First off, I love Russell, he is like family to me, and hopefully will stay that way for the rest of our lives. This has been a very tough week for me personally and Russell as well and I appreciate all the questions about what I'll do next and all of that. I will answer as best I can. This was totally unexpected for everyone including Russell's own family so I'm trying to figure out the best move(s) for the site and how to best serve you all. I want to thank everyone on here. My plan is to keep building and building this thing up and I'm not stopping, I'm not slowing down and my promise to you is I will do everything in my power to make this the best GT site and best GT coverage you can find anywhere. That was my goal on Day 1 back in 2009 when we had a very small site and we are now the market leaders and that will be the way as long as I do this.
So thanks for helping make the site and helping make this the best place for GT fans on the web,
KQ
Maybe I missed it, but is there a person who will be assisting you with recruiting info from the kids contact side?
KQ- Yes, but as I said above I'm not going to rush into just hiring a random person. Russell did a great job and I want someone who will do a great job on here. I'm also thinking about how it will work and what exactly I'm looking for on the content end.
How many recruits will bail on us now that Russell is chasing family NIL?
KQ- That's funny. I'm wondering how long it will take me to get him to do some unfiltered stuff on the GC3 era on here or Youtube. There are some great stories we haven't told.
Just curious man, any early plans on backfilling Russell? I’m sure having him cover the bulk of day to day recruiting was a nice breath of fresh air
KQ- It was definitely a huge relief to have someone handling that and someone who I had complete confidence in. For those who jumped in later on the site after Geoff was hired, I brought Russell back into the fold during that stretch as the site had grown enough to have a second person in a prominent role and recruiting had picked up. I covered the previous 9 years with different interns, part-time help sometimes and mostly on my own for large stretches. Russell and I worked together and shared sources, but the reality is it is a hard job and a grind and Russell is about the 50th person I know to have that same epiphany and it is the first thing most guys I know do when their sites take off. It is a grind, but I am capable of backfilling in the interim and then once I have someone I'm ready to hire, you all will have a new recruiting guy to follow.
Any hints about upcoming commitments? Any insight on inside linebacker recruiting?
KQ- Isaiah Mizell is expected to commit to Arizona as of now. I think Blake Belin is the guy I'm watching most closely at the moment. That could heat up this coming week as he gets closer to his decision. As far as other upcoming commits, that is it for the moment. They want to solidify the OL and DL class in July thought. There are a bunch of other guys planning to do something in August.
On the LB situation, they are still on TD Daniels hard and AJ Rice and I expect there will be some new targets that emerge once the dead period ends.
What do you think will be the determining factor against FSU?
KQ- My main thing will be how the defense contains FSU. It is going to be a weird game. Every game I've watched played in that stadium has been a strange game as it is a very different atmosphere, a different time of day to be playing and the whole trip can be a lot for kids who often haven't even left the Southeast let alone traveled abroad. So that and how long does it take the GT offense to get back in sync and pick up where they left off? If the run game is there from the jump that will be huge.
So…not wanting to be that guy… with you being on vacation…but do you have a guy to replace RJ?…if not who are the candidates?..,were you blindsided?…who are your top replacements?… & why?
KQ- Very much being that guy, but it is okay, this is a big shakeup. As Russell would tell you and as I would, we were a great team and really killed it. I covered a lot of this up top and I'm working on who I want to hire. The good news is, we will not be lacking in scoop. That is and will be the backbone of the site and I'm as plugged as I've ever been. That hasn't been an issue. It won't be one now.
As far as who I want to hire, I'm working on that right now. I got some good advice from friends and regulars on here about how to go about my process and what I want/need. Luckily I've been building up the Bama site back up and I learned a lot from mistakes and successes as we worked on that front and what I'm looking for in people who work for me.
In the future, what do you see happening next? GT men’s football or men’s basketball national championship. If you’re feeling bold, give the year we win as well
KQ- I think basketball is much more likely just given the recent history of the two sports. You only need three special players and good role players in basketball to win a title along with some luck and clutch shooting. I think football is a tougher road and now with the expanded playoff that will likely test depth and hurt teams that aren't as stocked. We shall see, but that is my answer in July of 2024.
Latest odds..
O/U season win total: 4.5
FSU game: FSU -13.5
Would love your thoughts
KQ- I'd jump on 4.5, there will be a black Sunday/Monday if GT wins under 5 games this season. I think Key would fire your mom. lol.
On the FSU game, I got no clue. I think almost 14 points is a big number with GT having a returning offense intact and FSU having to rebuild so much on offense. However, FSU has a boatload of talent so I get the love and I think most early week one, two or three games are sucker bets because no one has any clue anymore who is good or bad that early on in the portal age.
If you could interview a past historical person, who would it be and why? Doesn’t have to be related to sports.
KQ- My gut answer and I'm not a particularly religious man would be Jesus Christ. I think that would be fascinating. Hopefully, I'll have that opportunity in the afterlife. More in my wheelhouse, there are a few people that come to mind. The first one is Eddie Van Halen who was an utter genius and I would love to hang in his studio if he was alive and see him play and go through their songs. As much as I love Rush, the genius of Eddie's playing and songwriting is on a different level. The other music person would be Neil Peart the drummer from Rush who is one of my personal heroes RIP. In the sports world, Ted Williams is the first person I think of, Babe Ruth would be very interesting as well.
What would be your last meal and drink request?
KQ- Honestly my Jamaican chef buddies, Jerk Pork with Rice and Peas, Spicy Squash, Cornbread, a beef patty and his special sweet tea. I make a drive to Athens probably 10-12 times a year to eat it. He has been feeding me more meals than my own mom over the last 25 years. lol.
If I was going to have something other than sweet tea, a Mexican Coke would probably be nice.
Kelly, I have been wondering about this for a very long time. Seems over the course of many years there is always a chorus of those that believe there is bias in ACC office around GT football scheduling. Certainly there has been cause for the thought and not so much “homer” issues, but really wondering if there is something to this or just us enjoying the ability to bitch about the schedule each year. Do you have any evidence of bias or where you think it would have originated? Thank you….
KQ- So this is an interesting thing to go back and look at. I'd have to research each time they redid the scheduling model and how GT's strength of schedule looked compared to other ACC teams each time and you could base that off the prior two-year run by the teams they were assigned to play. I wonder if there is a legit bias at play. CPJ thought they definitely were ****ing with GT and everyone kept having bye weeks or buy-games the week before playing GT and had research to back it up and that is why they passed that rule about how teams couldn't have multiple byes all against the same team in conference play. He was always running hot about that particular issue.
