Bumped into Cade in the tsa line at Hartsfield-Jackson the other day as we were both traveling for business. He saw my GT shirt and asked if I attended, then shared that he did as well. We talked a bit about the progress being made with football and he revealed he played (which I was thinking because he is a large human being). He said “yeah, I was kicker” with just a small grin. 😁

Anyway I asked about Collins vs Key and the first thing he said was that he wasn’t going to say anything bad about Collins, just that it became clear it wasn’t working and a change was needed. Very classy answer. Then he talked about Key and it was clear he had an enormous amount of respect for him. He said the difference in the way he runs the program was clear from the very first meeting when he took over. Compared Key to Saban and other top notch coaches in the way he runs things.

Just thought I’d share with this board. Nothing earth shattering, just confirming what we already know. I was also very impressed with Cade in the way he introduced himself, handled the conversation, and especially because he refused to say anything negative about Collins, instead focusing on the positives with Key and the bright future of the program. He seems to be an excellent example of what it means to be a Tech man.

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There was much excitement in the Tech hoops world when Cyril posted on IG some pics of him visiting Georgia Tech yesterday. I've been told by sources this is more of a tire kicking visit than some expected decision to take another young big man. UGA folks thought they had this locked down once Cal told Cyril he wasn't taking him to Arkansas with him. No one really has a clear picture of what is going on with this young man. Obviously GT's OTE roots are running really deep at the moment.

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I sort of blame myself for this one. You guys were way more excited about this dude than my GT sources were. It was always sort of meh when I would ask about him, but I thought they would take him to fill things out even if Damon wasn't truly into the guy. Apparently, I was wrong and now he committed to San Diego State. I'll try to find out what the red flag was for Damon, but they really were not pushing for this kid very hard though they planned to visit him.

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This is an easy option floating around and a local kid who is tight with Kyle Sturdivant. The question is if he is good enough for the ACC or not.

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He entered the portal with the DO NOT CONTACT label on so someone has him already locked down. Whispers that St. John's got it locked down.

That is what I've got at the moment. RJ Godfrey was supposed to visit VaTech not sure where that stands. It seems like his recruitment has widened out quite a bit.

From Southern.

Batted .321 this last year with 68 hits. Good pick up before we lose the program.

THE FLATS – Georgia Tech outfielder Drew Burress (Houston County, Ga./Houston County) continued to earn accolades, being named toBaseball America’s All-America First Team, it was announced on Friday.



The Houston County native became just the 10th freshman position player and 24th freshman overall to earn first-team honors in the organization’s 42 seasons of selecting the top collegiate baseball players. He’s the first freshman first-team hitter since Seth Beer (Clemson) in 2016. Eight of the nine freshman first-teamers previously went on to be first-round MLB Draft picks as well.



Burress was named Perfect Game’s National Freshman of the Year, an NCBWA First-Team All-American, and was selected to ABCA/Rawlings First-Team All-Southeast Region. Ellis also pulled in First-Team All-Southeast Region honors, making the Yellow Jackets one of just three Atlantic Coast Conference programs to earn multiple first-team all-region selections, joining Wake Forest and Florida State.



Burress led Georgia Tech in a myriad of categories, including average (.381), home runs (25) and RBI (67), becoming the 12th Yellow Jacket to win Tech’s triple crown. Burress is the first to accomplish the feat since Matt Gonzalez in 2016. His 25 home runs set the Tech freshman record and fell one shy of tying the single-season record (Kevin Parada, 2022).



In addition to his team-leading average, the NCBWA Freshman Hitter of the Year finished with 15 doubles and three triples and drew more walks (58) than strikeouts (37) for a .512 on-base percentage and an OPS of 1.333. He also finished 8-for-10 in stolen bases and set the Georgia Tech record for most assists by an outfielder, gunning down 10 base-runners from center field this season.



Burress led all Division I freshmen in six statistical categories to finish the regular season (home runs, home runs per game, slugging, total bases, walks and walks per game), while ranking Top 3 nationally in 11 categories. He also led ACC freshmen in eight categories to wrap up the year (runs and on-base percentage), while also ranking second in RBI, RBI/game and batting average to earn first-team all-conference honors.



In just his first year on The Flats, Burress has racked up a plethora of accolades. In addition to all-conference and ACC Freshman of the Year honors, Burress was also named Perfect Game Third-Team All-American, Perfect Game Freshman First-Team All-American, a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award and the Dick Howser Trophy.

RIP
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The Pony Express gonna' be a problem......

Don't get this wrong, it's an arms race & they are bringing big guns to the party....

https://smumustangs.com/news/2024/6...ng-fundraising-year-heading-into-the-acc.aspx

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... U.S. Olympic athlete

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It's his OV spots

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More coming.
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Good article with some general insight into the future. Glad to see we are continuing to invest, as noted in the quote below.

“We’ve got some things we’re not quite ready to share yet, but are gonna be coming fairly soon, some significant changes to the fan experience at Bobby Dodd Stadium which will be a big focus for us in the coming years. There will also be some intentional work done around McCamish — the behind-the-scenes practice facility, some significant investment in those spaces. And then some additional investment around our volleyball program at O’Keefe Gymnasium.”

Inside, take a look at what JOL would project as the perfect 2025 recruiting class.

For the sake of the content item, each projection will list 25 players.

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.




Georgia Tech football coach Brent Key had some proof of concept in year one as a head coach and after overhauling his defensive staff and retaining his key pieces on offense and augmenting that staff with Trent McKnight, the Jackets are back to recruiting Georgia harder than ever.

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Question for Russell, out of these guys, what is your best guess on how many we sign.

Petty
Penson
Cortez Smith
Ajidahun
Jontae Gilbert
Canales
Scroggins

KQ- Okay @Russell Johnson I'll add they will get Canales

After 24 does Haynes get one more year ? I thought he was a Red Shirt Sophmore last year. Rivals shows - him as senior ? Just hoping he and receivers get another year together.

KQ- Jamal Haynes is a R-Jr. He redshirted in 2021, played in 2022 and 2023 and will play in 2024.

Regarding the $20 million number that’s being thrown around to pay players from the school, will players still be able to earn from outside sources too? Or is it mainly a way to kill off all of the collectives we have right now?

KQ- I am not sure how that works. I think they are going to force it to be actual endorsement deals if it is outside of the school paying and not the collective stuff, but someone else may be following it more closely than I am.

With all the interest by the receiver recruits, do they look at who may be QB when they arrive? Is there any buzz among them of the coaches that one of the two Frosh may be the real deal?

KQ- Aaron Philo is Buster's guy and Weinke loves both Philo and Graham Knowles so yeah I think there is some of that and Grady Adamson is recruiting kids as well. Phlio has relationships with many of the targets and commits and Adamson with almost all of them.

— With at least some of the insider support having fallen off, what kind of roster will the staff be able to build for next season? Will the NIL money be there to contend for the big Super Regional/Omaha run or will it be resigned to taking chances on high ceiling/low floor boom or bust players?

— Do you think waiting to make the announcement is to pack a punch during the CWS or maybe give a month of breathing room so emotions can die down, or possibly some other reason like internal discord still taking place?

KQ- I'll be nice and say I'm done talking about the Danny Hall shit for a bit. Please give it a rest.

At WR, are there any guys that may benefit from the coaching change? Is there anyone that is thriving under McKnight that didn’t under the previous 2 guys?

KQ- Zion Taylor had a huge spring and has really finally learned the offense and has a chance to be special. They are very excited about Isiah Canion as well even though he wasn't a full go this spring coming off the shoulder injury.

PFF put out a tweet stating that we are one of most underrated teams (along with Arizona, Indiana, and Kansas). I see more love for VA Tech this year in the media than GA Tech despite similar 23’ record and returning a decent amount of production. Even if Miami beats us last year, if we also do what we were supposed to do, we beat Louisville, BG, and BC. I’m biased of course and think we are better than VA Tech but…

1) Do you think we are overlooked?
2) Does our difficult schedule (opposed to VA Tech’s somewhat easier schedule) cause media to not talk about how good we could be? In other words, because we theoretically play better teams, why would the media think about how good the team could be since the assumption is 5+ loses.

KQ- I think there are a lot of media types how like Brent Pry and the Penn State connection that are pushing for VaTech to be competitive again. I think on the GT side, the schedule definitely plays a huge part of why they are not a sexy pick right now. They don't play a FBS team that had a losing regular season record last year. That is unbelievable.

I’d love it if we could sign Petty. It’d be a huge get and would create a lot of buzz given his ranking. But am I wrong to not be as concerned as others with his potential commitment? It feels like this position group should be the least of our worries right now. Like I said, I do hope that we get him. Just not worried about it

KQ- I think he is nice to have, but not going to make or break the class. I think RJ may have a slightly different opinion. I think they need to get some quality DLs committed and they are in a good spot with the O-line now with Canales on board and the commits already in the boat.

CBK & staff brought in a very good '24 class. In looking at the lowest rated kids in the class (the 4 5.5s), 2 of them have already impressed as EEs (Tana & Harrison Moore).

Many (including myself) believe Luke Harping will be an early contributor but I'm wondering if David Prince & Caleb Dozier (the other 2 5.5s) have a chance as well, in particular Dozier who played all over the field and had video game numbers as a SR.

I think Caleb could turn out to be a steal.

Of the FR reporting this summer, which ones do you think have a chance to make an early impact?
KQ- They just started OTAs so it is not exactly the type of thing that Caleb Dozier is going to show up his great LB skills in playing without a football two-hand touch. David Prince has the frame and the body type. The guy that people have been excited about is actually Uche Iloh. He looks like a guy playing in the NFL right now.

Of the transfers that we got for football who are you most excited about?

KQ- One of the early guys, Jackson Hawes. He is supposed to be the real deal at TE. They think he is a potential top 5-round pick next year.

What is the longest you had to sit on a commitment? How long and who (if you can share)

KQ- There were some long-ass ones back in the day. I think more recently, Jah Gibbs was in the can for a very long time before he popped.

If a player signs for NIL and transfers to school, bur suffers season ending injury prior to season, does he still get paid out?

KQ- Depends on the NIL agreement, if the school's collective is honorable or not and really there is no way to enforce payment that I'm aware of.

Your son is a HS football star, what advice do you give him?

KQ- Go to the school where you can get the best combination of player development/education in the field you might actually want to go into post-football. The average NFL career is 3.3 years and it would be almost impossible to save enough money on a rookie-type deal to be set up for life with that. Plan for the future.

How many Faulkners will be with GT football in 2 years?

0, 1, 2, 3?

KQ- 1.5 to 3

Once the HS season starts, which commit will be most challenging to hold on to?

KQ- This is the loser mentality. You all have to lose this shit. Brent Key is annoyed that GT fans think this way. That ain't big boy football. If someone leaves they will replace them with a comparable replacement.

Your opinion: In the (major) college football world of the future (say 2032):
A. Fewer or more schools playing at the top level of competition (I.e., future FBS)
KQ- Fewer like 60ish schools
B. There is a universal player pay scale for all schools ( excluding NIL)
KQ- Yes, I think legally any caps are a no-go and will get killed in court. So they will have to go into collective bargaining and have a pay scale.

C. The current P4 conference’s memberships are significantly different from today ( more than two schools moved or added or subtracted)
KQ- Yes, I think there will be attrition, additions and some schools who opt to not do it in the future cost structure.

D. Contracts with media will be made with the entire “league” as a whole; with conference contracts being phased out.
KQ- That would only work if there is one super league.
E. (Kind of goes with D) distribution of media payouts will NOT be distributed evenly to all schools but will be based on performance and/or ratings
KQ- Couldn't even guess on that.

How many Oline are we taking? Looks like the room is filling up with a few seeming to want to take their time. A few could be left out or maybe if another commits soon some could jump on board.

KQ- Probably 5, they'd go over for the right kid.

What is the criteria for selecting player hosts on OVs and how are they prepped? Seems like this time around the hosts are getting a lot of shoutouts and doing an incredible job.

KQ- Generally they match them up based on personalities and position groupings. The coaches know each kid on the team really well so they pair them up that way. Usually the primary recruiter will suggest player X and if they are available they will host. If there is a really strong prior relationship with someone that can come into play as well. Remember all the kids have OVd here too so they know how it works and what to do, but I'm sure each coach briefs them on the visit ahead of time.

How tall an order is it going to be to put together a defensive line in 2025? Apart from simply...having one. Yes, I'm looking ahead.

So 8 guys are leaving four ends and four DTs after this year.

They will have back

DE- Uche Iloh, Amontae Bradford
DT- Horace Lockett, Shymeik Jones
DT- Jordan van den Berg, Landen Marshall
RE- Jordan Boyd, Jacob Cruz plus Andre Fuller and Carrington Coombs

So they will be in the portal looking for a DE and two DTs. To put some perspective on this they added two DTs this cycle with starting experience and a RE from USC who played 200+ snaps. The situation is not that different from going into this year except at DE. I expect that Boyd and Cruz will get plenty of burn this year and you will see Iloh and/or Bradford play some as well.

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Not sure if this is Ibrahima/Ibrahim/Nait 2.0 or what. 2024 kid

Story with quotes-

Lincoln Riley lost two 5-stars in less than 24 hours

What’s goin on at USC?

Why recruiting is so much better? Brent Key "isn't scared!" - @Russell Johnson