Georgia Tech senior defensive tackle Zeek Biggers answered JOL questions at the ACC Kickoff event in the breakout room on Monday.

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Hey guys I’m going to dinner with David Pollack tomorrow for a work thing and wanted to see if y’all have any funny questions you want me to ask

Just curious how it's affecting everyone. I'm seeing airlines issue handwritten tickets. Also, our conference call with a GA-based bank was cancelled because it's all hands on deck there this AM.

THE FLATS – Seven Georgia Tech football student-athletes – defensive tackle Zeek Biggers (Salisbury, N.C./West Rowan H.S.), defensive back LaMiles Brooks (Jacksonville, Fla./Trinity Christian Academy), defensive back Warren Burrell (Suwanee, Ga./North Gwinnett H.S.), defensive lineman Kevin Harris II (Loganville, Ga./Grayson H.S.), quarterback Haynes King (Longview, Texas/Longview H.S.), offensive lineman Jordan Williams (Gainesville, Ga./Gainesville H.S.) and defensive lineman Sylvain Yondjouen (Ruisbroek, Belgium/Don Bosco School) – are on the official watch list for the 2025 East-West Shrine Bowl.



The East-West Shrine Bowl is the longest-running college football all-star game in the nation and gives top players a chance to showcase their talents to professional football scouts and a national television audience. The 100th East-West Shrine Game will be played on Jan. 30, 2025 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas (the home of the Dallas Cowboys). The game will be televised nationally on NFL Network.



Twenty-eight Yellow Jackets have previously played in the East-West Shrine Game, the most recent being linebacker Charlie Thomas in 2023. Thomas is now a member of the Cleveland Browns.



Georgia Tech opens fall camp on Wednesday in preparation for its season opener versus Florida State on Saturday, Aug. 24 in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Kickoff is set for noon ET and the game will be televised nationally on ESPN.

As usual, there were tons of stupid questions, weird off-topic questions and other stuff, I'll stick with what actually would be of interest. If you want the full show, click the audio and listen. There are some real gems of idiocy in there.

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Everything Brent Key said at the big podium at the #ACCKickoff

Should be receiving them. I didn’t get selected for the men’s but got selected for the women’s lottery. Best luck I’ve had so far.

On that same note, I won a brand new driver at the Golf Galaxy grand opening this week and now this.. may buy a lottery ticket on the way home from work.

Wanted to get a thread started for those who plan to attend away games. We will be heading back to Blacksburg (favorite ACC team to visit for us), and heading to assthens on Black Friday. I have been to games there but never where I was the "lead". I have zero clue on where to park to tailgate. If anyone can help with that I would be appreciative.

If you're attending an away game let it known below! Maybe some can meet up for a GT tailgate.

Career best PGA finish for Vince at #2. Win of $436k for the weekend. Lost by two points, 49 to 47.

GT will go in the evening for the next week as summer classes wrap up so Wednesday night we will have our media avail. So it is a much different schedule for the next week

ZEEK BIGGERS: (In progress.) Coming in, we recruited some new defensive tackles to help build the run game. So definitely guys getting older in the program, also added new additions to lead us. One from Penn State, one from Miami. They definitely going to contribute to stopping the run this year. We're definitely going to stop the run.

Q. Zeek, let's talk about the elephant in the room. I want to ask this question to coach key, but I'm asking for you. Three minutes and 31 seconds left on the clock. My guy, Kyle, has a chance on a toss sweep to make a play against Georgia. I know the expectation is to win every single ballgame, but we know that Georgia Tech has a different measuring stick because it's not about the ACC more than it is the team across the road. How much does that drive you, this coaching staff, the team on a daily basis to compete with the team that I won't mention?

ZEEK BIGGERS: Definitely we obviously watch film, realize that was something we could have did and got a stop, possibly won that game.

Definitely the rivalry with the team down the road, I don't know how to put it, but we know how we want to beat them every year, what we need to do to beat them every year. This year we definitely going to try to get that job done. Hopefully we come out with the victory.

Q. You're heading to Ireland in a few weeks. Your thoughts?

ZEEK BIGGERS: I ain't never been to Ireland. Plenty of people haven't. Definitely going to be a new experience for me. I'm going to try some new food, something like that.

Q. You changed your look up. What went into the decision to cut your hair?

ZEEK BIGGERS: I'm part of a fraternity. That's kind of what led into that. But I like it. New look. Stylish (smiling).

Q. In 2022, you saw action in 12 games. In 2023, you started 13 games. Talk about the elevation of your game from your sophomore to your junior year.

ZEEK BIGGERS: Really going into sophomore and junior year, more mature. I knew what I wanted to get done, how to do it.

Basically it was taking a step, growing into that leadership, speak up, be more vocal around the team, and also handling business on the field, so...

Q. Being a captain of the defense, how do you feel that van deny Pittsburgh and the brother from Miami have fit into the locker room?

ZEEK BIGGERS: Definitely they came in, we clicked right away. Them guys, we be on FaceTime, group chats all the time. We do stuff outside of just being in the locker room. Football as well. They came in and clicked. Definitely going to be guys that are going to help us win games this year.

I'm sure this has been posted but I can't remember seeing it.

Alright as you saw I did a pretty good job last year with this with VT and Pitt basically switching spots. I picked each game going in a little bit blind on some teams but here are my predictions for the Jackets game by game and then the ACC schedule with some notes.

My best case scenario for GT would be 8-4 so for my picks I used that starting with an upset over FSU in Ireland as the baseline for my prediction.

I have GT starting out 4-0 with the first loss coming at Louisville and then losses to Notre Dame in the Benz, Miami here and UGA. Miami/UNC games are interchangeable to me and the NC State/Louisville games could switch as well, but this is my gut feeling right now. So GT could be anywhere from 6-6 to 9-3 (if everything fell into place and there were no significant injuries). That is my range, but my gut says 8-4 is the ceiling and 5-7 is the absolute floor if things go wrong.

Here are my ACC picks

Clemson 11-1
FSU 9-3
Louisville 9-3
Miami 9-3
NC State 9-3
SMU 9-3
GT 8-4
UNC 8-4
VaTech 8-4
Cal 6-6
Syracuse 6-6
Wake Forest 6-6
Pitt 5-7
BC 4-8
Duke 4-8
Stanford 4-8
Virginia 3-9

Louisville, Miami, NC State and SMU really benefit from soft scheduling. For example Louisville plays Austin Peay, Jax State, at UVA, at BC and at Stanford probably the worst ACC teams for this upcoming season as their main conference road games other than a trip to Death Valley. They play in South Bend so that will hurt them.

Cal and SMU will be decent and Stanford is in a full rebuild as far as the new teams go. SMU draws Duke, Stanford, Pitt, BC, UVA and Cal so they are getting the Louisville schedule from last year so I would not be shocked to see them have a really strong season.

I have Clemson and Louisville in the ACC Championship game and the Tigers going undefeated in ACC play. I don't feel great about this but Clemson has a medium level ACC schedule.

This type of season would help the ACC because you'd end up with 5 possible top 25 teams depending on bowl pairings.

I have GT headed to El Paso for the Sun Bowl because that is the type of move the ACC would make.

Clemson as the lone playoff team from the league. I think if FSU gets to 10 wins again they would also be in the playoff, but in my scenario they'd need to beat GT, Clem or ND to make that happen.

Hopefully I did this correctly, I'm sitting in the Dallas Love airport hoping to make it home tonight thanks to shitty weather everywhere.

Figured we could use a thread to keep track of any standouts or good performances in the league. Saw this earlier, Tariq making waves at LB again:

It is time for my favorite game of the year, learning new numbers and you all can start updating your rosters on NCAAFB now. lol

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Talking to Brent tomorrow at ACC Kickoff. If you have questions drop them here

I'm curious where we would rank

I am having a hard time figuring out how to change my payment method for my auto contribution. I need to update my card since it expired. Anyone know how to do that?

Happy Sunday Everyone!

Wanted to quickly share with the group that Single Game tickets for the Notre Dame game at MBS will be going on-sale to the general public tomorrow morning at 10 am. The easiest way to get your tickets is to purchase them through Ramblin Wreck's ticket page (https://ramblinwreck.com/tickets/) or if you are having trouble, you can call us at 888-TECH-TIX for additional assistance. We are expecting a heavy amount of calls once we go on sale so please be patient as we will work to get back to you as quickly as possible. Again, the fastest and easiest way to purchase will be through the website.

Single game inventory for this game will be limited. If you do not already have season tickets and/or a mini plan, those two options will allow you to get this game at a much better value. If you have any questions about either of these options I would be happy to answer them for you.

I would recommend that everyone that is looking to purchase tickets for this game to do so through the Georiga Tech website. Not only are you directly supporting GT Athletics, but you are also getting a better value in most cases.

We are excited to pack the building for this great matchup this season. If anyone has any questions, please let me know!

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.

Don’t watch a lot of NBA so this is the first time I’ve seen him…..has Brian Oliver been on the Hawks/Ballys studio team in previous seasons or is this year one for him?

Hawks up 1 at the half in the opener at Charlotte

Fire away