FOOTBALL RECRUITING Checking in with Tae Harris
- The Buzz - Members Only
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Tech continues to be mentioned early and often with the in-stater. Still on track for the OV in June.
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Rivals250 DB Tae Harris talks Auburn offer, upcoming trips and more
One of the most tracked recruits in Georgia could see his recruitment push more national this spring.
JOL Mailbag 3/4 Sponsored by Auto-Owners Insurance
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I almost hate to ask this, but here goes. With the little bit we have been told on Collins it seems an argument could be made he was fired for cause after doing so many things that damaged the program. Do you think it was entertained, or just not worth the publicity and embarrassment it would have caused to seek it?
KQ- Being bad at your job isn't a great way to fight a bad contract. No agent or reasonable coach would want to deal with your program if you start going after people especially when there is a considerable amount of blame to also go to the former AD and his handling of his subordent.
Name your favorites sporting event since covering Georgia Tech?
I assume you mean my favorite GT games I've covered. I'd say the 2009 ACCCG win over Clemson, the two wins in Athens CPJ had that I covered in 2014 and 2016, the 2014 Orange Bowl, the 2016 BC game in Ireland, and the 2015 FSU game for football.
On the basketball side, the first GT-Duke game I covered that Tech won in the old AMC in 2010, probably the 2011 Kennesaw State game was the most memorable in many strange ways as it was the death knell for Hewitt. The last win over UVA which I think was in 2016 and they were #4 in the country, 2020 at UNC one of the craziest games I've been to, the win over Louisville in 2020 which was sort of the end of the road for the Cards as they were #5 at the time, those are the ones that stick out. I missed a lot of the good times.
When should we expect announcements from the likes of Davis, Pippen and Doryan?
KQ- Over the next three or four weeks. I'm working to get more specific timelines but the portal opening and their commitments are going to probably align as they'll want to lock up spots BEFORE that happens if they are smart.
Why is the Women’s team in Decline exactly? Nell started of hot as a coach, but now things aren’t looking so good
KQ- I'm not really sure. I could ask Hunter about it. I don't cover the ladies basketball team.
What is the reasoning for insisting GT & UGA play baseball in a cold rain on Friday, rather than postponing to a later date? Seems like a SRO crowd would have been a possibility if the weather was better.
KQ- You are assuming there is some date that works in the future for that game to be played. Chances are there isn't as the way schedules lay out it makes it pretty hard even if you wanted to play like on a Thursday and then you are taxing your pitchers and position players with four or five games in a row. Baseball is pretty packed in and they have a hard enough time scheduling these three-game series as is.
Were there ever any comments made by Brent Key or anyone else last year about the decision to have our spring game on Saturday again? (Which I like and prefer). Or was it just decided with no real commentary? Seems like we were one of the only schools in the country who was having it on a Friday night Lol. I’m sure Brent thought it was odd.
KQ- Wasn't the last one under GC3 on St. Patrick's Day too? Anyway, Key is a traditionalist, he wants to play the spring game during the day on a Saturday. He wants a lot of traditions back on the Flats. I'm sure the field will be grass as soon as that is viable with contracts and money too.
How are you feeling about the state of GT’s football roster heading into next season? What would you hope to see in spring? How do you feel about the matchup against FSU? Do you think fsu has fully reloaded after losing a lot of key players from 2023?
KQ- I have not spent one second of brainpower thinking or looking at FSU's roster. When the portal closes in May then I will start to think about that stuff. I think there is too much that can change between now and then for any team to get into the details of it and they are not a team that I've kept tabs on as much.
GT's roster is in decent shape, they need some help on defense in some spots. I'm curious how and what they are doing schematically on that side of the ball. I think the offense is in pretty good shape and they will score points. I'll have a more detailed pre-spring thing later this week hopefully up including what I'm looking for. I always do something like that pre-spring ball and pre-fall camp as a content item.
A while back I thought it was stated a few times that Collins and Johnson had made some peace and that Paul had more lingering animosity for Stansbury, but it seemed on that interview it was the opposite. Did Paul and Geoff ever have peace at any point? Also did Paul and Todd ever bury the hatchet from the 2017 schedule and allowing Collins to keep running his mouth?
KQ- It went from CPJ probably wanting to rip that muskrat off GC3's head to him being able to stand for a few minutes in the same area as Collins and not cuss him out. That was what I considered progress. Collins had to kiss his feet a little to get it there. I have no clue where things stand with ADTS and CPJ. I've heard enough of his thoughts on Collins and Stansbury to last a lifetime. It is like asking someone about their politics, it is a rabbit hole I will only go down willingly now for content. I try to talk to CPJ about other shit when we talk now.
Do you think mens basketball investment is finally here to stay even if Damon were to leave? Meaning as long as Batt and Cabrera are here there the discount hires are over?
KQ- I think it varies AD to AD, Batt is a UNC guy and loves basketball so he is invested. D-Rad had a different view of how to fill that role at least here. Brian Gregory is the only basketball coach he has ever hired in 20+ years as an AD. So we don't know. With Batt it is a priority. I think with most ADs here it will be a priority.
On a scale of 1 to 10, what score would you give the new recruiting hire? The new WR coach hire?
KQ- RJ can answer the recruiting guy, that is more of his world. The new WR coach I think is a very good hire especially given the timing of the move. He had to move quickly and he found a guy who filled two holes in his staff in one hire.
Obviously 1 series doesn’t make a whole baseball season, but with the track record, the opponent, and the way it happened is this weekend the first big step in change finally happening with GT Baseball program?
@Russell Johnson
Is GT Baseball the athletic loss leader to be able to do business with Teixeira?
KQ- Unsure of your question.
How loud were people after Techs performance against uga?
KQ- Which sport?
How mad was key when Crawford left?
KQ- He wasn't at all. He wasn't surprised. It was something I saw coming if the right opportunity arose. Key is fine with guys moving up. He knows where GT is TODAY in the CFB landscape. His job is to change GT into the place where people want to go work, that isn't the case YET.
HOOPS My story: the GT revenge tour claims another with the win at Wake 70-69
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#GaTech men's basketball revenge tour continued in Winston-Salem on Tuesday night as they may have popped the Deacs bubble with a 70-69 win.
georgiatech.rivals.com
JacketsOnline - Tech's revenge tour continues with a 70-69 buzzer beater at Wake Forest
WINSTON-SALEM, NC- Georgia Tech led for all but 17 seconds of the game, but it still took a possession arrow in the
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FOOTBALL Q's Update sponsored by Inteleca: Key follows his process to land WR coach
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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 remains consistent with his process in all phases of his GT football program and it was no different with the WR coaching search. My original planned update was to say that he was down to two candidates, but he was able to close the deal with Trent McKnight formerly of Georgia State.
With the hire done, I can share some of the processes that Key goes through when making his staff moves. There were numerous interviews this week for both this spot and for the final spots in the recruiting office as well.
The search was done under wraps intentionally. Key values the message coming from him or approved by him so there were no leaks, no names, or anything else until it was almost done. Key is from the Saban/GOL tree and they want to control the message and the info that gets out understandably. The four prior years to him being named head coach were often a misadventure when it came to that and it took time to clear things out and set the tone for how things run now. It is much more akin to how CPJ ran things as well. One voice, one message.
So in terms of making a decision I was told there were two main factors at play, one was coaching and player development and the second part was recruiting. Key believes every one of the position coaches and the coordinators must carry their weight with recruiting though the coordinators are generally going to have more specific roles and less ground to cover than a normal assistant coach. With this hire, Key was looking for someone to help Tech in South Georgia.
The Jackets only have four scholarship players from that area currently on scholarship and one of them is a stretch calling him a South Georgia kid, Isiah Canion from Warner Robins. The others for those wondering are Jamie Felix, Weston Franklin and a transfer Omar Daniels. That is an area where Key wants to improve and it has produced a lot of talented players over the years and ones really dedicated to the game of football. Key's staff has done a great job in the ATL area and North Georgia spot recruiting, but South Georgia wasn't providing as much talent as it should given the quality of players found down there.
So why McKnight? My sources told me that Key took the pulse of some trusted HS coaching sources in South Georgia and was told that no one outworks or outrecruits McKnight down there. He signed quality players and had Georgia State punching above their weight in the backyard of Georgia Southern and other programs down there as an assistant coach.
So that was one part of it. He brings a fit in an area of major need.
The first part is player development and his resume is full of all-conference performers at receiver both at Georgia State and Samford before that.
Here is a line that stood out to me in his Ga State bio
As receivers coach, he tutored six All-Sun Belt Conference receivers and three of the top five pass catchers in program history. During that time, the Panthers set school records for scoring average (33.3 ppg in 2020), points (406 in 2019), touchdowns (53 in 2019) and total offense (439.8 ypg in 2019) while producing the top scoring averages in program history from 2019-21.
His receivers overproduced under his watch and that is something I think that has been missing since Buzz Preston left the Flats. They haven't really turned out a good WR who is an all-conference player and a really solid all-around receiver with Eric Singleton Jr. being the closest to that and that was very much his raw talent on display as a freshman and not a ton of development yet. The WR rooms have been in the bottom half of the ACC for several years going back to probably 2016 or so. That is not a knock on Josh Crawford either as he was only with the program for a year, more of just an observation of the need for more talent and better player development.
He can also coach tight ends and quarterbacks so he gives Key some flexibility in the future as well if someone else leaves and he wants to shuffle bodies around.
Given the tight window Key was working with and the timing of the coaching change, McKnight seems like a great fit and it will give someone who has been a fast riser in the business in McKnight a chance to elevate his profile as well as try to build up GT's WR room that used to be one of the best in CFB and produced some really amazing talent from the 1980s through the mid-2010s.
Brent Key remains consistent with his process in all phases of his GT football program and it was no different with the WR coaching search. My original planned update was to say that he was down to two candidates, but he was able to close the deal with Trent McKnight formerly of Georgia State.
With the hire done, I can share some of the processes that Key goes through when making his staff moves. There were numerous interviews this week for both this spot and for the final spots in the recruiting office as well.
The search was done under wraps intentionally. Key values the message coming from him or approved by him so there were no leaks, no names, or anything else until it was almost done. Key is from the Saban/GOL tree and they want to control the message and the info that gets out understandably. The four prior years to him being named head coach were often a misadventure when it came to that and it took time to clear things out and set the tone for how things run now. It is much more akin to how CPJ ran things as well. One voice, one message.
So in terms of making a decision I was told there were two main factors at play, one was coaching and player development and the second part was recruiting. Key believes every one of the position coaches and the coordinators must carry their weight with recruiting though the coordinators are generally going to have more specific roles and less ground to cover than a normal assistant coach. With this hire, Key was looking for someone to help Tech in South Georgia.
The Jackets only have four scholarship players from that area currently on scholarship and one of them is a stretch calling him a South Georgia kid, Isiah Canion from Warner Robins. The others for those wondering are Jamie Felix, Weston Franklin and a transfer Omar Daniels. That is an area where Key wants to improve and it has produced a lot of talented players over the years and ones really dedicated to the game of football. Key's staff has done a great job in the ATL area and North Georgia spot recruiting, but South Georgia wasn't providing as much talent as it should given the quality of players found down there.
So why McKnight? My sources told me that Key took the pulse of some trusted HS coaching sources in South Georgia and was told that no one outworks or outrecruits McKnight down there. He signed quality players and had Georgia State punching above their weight in the backyard of Georgia Southern and other programs down there as an assistant coach.
So that was one part of it. He brings a fit in an area of major need.
The first part is player development and his resume is full of all-conference performers at receiver both at Georgia State and Samford before that.
Here is a line that stood out to me in his Ga State bio
As receivers coach, he tutored six All-Sun Belt Conference receivers and three of the top five pass catchers in program history. During that time, the Panthers set school records for scoring average (33.3 ppg in 2020), points (406 in 2019), touchdowns (53 in 2019) and total offense (439.8 ypg in 2019) while producing the top scoring averages in program history from 2019-21.
His receivers overproduced under his watch and that is something I think that has been missing since Buzz Preston left the Flats. They haven't really turned out a good WR who is an all-conference player and a really solid all-around receiver with Eric Singleton Jr. being the closest to that and that was very much his raw talent on display as a freshman and not a ton of development yet. The WR rooms have been in the bottom half of the ACC for several years going back to probably 2016 or so. That is not a knock on Josh Crawford either as he was only with the program for a year, more of just an observation of the need for more talent and better player development.
He can also coach tight ends and quarterbacks so he gives Key some flexibility in the future as well if someone else leaves and he wants to shuffle bodies around.
Given the tight window Key was working with and the timing of the coaching change, McKnight seems like a great fit and it will give someone who has been a fast riser in the business in McKnight a chance to elevate his profile as well as try to build up GT's WR room that used to be one of the best in CFB and produced some really amazing talent from the 1980s through the mid-2010s.
