SHERRER

ON UCF’s offense, is very explosive and they have a QB who is seasoned QB and is like a middle fielder the way he deals the ball around, #7 is good, they’ve got size running the ball and the backs find the hole and then they have explosive outside guys, you can’t take away one piece and they make it hard to take away one thing, they are explosive Gus offense like usual.

On Gus, they have a variation of flavors of plays, they have certain runs they do against certain fronts and they have things they do with running QBs and they make you work against a lot of things and get you out of leverage and get you matched up one-on-one to take shots down the field. He has been running that for 20 years.

On how the season has worked for him, these couple of months seem like 10 years, it has been good because the players are smart guys and they understand and the staff has done a good job of helping. When you help another guy and lead a position to taking charge, coaches did a good job of helping take over. The Miami week was a whirlwind from 16-hour work days to 18-hour work days and guys are waiting on you to tell them what to do. Once we flowed through that week to the next it has gotten better. The players have helped and the players are getting accustomed to what I’m doing.

On how much he has tweaked things, I’ve done a little here and there, we took a lot of the terminology to tweak it and I had a learning curve and what do I call that so the players know what I’m saying and put the pressure on them. I’ve tweaked some things and had to show them how and what it is. It is hard to say, lot of similarities to what is being done before and now, it might be a better question for the players.

On the UCF’s third-down offense, when you play against an offense like this that is good in key areas, the things they try to do you counter it with a play or formation or tempo 3rd and 2 or 2nd and 1 putting your players on heels, offenses are trying to put you on your heels, a lot of that we have to adjust we operate the way we need to and you want to affect the QB.

On the changes on the D staff for the bowl game, We did this in their path and role and we expanded some roles and sub differently and players have helped with subs and cards and stuff like that, it was just like the change in midseason and everyone jumped in and said hey I need you do this. Everyone’s workload increased a little bit and that took the load off.

On dealing with this year and the changes, it is football and everything changes and that is football. If you can’t adapt to changes you will struggle with life. This the 6-7th different place, in HS people are different or living in different cities, I’m from the country, but people are all the same, I’ve adapting all my coaching career and I’m adapting now it is still 1st, 2nd and 3rd down, it part of the role of being in the coaching profession.

On the game, going in three days now and big thanks to the Gasparilla Bowl and Scott they’ve allowed us to experience a good bowl game and I want to thank these people or the job they’ve done to welcome us and the entire organization and the players. My daughter has had the best time, running up and down the hallways and going to the zoo right now. Those kids and the bonds they are creating and making friends with other coaches kids and people on the staff’s kids. This is the first bowl game I’ve been to with a small child to see it through her eyes is really cool. It makes you see there is so much more to this than just the game, it is more than that for the players and staff, it is like a vacation with all of their friends. I’ll remember it for all my life and I’m sure Harper will too. I want to thank them.

Now is the time to focus in and we came down here to play in a football game. We will have our end-of-the-year team banquet tonight and that is where our heads are at. Tomorrow will be a walk-through and winning the game tomorrow night is our goal. There are two types of teams that play in the bowl game, there is a team playing hard because they don’t want their season to end and the other that want their season to end, we want to play as long as we can and we want to have one last experience playing as a team. We will continue to prepare for the next 48 hours.

Anytime you go to a bowl game, there is a reason why teams want to go every year and go every year, we are in the beginning stages of building a long-term program when you have an extra opportunity to play and you add an extra session of practice and it allows you to honor your seniors.

On playing hostile crowd, it is another game, we’ve played in front of big crowds and loud crowds in front of 100,000 people we will be ready.

The role of momentum you’ve been on ends and has to restart for the bowl and you want that to drive your team.

On the UCF game means for him, it is the next football game, there are no emotions in this, I’m trying to eliminate emotional elements. I have a history there and I spent 11-12 great years there and I met my wife there, it was a big part of my life. It was a long time ago and where I coached has zero impact on this game on Friday night, it matters how they line up and how they execute the game.

On Jay King and Dontae having had past bowl experience, they were both true freshmen playing in Detroit, which was a rollercoaster of a year. I was with Tae in my office and he was floating around on clouds, he said it has been the best experience he had and Jay the same way. I told them to soak it up and don’t rush through it and soak it up.

Key on his final game at GT, what I remember is being up 14-0 in the old Georgia Dome in the Peach Bowl against Nick Saban in his first year at LSU and I remember everything from the dinner we had together with the other team and the play where Grady James ran through the A-gap and George Godsey tore his ACL on the play to the long touchdown that was called back then scoring to go up and then they make the QB change and Rohan Davey goes in at quarterback and we wend up losing the game. I remember every single bit of it. I remember the game being over and I didn't want to take my pads off and not wanting it to be over. I told this team there are three types of enjoyment, the enjoyment of the bowl game, two the time that we are preparing to go compete and the third one we have to earn on the field and that is the right to celebrate when it is over and hold up the trophy.


On Haynes King, it is the growth he has had in the last year and the confidence in himself and leadership the way he moves about the team and commands the respect of everyone to his growth as a player on the field and handle adversity, that is so hard at this position and they know what he does well and doesn’t you can’t let it effect you as a player. He has thrown some picks, but a lot of his throws took big courage to do and throwing into tight windows and taking calculated risks. The confidence the team has around him is huge and his ability to run the ball and we knew he was fast, but the things he can do with designed QB runs and reading the option plays, is big. He has grown as a young man, he is a cool dude to hang around and people enjoy being around him. He is not standoffish and there is no woe is me with him.

On UCF’s offense, they’ve won a lot and they are driven by the QB similar to us and it goes through him with the QB designed runs and ability to scramble when the play breaks down. They will run the ball and there is no secret. It is not traditional runs, perimeter snaps and 189 snaps of jetmotion to get eyes out of place on defense and we have to get our eyes set. They have two explosive WRs and they get 50/50 balls they come down with.

On emotions of coaching the seniors for the last time, it is the same message as always, you take emotion out of the game, you turn emotion into energy then after the game I’ll get emotional, but during the game, I want the emotions in check especially in a bowl game, this is the most emotional sport it is and every day we try our minds to take the emotion out, after the game we will savior it.

I knew this would pique some GT fan interest

IIRC, Napier was on the Clemson staff when Korn signed

I notice that Greco is not committed to anyone. Who jilted whom? What's the story?

Georgia Tech practiced at Carrollwood Day School this morning and it was very spirited by all accounts especially for a bowl practice. Former USF OL coach Allen Mogridge was hanging out with Key, he GA'd for Key at UCF. I've wondered if he ends up as an analyst at GT for some time.


Key quick quotes, he is in a very playful mood today.

Excited to be down here and a really good reward for the season these guys have had and the GT org and these seniors who have been through a lot. I reminded them of all the guys that were here between bowl games and they busted their butts and now we are reaping the benefits of it. There are a lot of guys who we are repping that we part of the history of it. There are people excited to see our program going in the right direction.

It is my 5th time in Tampa and the 4th in this game, last time it ended with 1 second on the clock and one I was not pleased with confetti going down on someone else’s sideline. The entire bowl staff have been great welcoming us and the 1st day and a half and big John Godsey being our team host. Overall it has been a good experience for us.

Two things we are given with a bowl game, to enjoy our time with family and friends and enjoy practice and putting together a game and the third piece is going out and earning what we can and what we are capable of and getting that third celebration holding the trophy and saying we won the game. I want these guys to have fun, but we can down for one reason to win a FB game. No different than any other game in the season.

That is the real fun in bowl games, seeing someone else hold up the bowl trophy is not a good feeling and I don’t want our guys to feel that, I’m going to put everything we can into this game and for our seniors playing their last game at Georgia Tech. Playing a good team, we started practice 2 and a half weeks ago and started game plan last Friday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday did full padded practices with the game plan and now we are honing in on the game plan and putting in the final touches on it. Gus has coached a long time in several places and been successful at all of them. He has great offenses and has great individualized game plans and they have an opportunistic defense. Their third down defense is very good and they had some teams in the teens on 3rd down conversions.

Practice was good and it was the best part about it. Guys have a little freedom to do things the day before and ride rollercoasters and then see them roll in, it was spirited and live and I want them to be able to practice fast and not do a lot of hitting.

Schemes don’t change, players are different at some spots on both teams, but it is like a player getting hurt, there is maybe one spot if guys are playing it changes the game, but the schemes are the same and the playcallers are the same.

On Dontae Smith, all the SRs, I brought up Tae and Jay King in the team meeting they were the reference as the two that are left that haven’t experienced a bowl game. I’d love for all of those guys and the SRs to experience a win. Dontae is special, I hate to talk about one senior over others, but Tae is awesome and he has had some ups and downs and Tae has a special place with me, my daughter made him a bracelet the other day, she makes good luck ones and Harper made him one that says Tae on it. She was so excited to see him wearing it and she thinks they are all her friends. Tae will do great things for the rest of his life.

We’ve had a couple of weeks to heal up a little bit but we also practiced and it is an opportunity to get 14-15 extra practices and we are not going to tread lightly. Of the course of the season we remained pretty healthy and the job that AJ and his staff, Mark Smith and his staff and Erin and her staff have done to keep guys healthy. We don’t see a lot of the pulls and strains that keep guys out for weeks at a time. Other than a few guys.

It is my discretion on if portal guys plays.

We were excited about Jamal being able to ride all the rides (laughed hard).

My office here or there is no big deal. It is not a big deal. We take he challenges every day and the time we complain about it. The organization of it and the planning has to take place to be ready to occur, that is something for two weeks now and we will staff meet again to go over the same processes again. We have a staff room set up here and coaches.

On Buster, I want to develop players to become better coaches and I want coaches to become coordinators and it is extremely rewarding to see guys elevating and it is awesome.

On the DC Search, I’m worried about the game and winning and the recruiting part of it and winning.

Hello. Is this thing on?

By the time some of you read this on late Monday night, it is possible some of you may already be in Tampa. Some of you may be sick, like the majority of Cherokee County. Some of you may be trying (key word) to sleep or spend time with your significant others.

Head coach Brent Key arrived in Tampa this afternoon, and in-between practice, game-planning, radio appearances, etc. Key is heavily involved in pushing to close on several 2024 targets. The targets range from one-time commits, to long-time targets, portal recruits, and everything in-between.

**QUICK NOTE: Ala. DE Trashun Griffin tells me he will sign in February. He says he is still committed to Georgia Tech. That's what he says.

*QUICK NOTE No. 2: QB commit Aaron Philo made the all-state first team by the ATL Touchdown Club on Monday.

I have been talking to some colleagues on the network who have seen him live, and they believe that Philo is set for a bump up in the rankings. Unknown if he will become a member of the Rivals250, but there is no way up from 5.7 that does not include a fourth star.

QUICK NOTE No. 3: The same can be said for Marist ATH/DE/TE Luke Harpring, who was also named to the all-state first team. His name was on the list defensively though, rather than as the pass-catching weapon he will be for GT.

While it is unclear whether or not he will become a four-star, a bump to 5.7 territory is likely.

Enough about things that, frankly don’t matter. Without further ado, let's get to it, starting with the transfer portal targets-

DE Jack Barton- Barton visited Georgia Tech over the weekend. Prior to the dead period getting underway on Monday, Barton did not take any other visits that JOL is aware of. Barton’s connections to Georgia Tech run deep, to the point that Barton was actually considering being a walk on to be able to follow the family tradition of playing at GT.

Barton was recruited by the old staff, but never did get that offer. He ended up going to Furman, and now has the chance to finish his career at the school that many members of his family call their alma mater.

I’d be surprised if he were to end up anywhere else. Consider this my Transfer Portal FutureCast Projection.

RB Elijah Green- Green visited Georgia Tech over the weekend, and was the sole official visitor. He had the undivided attention of the staff, the players, and was able to get a close look at what life at Georgia Tech would be like if he were to choose to stay home.

As I mentioned on Sunday in my live updates, Green has the type of personality that is contagious. He lifts up the room, and as Georgia Tech looks to rebuild a room losing Dontae Smith, I am not sure there would be a better fit for that role than Green.

That’s without even mentioning his on-the-field abilities.

I’m ready to officially submit my (fake) Transfer Portal FutureCast for Green to end up at GT, and to move in on January 3rd.

LB E.J. Lightsey- Lightsey has kept a real low profile since entering the transfer portal earlier this month, to the point that I am not even sure if he has gone on any other visits since.

Lightsey was injured severely a couple of years ago when getting shot, and he never was able to recover enough to make an impact at UGA after signing with the Bulldogs over GT and others out of HS.

GT seems to be locked in on Lightsey, and finding a way to put him in situations where he will be able to make a difference on their defense in 2024 and beyond.

Going back to his highlights coming out of HS, Lightsey’s the type of player that GT needs more of defensively.

Still feeling confident in my FC, though I am currently unaware of any type of timetable for a decision. He may not even make an announcement, opting to instead go the route of several others and just move onto campus and get to work.

DL Ayobami Tifase- The last of the portal targets in tonight’s update is Ayo Tifase, a recent official visitor who continues to add offers.

The former FSU Seminole had a layover in Atlanta heading back to Tallahassee from his Wisconsin visit, and made the most of it by completing a one day OV to Georgia Tech.

With a campus tour, looking at the housing for the players, watching practice, and dinner at the Little Alley all smashed into one day, Ayo got the chance to really see what life would be like for him at GT.

An impressive looking DL, Tifase was in-line for a real opportunity for snaps heading into the 2024 season at FSU, but opted to leave in hopes he could find a better fit.

Tifase also visited Charlotte, and has also added multiple offers since leaving Atlanta. What’s next for him is still to be determined, but it was clear from conversations with sources that GT made an impression, despite the missing pieces on the staff.

This is the first time Buster has spoken since fall camp.

BUSTER FAULKNER

On the offense evolving this season, it has been exciting and some of the things we have done and we are still searching for more consistency but we found our identity and we have a lot of guys coming back and it has been fun coaching this group and that part was consistent. It is a hungry group and through all the ups and downs they stayed even keel. They’ve taken everything they’ve asked me to do.

On Haynes King, he is a throwback and there are not a lot of guys like him. He doesn’t let anything get to him and all the pressure in this day and age, he hasn’t batted an eye. We knew he could run and for him to get through the season, we have to be smart with how we run him, we ran him more down the stretch than we wanted to. We have some good receivers and he got the ball to him. He is a lot of fun to coach and we are lucky to have him and we are lucky to have two of them both him and Zach Pyron.

On his relationship with Haynes, he is a coach’s kid and he was raised the right way in the locker room around a lot of different types of guys. If he wants to coach he will be a good one. He is wired the right way and he is a throwback and you can get on him and he can handle it and the thing I like about it is he isn’t afraid to go back at you. The players and the coaches love him, in a bowl those things start to come together more and families are around and we have a good thing going here and we’ve got to continue i.

On UCF’s defense, overall team speed, they are fast and do a good job of covering and getting after the QB we have to know where #3 and #2 are on defense. They’ve had a couple of opt-outs.

On Jamal Haynes, we brought him in after spring ball and told him hey we are going to RB. The first time I met him before I made the move we brought it up to him, I heard about him growing up and he was a running back as a kid and we wanted to get more explosive and get him and the last day of spring ball he was in there learning plays and he loves football more than anyone I’ve ever been around and his football IQ is off the charts and he has been the spark plug for us and he can be used in multiple ways and he is not a big guy but he plays big. He is intense and we feed off his emotions.

On the offensive line and what it has meant, the biggest thing was Coach Key did a great job recruiting them and they were young in the past, the old tape I watched a little, but our job was to coach them and Coach Wade does an unbelievable job and they bought into it and once they started to believe themselves they took off. They are an extremely confident group and they are still young and they are good. We’ve continued to develop them and they’ve bought it, but the biggest thing is they are playing with confidence which is a big thing.

I think the biggest thing, we want to do what we need to do to keep those guys and you have to recruit the portal and HS but your own roster too. We have a great group of guys and a great group of young guys and we made that clear with them that we wanted to keep them and we’ve made a commitment to them, but everything starts upfront and you have to be able to block, you have to be able to run the ball.

On Dontae, what a great kid and a tough kid who has been through a lot here and he wasn’t playing a lot early and could’ve tucked it, but he kept working. In the UNC game, he had a breakout game and the kid means a lot to this program and he is what this program is about, he wasn’t playing as much as he wanted to early in the season, but he was awesome down the stretch

On his name being floated, it means things are going right, they talk about you when it is going well and when it is going bad. What matters to me the most is Georgia Tech and playing this bowl game and trying to win it and then moving forward. We have a great thing going forward and I’m excited to be here, my kids are happy and my wife is happy.

Figured it was time for a new buzz reaction thread. Let’s recap the last couple of days-

-LB commit Tah’j Butler has shut down his recruitment
-WR Debron Gatling is on campus currently
-Transfer DE Jack Barton is expected on campus today, his first visit with Oklahoma and Indiana looming
-Transfer TE Ryland Goede was supposed to be at Texas A&M this weekend, but he called it off and committed to GT
-Speaking of A&M, they are hosting priority RB target Anthony Carrie this weekend
-Priority transfer targets Ty French, Syeed Gibbs are still yet to announce their decisions
-Priority CB target Tre Alexander wraps up his BYU visit today

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I haven't seen anything on here about it, but EJ was invited back in November to play in the Hula Bowl in Orlando. Practices started yesterday and the game is Saturday at noon on CBS sports network. KWat is down there with him, and sounds like he'll be making the rounds to all the SR bowls we have guys playing in to support the kids and network with pro scouts.

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I thought this was really cool and just wanted to share. It's Bobby Dodd Stadium from a drone during the 2023 GT vs UGA game. Hope you enjoy!

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Brent Key did two media avails today, one was with Chad who was the lone media person there for the team arrival and then he did a 680 radio hit and I compiled the things of note from both.

Team is going to Busch Gardens

George Godsey’s dad John is the bowl host for GT. Big John, Key was really excited about it. It is his fourth or fifth time in RayJay as a coach.

The team captains set the curfew and it is an hour longer than Key wanted. He has to trust them to do the right things.

Key has 13 people working on portal stuff and he has watched film personally for 600 players since the portal opened. Key said a high percentage are chasing money and the money is not the same as what they hear on the internet and they are chasing it and not finding it and now they can’t go back to where they were, it is great for guys who are graduating and stuck behind someone and want to play or a kid that is buried on the depth chart somewhere, but some people are abusing it and not understanding it.

Key is excited about the bowl and having the extra practices and the bowl experience for his team and he said that is a reward but now they have to focus in so they can win and celebrate on the field and stay focused. He said some teams come in with absolute lockdown focus and then play like crap, so they want to have fun, but they want to win the game.

Key said between the bowl and NSD and the portal it was a lot for the staff. He said the most important thing is the team and they are in a good place and have what they need. They are preparing to win the game.

Key feels good about the signing class, but a lot can happen in the last 48 hours, he will spend non-practice time on the phone making sure things get done.

Key on his decision to replace Andrew Thacker and Travares Tillman as on-the-field coaches, he said from day one it has been about what is best for the players and best for the school and he takes that seriously. They are dealing with people’s livelihoods and he has compassion there but at the end of the day there is one organization he is looking out for and he is going to make the decisions for GT.

Ricky Brumfield will step up and coach DBs in the bowl game and he has worked with them this year and Alec Brown the GA will step up as well and he has a lot of coaching experience to be there as well and the other GA Quentin Jones does a great job with the DBs as a GA and he has matured a lot this year and he is excited about him so he feels like they have it covered.

Key said there will not be other changes prior to the bowl game.

Brent Key

Buster Faulkner

Haynes King and Dontae Smith

Has committed to West Virginia. Can't say I saw that coming at all until about 30 minutes ago when I started getting calls.

Mountaineers hosted him for a visit after he left Baylor, and they were able to pull it out. I'll share more details as I get them.

French went ghost over the last several days. Stopped returning calls from GT coaches, didn't even respond to reporters such as myself.

The 6-foot-1, 222 pound EDGE/LB will finish his career in the Big 12.

Good morning.

As you read this, coaches at Georgia Tech are all over the country, working to close the 2024 HS class while also putting together a group of transfers that are going to help elevate the program next season and beyond.

In order to be able to add transfers to the roster, and a few more 2024 recruits as well, Georgia Tech is going to need to clear some room.

I've placed the O/U as of this morning on additional departures from the class as it currently stands at 1.5.

With the state championships kicking off this afternoon, I am hearing that Georgia Tech is going to have a presence on the field at nearly every game.

In particular, head coach Brent Key, OC Buster Faulkner, QB coach Chris Weinke are all planning to be in attendance for today's matchup between Prince Avenue Christian and Swainsboro.

Key and the rest of the staff will also participate in several in-home visits today and through the week.

Transfers can be seen in-home wherever they are, can go on official visits, and are treated just like recruits in HS, other than the fact that there is no such thing as an NLI for them.

Going to be a busy week, buckle up.

Has officially shut down his recruitment. He will sign with Georgia Tech, and move in early next month. Big news, especially to make it public like that imo.
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War Room coming tonight.

Carry on.

-RJ

Note on Anthony Carrie inside.

Ok this was one of the most embarrassing losses in recent years. We are eliminated from the playoffs. Ridder is a backup QB starting and a turnover machine. Offense is very bad even with some weapons.

We need a house cleaning full stop. McKay needs to go first and we need a new president of ops and a new HC and entire staff needs to go as well. McKay cannot make the next hire!!!

I'm missing the link to the mailbag. I know I'm only a MGT Alum, but I thought I could figure that one out.

Hey @Kelly Quinlan and @Russell Johnson, what do you make of this? I don't trust Carl because he is more of a groupie/cheerleader than someone with original reporting.

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Yes.

That's one hell of a War Room!! 🤺

So aside from the obvious, which is Tech winning a bowl game and having a winning season for the first time in forever, what do you hope to see the Tech program do next year?

#1 for me is get 8 wins
#2 I want to see natural grass in Bobby Dodd again.