Thanks to our sponsor Inteleca for helping bring back Q's Take my weekly look at things around GT and college sports from my vantage.
I've said this numerous times, but Georgia Tech has bigger fish to fry (to use a Paul Johnson phrase that angered UGA fans) than investing deeply in overhauling the baseball program this summer. J Batt has a full plate with a massive construction project, a $20-plus million dollar budget to pay players through the school directly, and supporting the two main revenue drivers, football and men's basketball in that order of priority. This is a changing landscape in college athletics and all money is going in on the two drivers and really football is what moves the needle. GT and their donors have invested HEAVILY in Brent Key's vision for restoring Georgia Tech to national relevance at a key time when many things will be in flux.
Danny Hall has had a tremendous career, but he will be 70 next season and took over the program when George H.W. Bush was still president in the fall of 1993 and coached his first season during Bill Clinton's first year in the White House. I was just wrapping up middle school when Danny became Tech Baseball's leader. He regardless of the last of postseason success over the last 16-18 years has been a great leader for the program, huge for fundraising for Tech and has done a ton around the Tech community to help. Danny is a good guy, but he is in the last year of his contract this upcoming season and it is clearly going to be time sooner than later to make a change. Batt knows that, Danny knows that and many of you have wanted that change for several years.
Hall has the fourth-longest active streak as a coach at the same program trailing coaches at Dartmouth, Stony Brook, and Binghamton. Hall has just over 1,400 wins and sits at 17th all-time in D-1 baseball wins with a chance to jump as high as 13th with a strong 2025 season. He is a HOF coach.
So my read on this from talking to people has remained the same all year, I expect Hall to return for 2025, but I do not foresee him coaching beyond that point at Georgia Tech. Hopefully they will find a tasteful way to celebrate his tremendous legacy running this program and hopefully the fans complaining the most can get on board with the idea of a farewell tour for Hall and show up at the Rusty C and cheer on the Jackets and wish Hall the best as he wraps up a HOF career at Tech.
I've said this numerous times, but Georgia Tech has bigger fish to fry (to use a Paul Johnson phrase that angered UGA fans) than investing deeply in overhauling the baseball program this summer. J Batt has a full plate with a massive construction project, a $20-plus million dollar budget to pay players through the school directly, and supporting the two main revenue drivers, football and men's basketball in that order of priority. This is a changing landscape in college athletics and all money is going in on the two drivers and really football is what moves the needle. GT and their donors have invested HEAVILY in Brent Key's vision for restoring Georgia Tech to national relevance at a key time when many things will be in flux.
Danny Hall has had a tremendous career, but he will be 70 next season and took over the program when George H.W. Bush was still president in the fall of 1993 and coached his first season during Bill Clinton's first year in the White House. I was just wrapping up middle school when Danny became Tech Baseball's leader. He regardless of the last of postseason success over the last 16-18 years has been a great leader for the program, huge for fundraising for Tech and has done a ton around the Tech community to help. Danny is a good guy, but he is in the last year of his contract this upcoming season and it is clearly going to be time sooner than later to make a change. Batt knows that, Danny knows that and many of you have wanted that change for several years.
Hall has the fourth-longest active streak as a coach at the same program trailing coaches at Dartmouth, Stony Brook, and Binghamton. Hall has just over 1,400 wins and sits at 17th all-time in D-1 baseball wins with a chance to jump as high as 13th with a strong 2025 season. He is a HOF coach.
So my read on this from talking to people has remained the same all year, I expect Hall to return for 2025, but I do not foresee him coaching beyond that point at Georgia Tech. Hopefully they will find a tasteful way to celebrate his tremendous legacy running this program and hopefully the fans complaining the most can get on board with the idea of a farewell tour for Hall and show up at the Rusty C and cheer on the Jackets and wish Hall the best as he wraps up a HOF career at Tech.
