Are any of our recruits likey to follow Semore.?
KQ- No.
Grossest chocolate in the heart shaped Valentines mystery box?
KQ- That or some really old shady gas station chocolate. Like an old Hershey bar.
I do like a good mystery box. I prefer truffles if we are going that route and paying for quality.
When taking two QBs like this year, does the staff have an A and a B list, so to speak? Like one guy who’s higher thought of, wants to start, etc. and another guy who’s maybe not as highly recruited and fine being the #2 piece?
Or do they just have 1 list? If that’s the case, how do they manage getting a second guy on that list without pissing off the top guy? Do they have to be careful not to take two guys highly rated?
KQ- You have a board and everyone is ranked at every position 1 through whatever and there are ranked and there are absolute takes as well, like a guy who could call the NSD eve and you'd find room for him at whatever that positon is and then they grade each guy out. That is constantly updated just like our own rankings. They have spreadsheets and all sorts of stats and other things they use for that. PJ had a big board in the coaches' meeting room with the top targets at each spot.
If you are taking two QBs and you are not a place like Alabama, you are generally going to focus on one guy who is your prime target and then a second guy and that guy can either be more of a project QB or someone that became open later in the process. It just depends on if you lock in QB2 in the class early or not. This exact scenario has happened here with multiple coaches. With Collins you had the class where Tucker Gleason was the guy until Jeff Sims became available late in that class and the jumped on him and he ended up pushing Gleason out. In the Justin Thomas class in 2012 they signed Thomas of course, but he was also the second QB in that class, the first one was actually Dennis Andrews from Godby and they ended up moving him to A-back after a brief QB tryout since they had Tevin, Vad Lee and JT at the time. With PJ's offense you could move the second QB to another position or just let the two you signed fight it out and that is how David Sims became a RB, he signed as QB, Demond Smith ended up at safety he was a QB and started off at QB.
You never know though which one will work out either.
Do they ever tell either of the two, you’re the #1 guy or #2 guy?
Any insight on that process would be cool
KQ- They will always tell the first one committed if they are taking another QB or are about to late. That is a must-do for a spot where there is only one guy on the field at a time with guys in the same class. That is part of being transparent with the families.
Maybe it is me but it seems like Pastner goes a long way into the season to figure out who his starters are. I realize there are injuries that factor in. But he changes the starting lineup a lot and I still don't fully appreciate how he substitutes. Ex Randomly playing Cyril for Duke. Played Freds recently too for a short stretch. Can you explain his approach? Seems like he should know fairly early in the season who the best five are and stick with them as much as possible. I think he messes with the lineup too much during games.
KQ- Well this season they've had significant injuries to Ja'von (groin most of the first half of the season), Terry (hamstring), Deivon (ankle 2x and head injury), Deebo (Achilles) and Rodney Howard has had two different injuries as well that have been bothering him. I think Deebo is the only one who has played in every game. That even excludes guys like Tristan Maxwell. The core of this team is probably 9-deep when everyone is healthy but there is not a huge difference because of the inconsistent offensive play between 1 and 8. So he has tried different lineups.
You thesis is off though most years he picks a lineup and stays with it barring injuries.
Last year in 25 of 32 games they had the same starting 5, Howard, Usher, Moore, Devoe and Sturdivant. They toyed with the lineup a couple of games here and there due to injuries or someone really struggling, but almost 80% of the time it was the same five.
They played 26 games the previous season and started the same lineup in almost every game except two with one exception they would go small some nights with Bubba starting or bigger with Khalid some nights and those two alternated in 25 games starting 14 and 11 games. Wright, Ush, Devoe and Alvarado were the other starters and the previous year they started the same lineup in 23 of 31 games with Banks, Wright, Ush, Devoe and Alvarado with Moore and Bubba alternating before Usher was eligible.
You have to go back to 2018-19 to find the last time they juggled the lineup a lot, but they still had four regular starters for 19 of 31 games they had the same five basically and then had different guys start here and there after Curtis Haywood went through his shooting funk. Banks, Wright, Devoe, Alvarado and either Haywood or Moore. AD Gueye started a few games for Wright.
2017-18 still four starters and then some other guys rotated at the 5th spot, Okogie, Alvarado, Lammers, Gueye and then Wright and Cole got some starts and Tadric Jackson started some games as well, but they also had guys starting because Okogie was out with the injury/suspension thing as was Jackson.
His first year they had such a jacked up roster, they started three guys Lammers, Okogie and Q Stephens every night and then it was backcourt by committee with Josh Heath, Justin Moore and Corey Heyward who had to start like 24 games because BG left that roster vacant of talent.
The Semore move puzzles me a bit. I would have figured that the talent pool at Tech and the eyeballs we will garner, as compared to Marshall, would have weighed higher than it seems they did. That and add in his history with Tech and seemingly good personal/professional relationship with Key. Is the allure of the DC title too strong to ignore in the CFB landscape? Am I not giving Marshall enough credit?
KQ- Being a DC vs being a special teams coordinator is an easy call. Jason is a good coach but is not an elite recruiter so separating himself to get to his own goals is a lot easier going that path with Marshall than it would've been at GT. You have to move upward when you can into a stable situation. Charles Huff is in a pretty stable spot there, they had a very good defense last year and I would take that move any day as a coach other than not wanting to live there personally. That is the job they signed up for and why I never moved into a football recruiting job at any school or DFO job despite being offered a few opportunities. I like picking where I live.
Pastner loses Franklin this offseason and we know how hard it is to get a big man in the portal. If Pastner doesn't get one that can contribute immediately, should he just pack his bags right then?
KQ- They got Ja'von Franklin with zero NIL money. If they had any money they would've picked up someone better than Ja'von or at least a better fit defensively for GT than Franklin for the scheme. He is healthy now and doing what Josh expected, but he was a patch and they knew it. They will try to add two big men in the portal if Josh is back.
If this has been discussed on the site already I apologize, but is enough public info out yet about salaries to make an educated guess on how much GTAA saved (if any) by hiring Key, his staff and what has been done behind-the-scenes so far versus what it would’ve taken to buy out a sitting coach like a Fritz or Chadwell and get their infrastructure set up around them here?
KQ- Tulane is a private school so there is no way to know what Fritz buyout was for sure. I actually don't remember what the figure was but let's say it was $3-4 million, so you have to pay. You have to buy Key out of a multi-year assistant contract so that is another $500k+ so you are now down $3.5-4.5 million without hiring or paying anyone. Fritz would've commanded more money than Key in his base salary as well so then you can spend more on that. Key's deal is structured in a way that is beneficial to GT and still fair to Key. You'd lose all of that so you are talking about 5 more million dollars probably of investing in Fritz. Chadwell's deal I have no idea on because that never seemed to go anywhere. He was making $2.6 million at Coastal so I'm sure he had some kind of a buyout.
What can you tell us about Faulkner's offense for GT? 50-50 run/pass? Heavy RB and TE use like UGA? Last year we had 10 passing touchdowns, 9 interceptions and 13 rushing touchdowns. Care to take a guess on this years numbers? Thanks!
KQ- No clue, I think he will run more than he did at Southern Miss and Arkansas State though. Key wants to run the ball some and clearly I'm sure that has rubbed off on Faulkner after spending all that time around UGA the last few years. He hasn't been an OC for a bit so i think it is really hard to say they are going to play style X, Y or Z. It will be a spread offense using multiple formations and motion. That part I know. How it ends up looking is probably going to be more based on personnel and what he thinks they can do instead of just I run this and we throw the ball 60% of the time. That doesn't work when you are adapting to personnel and that was the biggest shortcoming of Patenaude IMO.
