- Curious about something. TaDarryl Marshall was sitting out there on NSD in the breeze and signed with a FCS school. If he was our leading QB prospect at one time, if we had a scholly available why not offer him as an athlete? Was it academics?
He did not want to come to GT and made that clear to CBC and CPJ a long time ago. He is afraid of GT academically. I think Auburn or Alabama parked him at Samford until they need him if you want to know the truth. He could have gone to UAB or UCF or some other schools but chose Samford.
- Staff didn't seem to make a plan B (once D Campbell stuck with LSU) OL a priority. Is there a grad transfer out there they think they can get? Sitting pre-Spring with 13 scholarship OL (3 are true freshman) seems awfully risky.
Okay understand this, it was a dreadful OL class, Campbell was a take because he was a 1-8 type difference maker in the staff's eyes, why would they take some random ass dude and eat up a OL scholarship for 4-5 years. The numbers aren't bad enough to take the Michael Preddy's of the world.
- This had to be one of the weirder classes in CPJ's tenure. But encouraging in that they found a kid they liked in CA and signed him. But discouraging that the staff seemed flat-footed all year and not proactive in their Plan B kids, like the last 2 years. Was this class not particularly deep or did the staff miscalculate?
No they took who they wanted to. GT go the #1 B-back, #1 A-back, #1WR (Dolphus), #1 DE Woods, #2 DT Martin, they did pretty well. Where they came up short was at CB, but that was on CTR IMO, he was convinced that Baylen Buchanan was coming and they had bad luck with Romeo Finley that Miami hired a coach that actually wanted him unlike the previous staff, there was no way to get, the kid told them he was coming for a while....
How's the fundraising for a new bball coach going?
Have no clue, that is over my pay grade, I do know that either Gregory or the AD will be end up getting canned out of this situation so I'm guessing getting money to fire Gregory will happen because M-Bob will lose his job if Gregory is the coach next year IMO.
Do any of the incoming freshmen get any playing time this season?
Brandon Adams and Jordan Woods would be the two I'd put money on and probably Jarett Cole.
Will we get out of the gate this year faster? Thus far, 28 offers on D and 21 on O. 8 DBs, 5 DEs and 1 OL. Any more or less fast a break from the gate than this time last year?
At best with attrition a class of 16-18, probably, they have some offers out, you don't want to offer 100 kids before spring evaluations (i.e. eye ball test), the bulk of offers come between Feb. and July 1st.
Last year, word on the street was the OL crop was terrible and the DB crop was limited........What's the early word on crop abundance , by position?
OL class is much better which is why CPJ wanted to hold an extra OL spot either way. DB wise, I'm not sure yet, we will know more after camp season coming up.
We obviously left behind "The Migration" and likely focus on parochial schools in the Mid Atlantic and Ohio/Pennsylvania. 1) How'd we find Lucas? (Love his film). 2) Territories the same as last year or casting a broader net?
Cook heard about him and showed his film to CPJ and then went on him. They go national specifically for positions, so it depends on the board. No school has a sure plan yet, like I said the bulk of stuff happens in the next few months as coaches see the kids.
Since so many recruits look at whether a school does or doesn't put players into the NFL, what are our graduating seniors' chances this year? Any other than Gotsis?
D.J. White, Chris Milton and Jamal Golden all have chances, Patrick Skov has a chance to be a practice squad guy in the league as well. White I think does okay as will Milton who will test out of the gym. Golden is hurt by his film, but helped by his return acumen.
Since DRob didn't take hisOV this weekend is that a good thing or is he waiting to take them after his sat scores come back?
I have no clue what to make of his recruitment.
I have never seen DRob play. What is it about his game that makes him such a highly sought after prospect? If he were to sign with GT, what will he bring to the ABack position that we have not had in the past with others?
So D-Rob is an explosive player think of guys like Christian McCaffery at Stanford who can catch, run and have amazing field vision, that's what he does.
Maybe an unfair question to ask, but who would you compare Lucas Johnson to skill set wise?
GT QB wise, he doesn't really compare to anyone PJ has had. Skilled passer and a decent runner with some toughness, tall and kind of skinny right now.
How does he compare to V Lee coming out of high school?
He doesn't, I'm not sure why people on here believe Vad was some amazing passer, in HS Vad was the toughest kid on the field and ran around and ran really basic passing plays. Lucas played in a much more advanced offense that was a passing spread and he can make run reads and he sees the field really well as a passer and has a big arm, Vad just had a strong arm and was a tough kid/runner.
Recruit that you believe will be the biggest stud of the class?
Brandon Adams has a chance to be a special player if he can develop and stays healthy, he is the type of DT not seen at GT since probably the mid-90s.
From this class who in your opinion is the most college ready body wise?
Brandon Adams
Thanks for all you do Kelly!
You are welcome
CPJ's "40 year decision " approach does not resonate with 95% of high school football players - or students, for that matter. What other choices does he have?
I don't agree with that at all, it got Jordan Woods for example, it is tougher with football focused kids, but that isn't the pitch they use on a kid like D-Rob for example. You are just reaching here bro.
* We seem to have a clear top 6 returning on the OL (Klock, Bryan, Burden, Marshall, Devine, Griffin), but there will assuredly be 1-2 position changes to boost guard play. What is your best guess on our starting 5 in 2016?
Starting five, LT- Will Bryan, LG- Trey Klock, C- Freddie Burden, RG- Shamire Devine, RT- Chris Griffin
* Which offensive line positions do you forecast for Kenny Cooper and Parker Braun down the road?
Kenny Cooper is clearly a guard and they recruited Parker as an OT.
* Until this year, the staff has seemingly shied away from big official visit weekends and chosen to spread out official visits to allow for more individual time with recruits. This year, we had a huge weekend on 12/15 (12 visitors) and landed 4 out of 5 uncommitted visitors from that weekend. Is this a change in philosophy by the staff or did the visits just fall this way by coincidence?
Not really if you go back and look that isn't the case, usually they bring in key targets with the bulk of the commits all in one weekend in Jan. and then spot guys the last two weeks just like they did, it was almost exactly the same as every other year and how every other school does it.
* Which class of 2017 kids are showing strong mutual interest that we should keep an eye on?
Don't know yet, I'm still wrapping my head around that class right now, favorites are hard to judge until kids do all their JR Days.
* Someone suggested to me last week that Tadric Jackson's best chance as a pro athlete is on the gridiron...said he would have been an elite quarterback/athlete recruit but gave up football in 10th grade. Were you familiar with his potential as a high school football player?
No, he loves hoops and didn't love football so he didn't play his SR as I recall.
How do we feel about the Swilling brothers? Does it help that their dad went to Tech? Or is that a non factor? Will this be the typical uphill battle for 4 star players regardless of their connection to the school?
No idea yet, this is the second time in less than a week someone has asked this question on the board.
He did not want to come to GT and made that clear to CBC and CPJ a long time ago. He is afraid of GT academically. I think Auburn or Alabama parked him at Samford until they need him if you want to know the truth. He could have gone to UAB or UCF or some other schools but chose Samford.
- Staff didn't seem to make a plan B (once D Campbell stuck with LSU) OL a priority. Is there a grad transfer out there they think they can get? Sitting pre-Spring with 13 scholarship OL (3 are true freshman) seems awfully risky.
Okay understand this, it was a dreadful OL class, Campbell was a take because he was a 1-8 type difference maker in the staff's eyes, why would they take some random ass dude and eat up a OL scholarship for 4-5 years. The numbers aren't bad enough to take the Michael Preddy's of the world.
- This had to be one of the weirder classes in CPJ's tenure. But encouraging in that they found a kid they liked in CA and signed him. But discouraging that the staff seemed flat-footed all year and not proactive in their Plan B kids, like the last 2 years. Was this class not particularly deep or did the staff miscalculate?
No they took who they wanted to. GT go the #1 B-back, #1 A-back, #1WR (Dolphus), #1 DE Woods, #2 DT Martin, they did pretty well. Where they came up short was at CB, but that was on CTR IMO, he was convinced that Baylen Buchanan was coming and they had bad luck with Romeo Finley that Miami hired a coach that actually wanted him unlike the previous staff, there was no way to get, the kid told them he was coming for a while....
How's the fundraising for a new bball coach going?
Have no clue, that is over my pay grade, I do know that either Gregory or the AD will be end up getting canned out of this situation so I'm guessing getting money to fire Gregory will happen because M-Bob will lose his job if Gregory is the coach next year IMO.
Do any of the incoming freshmen get any playing time this season?
Brandon Adams and Jordan Woods would be the two I'd put money on and probably Jarett Cole.
Will we get out of the gate this year faster? Thus far, 28 offers on D and 21 on O. 8 DBs, 5 DEs and 1 OL. Any more or less fast a break from the gate than this time last year?
At best with attrition a class of 16-18, probably, they have some offers out, you don't want to offer 100 kids before spring evaluations (i.e. eye ball test), the bulk of offers come between Feb. and July 1st.
Last year, word on the street was the OL crop was terrible and the DB crop was limited........What's the early word on crop abundance , by position?
OL class is much better which is why CPJ wanted to hold an extra OL spot either way. DB wise, I'm not sure yet, we will know more after camp season coming up.
We obviously left behind "The Migration" and likely focus on parochial schools in the Mid Atlantic and Ohio/Pennsylvania. 1) How'd we find Lucas? (Love his film). 2) Territories the same as last year or casting a broader net?
Cook heard about him and showed his film to CPJ and then went on him. They go national specifically for positions, so it depends on the board. No school has a sure plan yet, like I said the bulk of stuff happens in the next few months as coaches see the kids.
Since so many recruits look at whether a school does or doesn't put players into the NFL, what are our graduating seniors' chances this year? Any other than Gotsis?
D.J. White, Chris Milton and Jamal Golden all have chances, Patrick Skov has a chance to be a practice squad guy in the league as well. White I think does okay as will Milton who will test out of the gym. Golden is hurt by his film, but helped by his return acumen.
Since DRob didn't take hisOV this weekend is that a good thing or is he waiting to take them after his sat scores come back?
I have no clue what to make of his recruitment.
I have never seen DRob play. What is it about his game that makes him such a highly sought after prospect? If he were to sign with GT, what will he bring to the ABack position that we have not had in the past with others?
So D-Rob is an explosive player think of guys like Christian McCaffery at Stanford who can catch, run and have amazing field vision, that's what he does.
Maybe an unfair question to ask, but who would you compare Lucas Johnson to skill set wise?
GT QB wise, he doesn't really compare to anyone PJ has had. Skilled passer and a decent runner with some toughness, tall and kind of skinny right now.
How does he compare to V Lee coming out of high school?
He doesn't, I'm not sure why people on here believe Vad was some amazing passer, in HS Vad was the toughest kid on the field and ran around and ran really basic passing plays. Lucas played in a much more advanced offense that was a passing spread and he can make run reads and he sees the field really well as a passer and has a big arm, Vad just had a strong arm and was a tough kid/runner.
Recruit that you believe will be the biggest stud of the class?
Brandon Adams has a chance to be a special player if he can develop and stays healthy, he is the type of DT not seen at GT since probably the mid-90s.
From this class who in your opinion is the most college ready body wise?
Brandon Adams
Thanks for all you do Kelly!
You are welcome
CPJ's "40 year decision " approach does not resonate with 95% of high school football players - or students, for that matter. What other choices does he have?
I don't agree with that at all, it got Jordan Woods for example, it is tougher with football focused kids, but that isn't the pitch they use on a kid like D-Rob for example. You are just reaching here bro.
* We seem to have a clear top 6 returning on the OL (Klock, Bryan, Burden, Marshall, Devine, Griffin), but there will assuredly be 1-2 position changes to boost guard play. What is your best guess on our starting 5 in 2016?
Starting five, LT- Will Bryan, LG- Trey Klock, C- Freddie Burden, RG- Shamire Devine, RT- Chris Griffin
* Which offensive line positions do you forecast for Kenny Cooper and Parker Braun down the road?
Kenny Cooper is clearly a guard and they recruited Parker as an OT.
* Until this year, the staff has seemingly shied away from big official visit weekends and chosen to spread out official visits to allow for more individual time with recruits. This year, we had a huge weekend on 12/15 (12 visitors) and landed 4 out of 5 uncommitted visitors from that weekend. Is this a change in philosophy by the staff or did the visits just fall this way by coincidence?
Not really if you go back and look that isn't the case, usually they bring in key targets with the bulk of the commits all in one weekend in Jan. and then spot guys the last two weeks just like they did, it was almost exactly the same as every other year and how every other school does it.
* Which class of 2017 kids are showing strong mutual interest that we should keep an eye on?
Don't know yet, I'm still wrapping my head around that class right now, favorites are hard to judge until kids do all their JR Days.
* Someone suggested to me last week that Tadric Jackson's best chance as a pro athlete is on the gridiron...said he would have been an elite quarterback/athlete recruit but gave up football in 10th grade. Were you familiar with his potential as a high school football player?
No, he loves hoops and didn't love football so he didn't play his SR as I recall.
How do we feel about the Swilling brothers? Does it help that their dad went to Tech? Or is that a non factor? Will this be the typical uphill battle for 4 star players regardless of their connection to the school?
No idea yet, this is the second time in less than a week someone has asked this question on the board.
