Have the success initiatives kicked in yet in the ACC and how exactly do those work again? Will GT benefit at all from being the most watched team in the conference?
KQ- I am uncertain how that works to be honest with you. There are probably a couple of posters who keep up with that stuff more than I do.
Is there any hope for fixing officiating or are conferences so dug in at this point with having their own league-affiliated officials? With the billions of dollars being thrown around on sports gambling, eventually something violent is going to happen to a ref who makes a bad call or a player who loses a game. And having conference officials is only going to contribute to the conspiracy theories when you look at a game like GT playing in Athens against a SEC brand with SEC officials and not being allowed to win the game.
IMO you could fix it with NCAA-wide officials or doing what bowl games do and have Big 12 officials work games like GT-UGA, but I don’t really see it happening.
KQ- There is zero incentive to de-centralize the officiating because the leagues want some level of control over it. That is the simple answer. There is no way that UGA would agree to having third-party officials for that game and you'd likely get the worst officials anyway because remember each league has a bunch of games so you'd get cross-eyed Joe and the rest of the worst of the Big XII alt-refs if you do that.
Troy Stevenson was a 4 star prospect. Was he injured? With the depletion of our secondary I kinda forgot all about him but never heard his name. What’s his situation?
KQ- Just because someone is highly rated does not mean they will play. He is a nickel right now and they had Shelley for most of the season, Syeed Gibbs and Omar Daniels and then CP Lee when they moved Daniels ahead of him. You aren't sitting one of them to just throw him into the rotation.
Aside from the added motivation this off-season are there any tangible positive things going on in the background as a result of the uga loss? (e.g. donors opening up their wallets, players that were on the fence deciding to run it back one more year, more urgency to go all in on the portal to win next year, etc)
KQ- I think the leadership buy-in is very high. That allowed President Cabrera to greenlight the raises for Brent Key and J Batt for example even though they are still paying off some dead money to GC3 and not exactly flush with cash. Some people have stepped up but there is a long way to go with getting to where Key and Batt want the football program in terms of financial support especially on the NIL front but that is changing rapidly as well over the next year with things moving in-house.
Last year you more or less said that no team not even Georgia gets everything they want when it comes to recruiting be it high school, or via the portal. What position do you think we come up short with besides line backer?
KQ- I think the WR position was lacking a marquee outside type and that looms larger with Eric Singleton Jr. cashing out in the portal. They made some attempts to get guys, but I think they fell short on a couple of key guys like Travis Smith for example who they made a strong push for late.
Will Key allow his grad transfers to travel and play in bowl game (they did the academic work and graduated). Or does he use this as the development for next years players while still focused on winning? Can early enrollees
Practice with team? I remember theother state team having high school kids come in early and practice for with playoff team.
KQ- Are you asking me if he is letting guys who are leaving play or guys who are coming in via the portal play. I think it is the second part and those transfers I believe are ineligible for the bowl game. Depending on when kids graduate and get their paperwork processed they can join the team for bowl practice, but cannot play in the bowl game unless something changed.
So we have NIL and Scholarships and no NLI’s. What binds a kid to a College as far as commitment?
KQ- They sign some financial aid agreements and things like housing that you would have to pay a lot of money to break out of. It is tricky to get out of those so you don't see a bunch of guys trying to get out of their signings when say a coach leaves for a better job in the December portal window. Most of those people would dip in the spring.
What’s the mood/vibe around the team right now? Obviously bummed about last week but is there a sense that they will come out of this stronger because of it?
KQ- They've been in exams and we haven't been around the team at all so it is hard to say. I think some are bummed that the bowl game is in Birmingham. It will take a few weeks to settle everything down.
Why is the ACC conference so bad in basketball this year? Is it bc the schools can’t keep up in NIL with other conferences?
KQ- I think it is a loss of elite coaches in a short span of time to retirements and there has been a pretty serious adjustment and you've had teams go through some really rough spells as well while the SEC has done a better job of upgrading some coaches and rosters. It's not a money thing, UNC spends more than anyone not named Kansas same with Duke.
Which young D Linemen will impress us next year.
KQ- Christian Garrett and Derry Norris on the bigger end of things and Andre Fuller.
My annual post season question....and when you have time.
How about a Report Card for all the redshirts going into 2025.
KQ- On the agenda when the portal closes.
Who are the two most underrated recruits from this cycle we signed
KQ- Cal Faulkner is just a great football player and he will find a role somewhere on the team IMO. I do like Fenix Felton a lot as well. I think folks are sleeping on him.
How much does Kirby pay the officials after each game?
KQ- Maybe that is where the old duffels of cash went from the old recruiting days. lol
