Any news on Charlie Moore? I know he was just offered by the likes of seton hall, vandy etc... Any news on his GT offer?
Not really, lots of schools trying to squeeze one of his two final OVs out of him. I know Vandy is going really hard on him, CJP is going hard on him and Cuonzo Martin at Cal is, pretty funny all guys talked to for the GT job.
Slowly starting to realize that to run our system our #1 priority shouldn't be a 4* QB, AB, BB, or WR. Our #1 priority should be a killer OL. With the beating we've been taking on OL over the last year or so, do you see us starting to sign more OL than we typically have in order to provide some margin for future losses at the position?
It will be interesting to see if PJ learned his lesson on this, I am an advocate of signing at least 3 a year and not taking a lot of stretch guys like Michael Preddy who are HS DEs or TEs. I liked Trey Klock because he was a bigger version and basically played the same position. I think CMS is too in love with really flexible guys like Jake Sticker, but guys like him really lack upper body size and they get manhandled by the DL.
I mean, do we really need 45 A Backs on our roster?
They don't have 45, as of today they have 9 total on scholarship including the lone signee, might be 10 if they move Mikell Lands-Davis back to A-back at some point:
SR (2)- Ike Willis and Lynn Griffin
JR (1)- J.J. Green
SO (2)- Clinton Lynch, Qua Searcy
FR (4)- Omahri Jarrett, Nathan Cottrell, Xavier Gantt
When you look at attrition over the past two years, it could almost completely derail this program. At some point, you can't just attribute it to "flukes". Do you see CPJ doing any soul searching and trying to see things he can do differently? It doesn't matter if your a great X's and O's guy if you're 1's and 2's are either injured or leaving the program .
I think the attrition is pretty common across most programs especially with OL. USF who I also cover had 8 scholarship OLs this year and they have much easier academics and a charismatic high-level recruiter HC. UGA took two D-2 players on scholarship just to start to fill out their issues because of attrition. The main issue right now for CPJ is they signed a class of 6 OLs in 2014 and only two of them are contributors, Andrew Marshall and Trey Klock, they lost both Gary Brown and Michael Preddy for academic reasons essentially and Jake Whitley is close to a medical, neither Brown or Preddy were bad students so it is hard to expect getting hit so hard at one spot and Jake Stickler has been a miss.
Why is it so hard to recruit an elite RB out of high school to play BB? CPJ has proven that he will run the BB 25-30 times a game so I don't see why we can't convince a 5 star RB to come here
Most of the ones I've covered that are smart enough to get into GT want to play in a more pro-style offense or are just really into the SEC to be honest or want a more "fun" college experience. That would be the case with Keith Marshall, Todd Gurley, James Wilder Jr, Leonard Fournette, etc.. All had really early GT offers
What was the main reason for the fail at OL last year?
1. Not very good
2. Could not figure out blocking assignments?
3. Could not pick up blitzes?
4. Something else?
If 1, oh well. If 2, are we making assignments easier. If 3, how do we improve on that?
I think they have too many checks and too much stuff going on, I think the scheme is way too complicated and that is what the kids will say if they talk about it honestly and that is what Freddie Burden got in trouble for saying last year.
Why didn't we initiate any conversation with the head coach from Mercer. They seem to do well every year and I bet the guy knows the area.
Bob Hoffman, he is okay, been to the NCAAT once in 26 years as a HC, he is almost 59 years old and has never recruited elite kids, how would he make any sense as a hire unless you are talking about as an assistant.
1) In last week's Mailbag, you said you shouldn't answer this question but would ask CPJ if he would, that question being: What was the main thing CPJ lost patience with (concerned him most) and moved him to take charge of OL tutoring: Players' roles not well D efined? Player decision-making confusion? Technique? Mindset? Coaches' overall OL scheme? Able to get any comment from him?
Nope, didn't have that conversation.
2) it would seem that given only 24hrs in a day for one man to do just so much, that Pastner has made his priorities recruiting and re-recruiting, that on staffing he's just identifying assistants he'd like to be finalists and putting them on Hold until later when he'll do final quizzing and selection. Thoughts on his direction and what he's up to?
I think he will start hiring after this next evaluation period ends. He said from the outset that was his plan.
3) Thoughts on the candidacies of White and Schrage?
I don't know much about White other than he has been wildly successful and is well-respected, Schrage has a nice background and would seem like a fit for CJP.
4) Post scrimmage observations by you: a) What should be Priorities for Fall camp improvement? b) Three players who impressed you with their development this Spring? c) If we get off to a fast start this Fall and in the first games, which players will have to be playing their A+ game? d) Your assessment of how good we are post-Spring drills now versus what you thought we were last year and the year before after Spring drills?
I think leadership is an issue and they need some of the juniors on offense to step up and be more vocal, too many followers and JT and Freddie aren't vocal leader types. I think that is an issue and JT needs to be a little more fiery, he seems too laid back at times.
Did you see Pastner's Tweet about getting a golf lesson from Heppler? In your opinion, honest Tweet or solid troll?
Pastner got several chewings of his ass by major GT people over his stupid golf comments. He insulted the people who pay for everything at GT, namely high-end boosters who all play and love golf. It was a look-at-me how smart am I comment and unnecessary and out of touch.
What current QB in the Power 5 right now not named Justin Thomas would you love to see in CPJs system?
JT Barrett at Ohio State would be really interesting, Deshaun Watson or Malik Zaire at ND.
Any chance we ever see FBS and FCS schools play against each other in spring games? In your opinion.
CPJ is pushing for something. I'm an advocate of playing a team like Auburn who isn't on GT's schedule anymore but was a classic rival. You could have games like that, UGA-Clem, Bama-ND etc... that people would love.
strength versus footwork for our OL prospects in CPJ's system ?
Footwork is pretty important because of the tracks for the B-back and QB.
top 3 legitimate chances on GTs board for 2017 recruiting?
As of today, Case Cook, Matthew Butler and Dameon Williams
PJ mentioned in interview they had done draft before for spring game but lost continuity? Why would you lose continuity? Harbaugh got a lot of positive feedback from his Spring Game drafts at Stanford.
PJ's offense is about the C-QB-BB relationship, if you mess with that it changes the whole offense. The spring offense sucked until they moved Marshall back to C for example and isn't what it would be with Burden.
Who is making biggest in roads in recruiting the state of Georgia? And is this school recruiting much directly against GT?
Duke did great in GA in 2016, they don't have any commits from here for 2017, but they beat GT on one head to head, DE Chidi Okonya and GT let them take Brittain Brown because they didn't want a second AB, the rest of their kids weren't consider GT so it is hard to say. GT beat Duke on Parker Braun who was seriously considering them so they went 50/50 head to head on legit mutual interest kids.
Favorite pizza place?
All time, hard to say, locally I like a place called Saparito's in Marietta near my place, NY style.
Favorite pizza order?
I like sausage on my pizza.
Season ticket sales for football up? Down? What about BBall with CJP on board?
Haven't heard on either yet, I'll ask in a few weeks.
Biggest surprise though spring practice? Biggest disappointment?
Biggest surprise has been TaQuon Marshall at QB, biggest disappointment Chris Griffin's bad knee.
What do you make of Justin Thomas's struggles throwing the ball yesterday?
He was just off, I've heard from people that have seen practice and scrimmages all spring that he had an off day all the way around yesterday, he played better the week before in the scrimmage.
Any new offers or recruiting updates from the Spring game??
The only one I'm sure of right now is Malik Herring the 4-star DE from Mary Persons. I'm sure some more will come out over the next day or two.
Not really, lots of schools trying to squeeze one of his two final OVs out of him. I know Vandy is going really hard on him, CJP is going hard on him and Cuonzo Martin at Cal is, pretty funny all guys talked to for the GT job.
Slowly starting to realize that to run our system our #1 priority shouldn't be a 4* QB, AB, BB, or WR. Our #1 priority should be a killer OL. With the beating we've been taking on OL over the last year or so, do you see us starting to sign more OL than we typically have in order to provide some margin for future losses at the position?
It will be interesting to see if PJ learned his lesson on this, I am an advocate of signing at least 3 a year and not taking a lot of stretch guys like Michael Preddy who are HS DEs or TEs. I liked Trey Klock because he was a bigger version and basically played the same position. I think CMS is too in love with really flexible guys like Jake Sticker, but guys like him really lack upper body size and they get manhandled by the DL.
I mean, do we really need 45 A Backs on our roster?
They don't have 45, as of today they have 9 total on scholarship including the lone signee, might be 10 if they move Mikell Lands-Davis back to A-back at some point:
SR (2)- Ike Willis and Lynn Griffin
JR (1)- J.J. Green
SO (2)- Clinton Lynch, Qua Searcy
FR (4)- Omahri Jarrett, Nathan Cottrell, Xavier Gantt
When you look at attrition over the past two years, it could almost completely derail this program. At some point, you can't just attribute it to "flukes". Do you see CPJ doing any soul searching and trying to see things he can do differently? It doesn't matter if your a great X's and O's guy if you're 1's and 2's are either injured or leaving the program .
I think the attrition is pretty common across most programs especially with OL. USF who I also cover had 8 scholarship OLs this year and they have much easier academics and a charismatic high-level recruiter HC. UGA took two D-2 players on scholarship just to start to fill out their issues because of attrition. The main issue right now for CPJ is they signed a class of 6 OLs in 2014 and only two of them are contributors, Andrew Marshall and Trey Klock, they lost both Gary Brown and Michael Preddy for academic reasons essentially and Jake Whitley is close to a medical, neither Brown or Preddy were bad students so it is hard to expect getting hit so hard at one spot and Jake Stickler has been a miss.
Why is it so hard to recruit an elite RB out of high school to play BB? CPJ has proven that he will run the BB 25-30 times a game so I don't see why we can't convince a 5 star RB to come here
Most of the ones I've covered that are smart enough to get into GT want to play in a more pro-style offense or are just really into the SEC to be honest or want a more "fun" college experience. That would be the case with Keith Marshall, Todd Gurley, James Wilder Jr, Leonard Fournette, etc.. All had really early GT offers
What was the main reason for the fail at OL last year?
1. Not very good
2. Could not figure out blocking assignments?
3. Could not pick up blitzes?
4. Something else?
If 1, oh well. If 2, are we making assignments easier. If 3, how do we improve on that?
I think they have too many checks and too much stuff going on, I think the scheme is way too complicated and that is what the kids will say if they talk about it honestly and that is what Freddie Burden got in trouble for saying last year.
Why didn't we initiate any conversation with the head coach from Mercer. They seem to do well every year and I bet the guy knows the area.
Bob Hoffman, he is okay, been to the NCAAT once in 26 years as a HC, he is almost 59 years old and has never recruited elite kids, how would he make any sense as a hire unless you are talking about as an assistant.
1) In last week's Mailbag, you said you shouldn't answer this question but would ask CPJ if he would, that question being: What was the main thing CPJ lost patience with (concerned him most) and moved him to take charge of OL tutoring: Players' roles not well D efined? Player decision-making confusion? Technique? Mindset? Coaches' overall OL scheme? Able to get any comment from him?
Nope, didn't have that conversation.
2) it would seem that given only 24hrs in a day for one man to do just so much, that Pastner has made his priorities recruiting and re-recruiting, that on staffing he's just identifying assistants he'd like to be finalists and putting them on Hold until later when he'll do final quizzing and selection. Thoughts on his direction and what he's up to?
I think he will start hiring after this next evaluation period ends. He said from the outset that was his plan.
3) Thoughts on the candidacies of White and Schrage?
I don't know much about White other than he has been wildly successful and is well-respected, Schrage has a nice background and would seem like a fit for CJP.
4) Post scrimmage observations by you: a) What should be Priorities for Fall camp improvement? b) Three players who impressed you with their development this Spring? c) If we get off to a fast start this Fall and in the first games, which players will have to be playing their A+ game? d) Your assessment of how good we are post-Spring drills now versus what you thought we were last year and the year before after Spring drills?
I think leadership is an issue and they need some of the juniors on offense to step up and be more vocal, too many followers and JT and Freddie aren't vocal leader types. I think that is an issue and JT needs to be a little more fiery, he seems too laid back at times.
Did you see Pastner's Tweet about getting a golf lesson from Heppler? In your opinion, honest Tweet or solid troll?
Pastner got several chewings of his ass by major GT people over his stupid golf comments. He insulted the people who pay for everything at GT, namely high-end boosters who all play and love golf. It was a look-at-me how smart am I comment and unnecessary and out of touch.
What current QB in the Power 5 right now not named Justin Thomas would you love to see in CPJs system?
JT Barrett at Ohio State would be really interesting, Deshaun Watson or Malik Zaire at ND.
Any chance we ever see FBS and FCS schools play against each other in spring games? In your opinion.
CPJ is pushing for something. I'm an advocate of playing a team like Auburn who isn't on GT's schedule anymore but was a classic rival. You could have games like that, UGA-Clem, Bama-ND etc... that people would love.
strength versus footwork for our OL prospects in CPJ's system ?
Footwork is pretty important because of the tracks for the B-back and QB.
top 3 legitimate chances on GTs board for 2017 recruiting?
As of today, Case Cook, Matthew Butler and Dameon Williams
PJ mentioned in interview they had done draft before for spring game but lost continuity? Why would you lose continuity? Harbaugh got a lot of positive feedback from his Spring Game drafts at Stanford.
PJ's offense is about the C-QB-BB relationship, if you mess with that it changes the whole offense. The spring offense sucked until they moved Marshall back to C for example and isn't what it would be with Burden.
Who is making biggest in roads in recruiting the state of Georgia? And is this school recruiting much directly against GT?
Duke did great in GA in 2016, they don't have any commits from here for 2017, but they beat GT on one head to head, DE Chidi Okonya and GT let them take Brittain Brown because they didn't want a second AB, the rest of their kids weren't consider GT so it is hard to say. GT beat Duke on Parker Braun who was seriously considering them so they went 50/50 head to head on legit mutual interest kids.
Favorite pizza place?
All time, hard to say, locally I like a place called Saparito's in Marietta near my place, NY style.
Favorite pizza order?
I like sausage on my pizza.
Season ticket sales for football up? Down? What about BBall with CJP on board?
Haven't heard on either yet, I'll ask in a few weeks.
Biggest surprise though spring practice? Biggest disappointment?
Biggest surprise has been TaQuon Marshall at QB, biggest disappointment Chris Griffin's bad knee.
What do you make of Justin Thomas's struggles throwing the ball yesterday?
He was just off, I've heard from people that have seen practice and scrimmages all spring that he had an off day all the way around yesterday, he played better the week before in the scrimmage.
Any new offers or recruiting updates from the Spring game??
The only one I'm sure of right now is Malik Herring the 4-star DE from Mary Persons. I'm sure some more will come out over the next day or two.
