Revisiting some old topics:
- O/U 0.5 of Moses/Jose announcing a formal decision before end of May?
- O/U 0.5 new public football commitments before end of May?
RJ- If I was required to answer this earlier in the weekend, I would have gone with the over. As fluid as things are in the world of recruiting, I am going to take the under.
I keep hearing coaches were highly impressed with Peery during spring? What qualities about him were they impressed with the most?
Will he be our backup when the season starts?
KQ- On the second part, I still think Jordan Yates has the best grasp of the offense and when he is given plays he can execute he is the most effective backup QB at the moment. You have to game plan for him though and move the pocket around. He can't do all of the same things that Jeff Sims does. Why were they impressed with Peery? Well they didn't get to see him as a SR and he progressed without playing for 16 months in a big way. I think he exceeded expectations out of the box thus far.
Who do you think our marquee win will be against this year in football?
Something tells me we beat the Tar Holes in the Benz.....
KQ- UNC would be a nice feather in Collins' cap and would be a good recruiting win. I'll be curious to see if UNC takes a step back on offense after losing so much offense.
Any rumblings about this being the year where we wear all Gold for a football game?
Will the black watch uni’s for a game be a permanent thing going forward ? IMHO, those were the best new uni’s we have had since the Old Gold and white combo game with Megatron putting on a show.
KQ- I doubt GT will ever wear the same uniforms for an entire season at home under Collins. It goes against his branding and the kids wouldn't like it. They make a huge deal out of the various combos. I assume the black jerseys will remain an option whether they use them or not every year is a different story.
Is there any position group, both sides of the ball, which will not be better than it was last year? (Except punter.)
Better in terms of both skill and depth.
KQ- An interesting and fair question. I agree punter will undoubtedly take a step back just based on the exceptional career of Harvin. Really looking across the board I feel like every position should be better this fall and deeper. The WR room has changed a little bit, but Kyric McGowan was a big pickup and an upgrade in the slot IMO, so the question is who can step up and replace Jalen Camp's production. I feel like that isn't a lofty goal as he was under utilized last year IMO.
Who are our top of board hoops recruiting targets for next year? Assuming neither Jose nor Moses return, and that we have zero attrition, how many in this class?
KQ- GT will have three ships if the do not sign anyone in this class who counts more than one year for 21-22 and do not win the appeal on the 13th ship.
Top targets
SF/SG R.J. Godfrey (North Gwinnett- Suwanee, GA)
F- Kaleb Banks (Fayette County- Fayetteville, GA)
and one of the three big men
Noah Clowney (Dorman- Roebuck, SC)
Cameron Corhen (Pope John Paul II- Plano, TX)
Malique Ewin (Berkmar- Lilburn, GA)
Remember Pastner and his staff can hit the road next month so I expect new offers, changes in pecking orders and more to come from the first in-person evaluations since 2019.
How has the weight program transformed the freshmen from last year? I feel like the biggest 1 year gain is from freshmen to sophomore year and I am very courteous to how much sims bulked up. I know he was a true freshmen last year but he seemed very thin.
KQ- Sims and Gibbs are probably the two clearest guys who've added 10-15 pounds of thickness to them. Both were just really skinny HS kids who needed that year in the weight room. I think guys like Jared Ivey, Kyle Kennard also had significant gains and guys like Paula Vaipulu and Akelo Stone have trimmed their bodies and are more toned. Sims and Gibbs both can add more weight. Ideally you want Gibbs around 205 maybe and Sims has room to add more weight. They both looked like basketball players when they arrived on campus.
I know Rivals does not yet grade out xfers in rankings, but if you two use your gut where do you think GT fell in rankings with overall success last year. And yes, you won’t know about the xfers until they play but same is true with Frosh.
KQ- So the trick with that is I'd have to know everyone else's transfers around GT in the rankings and I don't have that info. What I can say is, GT probably is about 10-15 spots higher if you factor in the quality of those takes into an overall class and push out some of the lower-ranked kids from HS. GT signed multiple starters and all-conference players and even a very decent kicker so that moves the needle for the team and that is probably the most important part anyway at this point.
Does Blackburn or Blackstrain crack the starting line up by years end?
KQ- I don't think so.
Does Blackburn become a TE/WR hybrid like Pitts?
KQ- Very possible, they've toyed with that some with both Tyler Davis and Peje Harris and wanted to do it with Jalen Camp, but he wanted to stay outside more.
RJ- I will leave the full answer to KQ on this topic (and nearly all team topics) but I will say this: Blackburn certainly will have his chances this upcoming season, and has the versatility to move around depending on the formation. The tools are there.
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