HOOPS QUESTIONS any transfers out of the program?
- what's the latest on S. Gibbs?
- any scheduling notes for next year?
So far now word on anyone leaving GT. Not many of the guys have options that are much better to be honest.
Gibbs isn't going to say anything until he finishes school. Even if GT feels good about their chances they have to keep quiet for now because he has a couple of months of school left to finish up there.
I believe GT will be in the Las Vegas Invitational Thanksgiving week at the Orleans Arena. Not sure yet on non-conference games or when the UGA game will be.
A little OT: I live in the Tampa area, and work with several USF grads and season ticket holders. What is your current assessment of USF Football and athletics in general? To me it seems the program has been stuck in 1st gear since they fired Jim Leavitt (I'm still trying to understand for what other than the University president despised him and his antics). IMHO they missed a golden opportunity to gain a foothold with the recent downturns of the Big-3 Florida programs, and now that they are all in better shape, they may never recover. Are they a P5 invite away from getting back on track or is it tougher than that?
Leavitt choked a player that is why he was fired. As far as the program goes, they need an on-campus stadium badly. They are working on that part. Willie Taggart is a nice guy and a decent recruiter but his offensive decisions have hampered him and will likely cost him his job. They are one of the worst offensive teams I've ever seen and have been so for the last two years. He is now on his third OC, himself, LOL. I think the job is not that hard there with the right staff. USF easily could have won 8 games last year with a halfway decent offense and there is plenty of talent to compete with.
- If you could go back to recruiting classes in the past, what handful of players that were close to picking GT and ended up elsewhere would you most liked to have seen play at Tech? Off the top of my head, I would say Stephon Tuitt, Travis Custis, and Tre Jackson.
Tuitt is the one I would have liked to have seen and he probably would have stayed all four years as well because he wouldn't have been homesick or unhappy like he was at ND. Dalvin Tomlinson is another one that pops to mind immediately who would have made a major impact the last few years at DT for GT.
How was the O line last spring?
It looked like crap and so did the offense. I was just talking about that with someone this week. The coaches were all pissed off the whole spring at how bad the offense looked and how terrible the OL was. LOL
Is there anything that concerns you now that you see as still being a problem in the fall?
I think the wide receiver thing will sort itself out, I'm mainly wondering what will happen at guard and who will step up. That is a HUGE position in this offense especially at right guard and they were hoping Shamire DeVine would step up.
SIAP are they letting you watch?
How could the Indianapolis Colts sign DeMarco Cox without going through the NFL Draft, or at least the Supplemental Draft?
Regardless of sport, he is a RS-SR.
He graduated from college last year and was a grad student this year without playing a down of college football. I think that allowed him to skip the draft process.
Do you think any of the incoming freshman at "skill positions" will make an immediate contribution this year?
Christian Philpott could end up starting at wide receiver by the end of the season and I think either Mikell Lands-Davis or Marcus Marshall ends up playing a significant role at B-back this year if they can avoid getting hurt. Defensively it will be harder for the freshmen because the defense is loaded with upperclassmen.
Do we have a punchers chance with Rochester? Good gosh that's EXACTLY the type of DL we need to land to help our D. I would imagine immediate playing time would be enticing to him .
I think he is headed to UGA, but CAM has continued to chip away. It is more than zero if that makes you feel better.
How much of the playbook has been put in with JT so far and how much could it be limited with the lack of experience at BB?
CPJ doesn't look at it like that, he adds plays as needed, there isn't an installment plan or anything like that. He gives the team what they can handle. It isn't about JT at this point but the A-backs and the B-backs doing the right things. Yes the inexperience at B-back impacts playcalling and depth of plays available. In the last scrimmage CPJ told me he ran the same play 13 times in a row (resulted in a touchdown) to get everyone on the same page.
CPJ acknowledges that you must have game-changing playmakers, not just good/not great players at every position. Think he said (years ago) we "need more 1 thru 8" talent........Do we have that now? .....do we have 8 elite game changers? In your opinion, who?
Yeah I think there are 8 guys on the team that qualify.
Justin Thomas
D.J. White
Jabari Hunt-Days
Freddie Burden
Jamal Golden
Chris Milton (he is a freak athlete and will play in the NFL)
Broderick Snoddy
P.J. Davis
I think they need one or two more guys on offense, last year was more heavily loaded on the offensive side.
What are current duties of our basketball assistant coaches? What is their current impact and what are the odds they can have impact on a turnaround?
It's not like college football, they don't have an offensive and defensive coordinator or anything. Mamadou is the big man coach and Dollar tends to be more involved with guards. They all work as a team on stuff and each have their own recruiting assignments as well. Gregory runs the show though. It is way different than college football.
Your guess on when Gregory will announce that Chris Bolden is no longer on the team ?
At the end of the semester they will put out a press release. That would be my bet.
Where do we stand with recruitment of 4 star QB Chazz Surratt? Still any mutual interest there? See that his frontrunner UNC took a QB commitment this week and wondering if we have a chance with him, if we are even still interested.
Chazz is definitely pissed about Logan Byrd, but I think he ends up at NC State or somewhere he can sling the ball.
