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Brent Key and his staff pulled off an epic weekend with six commitments on Sunday from five official visitors from that weekend plus one from the previous weekend's OV slate, DB Fenix Felton. The group is headlined by 4-star commits CB Dalen Penson and WR Samuel Turner, but there is depth across the committed players.
It was a big day for GT, but a helluva slog for us.
I knew that, going into the weekend, I would be in deep trouble. I spent the majority of last week either at a camp, 7v7, or in an airplane. I flew from Atlanta to Portland, Maine with my mother on 6/1 skipping my high school reunion in the process. Then I flew back from Maine to Atlanta via NYC on Monday—three flights in under three days. I helped RJ a little bit at the two Corky Kell camps knowing I was heading back out on Wednesday night to Tampa for the USF Mega Camps on Thursday and Friday. Flight #4 to Tampa on Wednesday. Saturday morning after two days ROASTING in 96-degree Tampa for mega camps that started at 10:30 am and run until 7:30 pm, I flew back to Maine via NYC again to get my mom. We flew home on Sunday afternoon. I spent Sunday morning helping turn some of Russell's interviews and then using the free Wifi on Delta I wrote three commitment stories and two other stories on the flight back from Maine and then after driving to the North GA Mountains to drop off Mom, then back home finally at 9:45 and then a pair of late-night commits in Dalen Penson (RJ story) and Sam Turner (my story). It was insanity, but a cool insanity.
RJ was balancing his parental duties and church around interviewing a dozen kids. Hell, we still have a few interviews we haven't had time to turn from OV weekend 1.
So that's the background of what is going on and what I've been up to.
What has Brent Key and his staff been up to? Kicking ass and chewing gum and they've run out of gum or Zyn in Key's case
.
There are a lot of reasons why the weekend went as well as it did, but ultimately everything comes back to what Key is doing and how he has set up the program. The players are salesmen, the staff are salesmen and saleswomen and the coaches are able to close because of all the groundwork that has been laid whether that is raising money for NIL (folks should be giving because they will need to work hard to keep these players), building his culture around the program where everyone is bought in and cares (a far cry from the previous regime after the first 6-9 months) and of course the things that Georgia Tech can offer and the city of Atlanta offers.
The staff knew of the commits yesterday before they were public. We are sitting on a little more news on that front as RJ has alluded to that should come out in due time. Still, the topper to all of this and my laying out of my plans is Brent Key was on the phone recruiting late pushing for the ones they didn't get, trying to get kids committed elsewhere to visit, and working a day a lot longer than RJ or my day on Sunday or any that we worked last week.
It is very cool to see the ground floor of the building analogy that Key likes to use coming together. This is an exciting time for GT fans and the work should be applauded by fans as it was yesterday. No one is working harder than Key and his coaches right now and that is very good for Georgia Tech football.
Brent Key and his staff pulled off an epic weekend with six commitments on Sunday from five official visitors from that weekend plus one from the previous weekend's OV slate, DB Fenix Felton. The group is headlined by 4-star commits CB Dalen Penson and WR Samuel Turner, but there is depth across the committed players.
It was a big day for GT, but a helluva slog for us.
I knew that, going into the weekend, I would be in deep trouble. I spent the majority of last week either at a camp, 7v7, or in an airplane. I flew from Atlanta to Portland, Maine with my mother on 6/1 skipping my high school reunion in the process. Then I flew back from Maine to Atlanta via NYC on Monday—three flights in under three days. I helped RJ a little bit at the two Corky Kell camps knowing I was heading back out on Wednesday night to Tampa for the USF Mega Camps on Thursday and Friday. Flight #4 to Tampa on Wednesday. Saturday morning after two days ROASTING in 96-degree Tampa for mega camps that started at 10:30 am and run until 7:30 pm, I flew back to Maine via NYC again to get my mom. We flew home on Sunday afternoon. I spent Sunday morning helping turn some of Russell's interviews and then using the free Wifi on Delta I wrote three commitment stories and two other stories on the flight back from Maine and then after driving to the North GA Mountains to drop off Mom, then back home finally at 9:45 and then a pair of late-night commits in Dalen Penson (RJ story) and Sam Turner (my story). It was insanity, but a cool insanity.
RJ was balancing his parental duties and church around interviewing a dozen kids. Hell, we still have a few interviews we haven't had time to turn from OV weekend 1.
So that's the background of what is going on and what I've been up to.
What has Brent Key and his staff been up to? Kicking ass and chewing gum and they've run out of gum or Zyn in Key's case
.There are a lot of reasons why the weekend went as well as it did, but ultimately everything comes back to what Key is doing and how he has set up the program. The players are salesmen, the staff are salesmen and saleswomen and the coaches are able to close because of all the groundwork that has been laid whether that is raising money for NIL (folks should be giving because they will need to work hard to keep these players), building his culture around the program where everyone is bought in and cares (a far cry from the previous regime after the first 6-9 months) and of course the things that Georgia Tech can offer and the city of Atlanta offers.
The staff knew of the commits yesterday before they were public. We are sitting on a little more news on that front as RJ has alluded to that should come out in due time. Still, the topper to all of this and my laying out of my plans is Brent Key was on the phone recruiting late pushing for the ones they didn't get, trying to get kids committed elsewhere to visit, and working a day a lot longer than RJ or my day on Sunday or any that we worked last week.
It is very cool to see the ground floor of the building analogy that Key likes to use coming together. This is an exciting time for GT fans and the work should be applauded by fans as it was yesterday. No one is working harder than Key and his coaches right now and that is very good for Georgia Tech football.
