General thoughts on the staff, and some clear differences from old staff to now?
KQ- I think Key has tried to strike a balance with his hires looking for both quality recruiters and coaches. Guys like Kevin Sherrer or Marco Coleman have both strong reps as coaches and really strong reps as recruiters for example. He also hired some guys who are viewed as up and coming guys like Norval McKenize and Josh Crawford.
Collins' first staff was his Temple staff with Brent Key, a pretty inexperienced Tashard Choice who turned out to be a stud recruiter and a couple of other guys thrown in the mix. It lacked P5 experience overall
Here is the easiest way to look at it.
Guys with no P5 full-time assistant coach experience on Collins' staff when they were hired- Thacker, Burton, Knight, Popovich, Patenaude, Marco, Choice,
Guys with P5 experience on Collins 1st staff- Key (Bama), Chris Wiesehan (Cuse/UCLA), Dixon
Key's staff:
Guys with no P5 full-time assistant coach experience- Josh Crawford, Buster Faulkner, Geep Wade
Guys with P5 experience- Norval McKenzie (Vandy), Sherrer (UGA/Tenn), Weinke (Tenn/GT), Tillman (MSU), Coleman (GT/MSU)
He kept Semore and Thacker who got their P5 lumps here as well.
Faulkner has also basically been an on-the-field coach at UGA for all intents and purposes. Three guys instead of seven is a prime example of that plus the off-the-field hires with experience are big as well like Brian Baker.
Why did Marco choose to come back? Was it a Collins issue that caused him to leave originally?
KQ- I think that is Marco's story to tell. I would say 100% he left because of Collins.
Probably TBD at this point, but any specific recruits or portal guys we should keep an eye on that may have had ties to Coleman/Sherrer at previous stops?
KQ- Sherrer is probably a little less so because he has been away from college for three full seasons now. We will see with Marco. I think there are kids reaching out to him regularly to see if GT has space.
With the departure of Keion White, GT's defense really needs pass-rushing in 2023. If QBs have all day to throw, it doesn't matter how good the veteran LBers and DBs are.
Where do you see this production coming from?
I think having Sylvain Yondjouen back will be big there. He had 16 QB pressures compared to 30 for White in about 45% of the snaps that White had. Yondjoeun has improved a lot each year and he finally was healthy this past season for the first time. I think he could be a guy who turns the corner. I think Noah Collins has a chance and so does Kyle Kennard. Kennard's biggest issue has been over pursuit and also penalties. If he can clean that up he will be much more productive. I think they will look to add more guys.
Does Kevin Harris finally make the leap?
KQ- Maybe, he is still a vertical pass rusher. That doesn't work well when you play mobile QBs. Harris would've been nasty in Tenuta's scheme in that era though.
Curious on some way too early football predictions for next year.
1. Who do you see having a breakout year next season from both offense and defense?
KQ- Leo Blackburn is my guy I'm watching on offense, I'd also through DJ Moore as another guy who could be a breakout guy. Defensively, Sylvain who I talked about above is the guy I'm watching really closely.
2. Under the new conference format, what place in the ACC do you see Tech finishing?
KQ- That is something I cannot handicap until I see all the pieces and I have to study the ACC schedule now because I've got zero clue about who other teams are playing. I think GT has a good shot at bowling if they can figure out the offense though.
Sounding like some sizeable hoops NIL donations are coming in the the new TechWay initiative. Can you confirm with what you are hearing?
KQ- I tend to stay out of the NIL world. I hope that is accurate though, it would be nice to see GT competing on par with at least 11 of the 15 ACC teams.
I see Marco helped sign three top 250 DE types in the last MSU class. If any of them wanted to follow him would there be a waiting period or could they come immediately?
KQ- They'd have to ask for a release from their NLIs from Michigan State. That is not very common in this type of situation.
Who were the hoops bigs GT could have landed with NIL
KQ- In the last signing class a few months ago there was a 4-star big man who would've come with pretty much a bare-bones NIL deal. There were four guys who would all be major upgrades in the last cycle that either tripped or canceled trips here and wanted to come if there was a NIL package per my sources. I'm not going to out guys publicly though that is shitty.
What’s the planned timeline for spring ball?
KQ- They are working on the schedule still. I think they should have it firmed up this week. I assume they want to be able to announce the spring game around the time the 2023 ACC schedule drops.
How much input/decision making did Thacker have in letting go Knight and Turner and bringing in Coleman and Sherrer. Was he in lock step partnership with Key to make this happen or was this more of Key's decision solely? how much influence does Thacker have on the defensive side other than playcalling?
KQ- I don't know, I have not spoken to Brent or Andrew about that, I would hope they wouldn't tell me either. That is not any of my business or the boards business why they made changes. The one thing I can tell you is a guy wasn't pulling his weight in coaching (player development/performance) and recruiting as well that was something Key wasn't going to take lightly. The DL recruiting was an absolute mess this cycle and they got lucky to sign the guys they did after having three different guys not make it academically. It seemed like guys were taken with the idea they wouldn't be here to deal with the consequences or something.
several things (some silly) as we start the new year:
- O/U 6.5-page thread of complaints about date/time of spring game?
- When is CBF expected to be "in the office"? Is it as simple as "he'll be there next Tuesday"? Or he has a few days of "sorting things out" and will join the team on or around MLK day?
- How did Tech's NIL efforts get so far behind? Can we place all/most of the blame on Todd's shoulders? (forgive me if you've already answered this)
- Did the twitter dude actually give an additional six-figure donation once we hired CBF? Is said dude on JOL?
Help me out with the Co-OC/DC rolls. Who calls plays and sets game plans?
KQ- It varies 100% on the situation. Buster I believe will call the offense and Thacker the defense, but that is not something I've asked Brent Key directly. At most places that have co-coordinators one guy calls it typically. Sometimes they'll have someone call red zone plays or something funky like that or short yardage. Typically the Co-coordinators thing is more about specific responsibilities like running meetings, scouting, game planning and how that is divided up.
Was explaining the Goober / Thacker DC dynamic one of the more difficult things you've had to do once he was retained last year? Did you know Goober was really calling all the shots on Gamedays but the title belonged to Thacker? I recall all the confusion following the 2021 season about that.
KQ- Several non-GT coaches kept telling me what was really going on and it was clear by Collins keeping Thacker around and that not being in doubt that something was off. He could've easily thrown the guy under the bus and maybe bought himself some needed goodwill. When I talked to Thacker I always got the vibe he could coach and I saw that watching him at practices too. When I saw the team in games I saw something that looked really disjointed like they were trying to use someone else's plan or something was just way off. Clearly that was the Collins' factor on it and Key had some input on changes as well that helped too.
