I spent Sunday morning helping turn some of Russell's interviews and then using the free Wifi on Delta I wrote three commitment stories and two other stories on the flight back from Maine and then after driving to the North GA Mountains to drop off Mom, then back home finally at 9:45 and then a pair of late-night commits in Dalen Penson (RJ story) and Sam Turner (my story). It was insanity, but a cool insanity.
RJ was balancing his parental duties and church around interviewing a dozen kids. Hell, we still have a few interviews we haven't had time to turn from OV weekend 1.
So that's the background of what is going on and what I've been up to.
What has Brent Key and his staff been up to? Kicking ass and chewing gum and they've run out of gum or Zyn in Key's case
.There are a lot of reasons why the weekend went as well as it did, but ultimately everything comes back to what Key is doing and how he has set up the program. The players are salesmen, the staff are salesmen and saleswomen and the coaches are able to close because of all the groundwork that has been laid whether that is raising money for NIL (folks should be giving because they will need to work hard to keep these players), building his culture around the program where everyone is bought in and cares (a far cry from the previous regime after the first 6-9 months) and of course the things that Georgia Tech can offer and the city of Atlanta offers.
The staff knew of the commits yesterday before they were public. We are sitting on a little more news on that front as RJ has alluded to that should come out in due time. Still, the topper to all of this and my laying out of my plans is Brent Key was on the phone recruiting late pushing for the ones they didn't get, trying to get kids committed elsewhere to visit, and working a day a lot longer than RJ or my day on Sunday or any that we worked last week.
It is very cool to see the ground floor of the building analogy that Key likes to use coming together. This is an exciting time for GT fans and the work should be applauded by fans as it was yesterday. No one is working harder than Key and his coaches right now and that is very good for Georgia Tech football.