In all sports as a whole, where would you rank GT as an athletic program in comparison with other ACC athletic programs? What can JBatt do quickly to increase GT’s perception?
KQ- So if you want to go down this road you will need to be a lot more specific about what you are asking me. There are many ways to view athletic departments and again my range of knowledge is pretty limited to the AAC, the ACC and the SEC.
Who would stay in your opinion if Key is named HC?
KQ- On the team? on the staff? in the recruiting class? on the board? What is this question? Like I'm not being a jerk, it is just oddly vague like I'm supposed to know the reference that I don't.
You’ve mentioned that taking so many OL transfers instead of high school recruits was a Collins decision. What’s your impression of that/to what extent does it excuse Key? It’s Key’s position group, and he was the associate head coach—is it fair to expect him to try to convince his boss that he’s wrong?
KQ- That is hard for me to evaluate. Don't lose sight of the fact that Collins sold his vision to a lot of people including Key to get him to come here in the first place. The decisions that were made happened early on that GT has to pay the price for now including not signing any OLs in the first cycle because Key didn't start until mid-Jan and Collins wasn't able to bring anyone of substance in that class, some medicals that were out of GT's hands and then also the weird thing that happened with Devin Cochran who missed a full year and came a year later. The whole OL situation has been a mess and Key has some responsibility in it, but ultimately a lot of the issues also fell/fall on Collins who was setting the numbers in terms of how many kids to sign per class. Each year Key (I know this for a fact because of conversations at the time with sources) fought to sign more HS OLs and got push back on that as well.
Have you ever seen a situation where a HC overrules his position coach in recruiting in a way that seems so shortsighted?
KQ- Yes, I saw CPJ do it before and I've seen other coaches I've covered do it including Mark Richt. Not everyone agrees on things that seem obvious in retrospect.
was does GT need to do to bring some equilibrium back to the uga game and have at least a chance to win?
KQ- Start winning and have a better product in all three phases. This particular run UGA is on is going to be hard to swallow for GT fans because it is eerily similar to when Bama got rolling. The big thing to watch now on their end is how Kirby adjusts his staff as guys leave for other opportunities. That is where Saban has lived and died, right now he is struggling because he made some staffing hires that haven't lived up to expectations to be brutally honest like Bill O'Brien.
have you heard anything about GT going back to a grass field?
KQ- I would think there is some time of contract/agreement with the company doing the turf for GT. They do a lot of different things including Truist Park that are grass-based so who knows.
Any chance you can move those Off Topic pro threads up to the sticky part? Would make it easier to scroll through the Normal threads.
KQ- I'd like to actually have fewer pins not more.
You have said there has been little communication between you and JBATT.
Has that changed over this last month? Is his office reaching out yet?...i.e. not being like Todd.
Is there ANY feeling "There is a new Sherriff in town" from the GTAA? ( I know not your wheel house)
KQ- I don't expect to have any conversations with Batt anytime soon. The guy has a full plate of stuff to deal with. I've said hello to him a few times, but now wouldn't be the time I would expect him to reach out. He needs to focus on his coaching search, NIL stuff and other things that have little or nothing to do with me. I'm sure he will talk more than Stansbury did, but again this isn't the time for that IMO.
If Key gets hired do you think we could get another OC and DC? I'm not a fan of CCL
KQ- I think I said this last week, but Key would fire his brother (I have no clue if he has any siblings just using that as an example) if it meant he got to be the full-time HC at GT. Guys like Chip Long know and understand that. It is a business.
1) Twice now (first postgame, then again in the Wednesday Night Coaches Show) CBK has mentioned Dontae "being back" do you know if he was just dinged, or something more? Seems like lots of fans were blowing smoke about "2k not doing what he needs to in practice" the last few weeks - wondering if this is another case of that where he was just being held limited because of risk of injury.
KQ- He was not 100 percent per my sources and he did not look 100 percent in some games and still doesn't look like he did in Fall Camp to me either right now. He looks slower than normal and was a little hobbled in one of the recent games coming off the field. I think he is trying to play through something like most RBs do at this point in the year.
2) You have asked CBK about Charlie Thomas and keeping his head up at the point of impact for tackling to try to avoid these targeting calls and scares. Water Moccasin comparisons aside, do you think Refs are also watching him more because he has been rung up previously, or is he really more egregious still?
KQ- I think he plays with a natural old-school South Georgia swagger and you don't want to take that away and it is hard to coach him out of that. Jason Semore is a very good LB coach, they've talked plenty about stuff like that, but that is just how the guy plays and you live with it.
3) Mens BBall is Back! Do you think we can maintain the 80+ Points lines in the first few nonconference games or will it be more of the defensive struggle in the GSU game?
Seems like outside shooting is the best it has been under CJP (both on paper and now 1 game in) so we might actually have a chance to win more of the close games we have previously defended well in but just couldn't get the ball into the hoop.
KQ- I think they will have some good shooting games and they will have some off nights. Even the Golden State Warriors have clunkers. You saw that in the Georgia State game that was extremely physical. They have enough pieces now though they can figure things out like Pastner benching Deivon Smith and riding Miles Kelly late because he was playing well.
Can you explain the distinction of GT deciding to play Clayton State as regular season instead of exhibition? Unless I’m missing something the NCAA committees don’t count non-D1 opponents, so despite GT being 1-0 it’s like the game never happened as far as the NCAA Tournament or NIT selection process is concerned, right? If so that seems like a wasting a bullet since now they only will look at 30 of your games instead of 31.
KQ- The game was scheduled and Pastner wanted to play two secret scrimmages against real teams to get ready for Georgia State and hopefully have some momentum early in the season. So they played it as a regular season game. He has played games like this in the past in mid-season as well. It is not about the NCAAT or NIT so drop that from your thinking totally. It was entirely about the secret scrimmages and that they had this game that would've normally been an exhibition contracted.
With the way things have progressed in the QB room and not progressed- do you see some of our current QB room being somewhere else next season?
KQ- I don't think Jeff Sims is on the team a year from now. He graduates and a new coach or Key are not going to build around him like they would Zach Pyron. Zach Gibson I guess could grad transfer somewhere and the same with Taisun, but they'd have to grad transfer as they've burned their one-time transfer. Taisun was a grad transfer in as well.
After next year, do we ever purposefully schedule a P5 OOC opponent ever again?
KQ- They have a series with Colorado and a series with Bama still lined up plus the ND games and UGA.
Why do the Falcons not play Ridder? Seems eerily similar to what GT has been facing.
KQ- No idea. I have not had time to watch more than a series of Falcons football this season, unfortunately, or fortunately it sounds like.
Even in good seasons ending with a loss to GA is always deflating. Would you be in favor of keeping the game on the schedule and maybe moving it to September like an Iowa-Iowa State deal?
KQ- So you clearly were not around during the CPJ-era on this site. I wrote extensively at the time about how CPJ tried to move the series to the opening week of the season or make it an early season game for that exact reason. Mark Richt nor Kirby Smart were in favor of that and I doubt the leagues would be either.
Was today the death nail for Key?
Realistically, when would they start interviewing for the next head coach if they want to have them in place before the first NSD?
KQ- You all have to take your fan glasses off, if J Batt is making his decision on the sturdiness of Zach Pyron's clavicle or Jeff Sims' foot he is the wrong man for the job. There are a lot of factors going into the search but losing a game with your third string QB in a season that featured a coach getting fired mid-year and an OC who didn't pick the QBs is not one of the things anyone should be looking at. With Key you are looking at how hard the team is fighting, the coaching piece and what his plan is. If they went 6-6 or 7-5 or something like that, that maybe moves the needle upward, but I think all along this has been an open search with Key as a candidate. His percentages may vary some but really the UVA loss to me was the thing that took that variable out of the equation.
