Figured this was a good time to start the WAR ROOM back up as we inch closer to practice starting for football and hoops winds down.
FOOTBALL
Folks have been asking for updates from Winter Workouts and I can share a few tidbits. The staff are very excited about transfer TE Tyler Davis and he is fitting in well with the new players and has been a bright spot in winter workouts.
Josh Tukes is working out as a TE, the walk-on OLB/DE spent last year at the Jack position. Charlie Thomas is working out at safety. James Graham will participate in spring ball, but he has some coursework he still has to make up and he may not be able to play this year if he can't get his academic progression on track. There is a possible scenario where he could play though through an appeal because of some personal stuff.
I've had five different people comment to me about how much of a freak Sylvain Yondjouen who attended GT workouts and from talking to the staff. They say he is the most impressive physical specimen since Michael Johnson at the DE position GT has had. They have no idea what he will do with pads on, but he is a beast in the workouts.
As far as the slot receiver role goes, it will be interesting to see how Nate Cottrell translates to that position. Catching has never been a strong suit for him going back to HS and that was the big knock on him as a recruit and kept his ranking down and kept him from bigger offers. He is working on improving in that area.
A darkhorse at the RB position will be Dontae Smith. Smith is the perfect zone-read RB and he could end up making big strides there. Most schools who run that zone-read have a scat back sized like Smith with dynamic quickness and cutting ability. He has all of that and has good hands.
My sources think that Jerry Howard will be the odd man out from his running style and ability and will end up a fullback from the remaining RB group. My sources also say KirVonte Benson if fully healthy will be the starter in August at RB.
Tobias Oliver is the one guy they are really curious about going into camp. Can he throw? Where does he fit in? The concern is going into Clemson in game one with Lucas Johnson and his lack of experience in that situation could help keep Tobias at QB in the interim. Lucas has struggled with confidence along with health at QB, so that is a subplot of spring ball. Jordan Yates will certainly get a shot at the job. It is harder to imagine Demetrius Knight developing enough out of the gate to play at QB. If James Graham is cleared, he would be the guy. He is the best player on the roster from a pure talent standpoint per the old and current staff.
David Curry has picked up a lot of the offseason leadership on defense. He will be a key cog in the D this year at LB. Still trying to figure out where Bruce Jordan-Swilling can succeed (likely rush DE/OLB hybrid spot) so that is why I didn't have him as a starter in the mailbag. I think Justice Dingle is better at that right now, so I gave him the nod. That could be an interesting spring subplot as well.
I would not hold my breath on Jared Southers being a major contributor or starter. A Vanderbilt coach told me he was one of the softest players they've had there. He was unable to get on the field much despite massive injuries on the Vandy OL last year and he is a guy who is known for being "hurt" and not injured and missing practice a good bit according to my sources up there. A nice add in terms of having game experience, but the expectations are other kids will play and CBK isn't going to play soft guys anyways. He will have to really step it up to push others out of the rotation on the OL.
FOOTBALL RECRUITING
There are two guys who I would say may be silent commits are like 95% GT leans right now. Both have asked me not to say who they are yet. The staff is getting traction but neither are four-star guys just for reference's sake.
Most of the offensive targets want to see what the hell GT is running on offense. I get that a lot as does Russell from kids. I think spring practice visitors will be a key indicator of guys who are seriously thinking about jumping onboard.
I got Russell to give me his 11 most-likely to commit guys for you all to chew on.
In no order:
QB- Tee Webb
RB- Mecose Todd
WR- Ryan King
WR- Javon Baker
TE- Billy Ward
OL- Trey Zimmerman
DL- Akelo Stone
LB- Tyson Meiguez
CB- Jalen Huff
CB- Javier Morton
S- Rashad Battle
WOMEN'S HOOPS
So Machelle Joseph has kept up the narrative she had no idea why she was placed on leave by GT including to people she is close to and several mutual friends. Someone who used to work at GT in the AA made an interesting point to me which I'll point out here. They said Stansbury must have compelling evidence of misbehavior because he could've just waited two weeks and fired her anyway but instead is going for a "cause" based dismissal and the headache over that isn't worth the little bit of money they'd save on her two remaining years on her deal.
What I can say is the allegations involve abuse of her position toward players and I'll leave it at that. There have been rumours about her since I first started covering Tech and she was never particularly nice to people who've worked for her in the past, so that may bite her if this becomes an ugly battle. Machelle was always great to me in the little we interacted however.
MEN'S HOOPS
Stansbury is fully onboard with Pastner for 2019-20 as he should be. There will be a lot of pressure on Pastner to win and make a leap at least into being a bubble team if not an all-out tournament team next year or there will be a warming seat. He is aware of it. Pastner thinks they will be a top 9 ACC team next year and likely a tournament team without adding anyone to the roster, so they hope they can add at least one transfer and one HS signee to round out the class at key spots for next season. There are several players who will be very interested in playing with GT given the pieces in place as well despite the negative narrative some Tech fans have at the moment.
FOOTBALL
Folks have been asking for updates from Winter Workouts and I can share a few tidbits. The staff are very excited about transfer TE Tyler Davis and he is fitting in well with the new players and has been a bright spot in winter workouts.
Josh Tukes is working out as a TE, the walk-on OLB/DE spent last year at the Jack position. Charlie Thomas is working out at safety. James Graham will participate in spring ball, but he has some coursework he still has to make up and he may not be able to play this year if he can't get his academic progression on track. There is a possible scenario where he could play though through an appeal because of some personal stuff.
I've had five different people comment to me about how much of a freak Sylvain Yondjouen who attended GT workouts and from talking to the staff. They say he is the most impressive physical specimen since Michael Johnson at the DE position GT has had. They have no idea what he will do with pads on, but he is a beast in the workouts.
As far as the slot receiver role goes, it will be interesting to see how Nate Cottrell translates to that position. Catching has never been a strong suit for him going back to HS and that was the big knock on him as a recruit and kept his ranking down and kept him from bigger offers. He is working on improving in that area.
A darkhorse at the RB position will be Dontae Smith. Smith is the perfect zone-read RB and he could end up making big strides there. Most schools who run that zone-read have a scat back sized like Smith with dynamic quickness and cutting ability. He has all of that and has good hands.
My sources think that Jerry Howard will be the odd man out from his running style and ability and will end up a fullback from the remaining RB group. My sources also say KirVonte Benson if fully healthy will be the starter in August at RB.
Tobias Oliver is the one guy they are really curious about going into camp. Can he throw? Where does he fit in? The concern is going into Clemson in game one with Lucas Johnson and his lack of experience in that situation could help keep Tobias at QB in the interim. Lucas has struggled with confidence along with health at QB, so that is a subplot of spring ball. Jordan Yates will certainly get a shot at the job. It is harder to imagine Demetrius Knight developing enough out of the gate to play at QB. If James Graham is cleared, he would be the guy. He is the best player on the roster from a pure talent standpoint per the old and current staff.
David Curry has picked up a lot of the offseason leadership on defense. He will be a key cog in the D this year at LB. Still trying to figure out where Bruce Jordan-Swilling can succeed (likely rush DE/OLB hybrid spot) so that is why I didn't have him as a starter in the mailbag. I think Justice Dingle is better at that right now, so I gave him the nod. That could be an interesting spring subplot as well.
I would not hold my breath on Jared Southers being a major contributor or starter. A Vanderbilt coach told me he was one of the softest players they've had there. He was unable to get on the field much despite massive injuries on the Vandy OL last year and he is a guy who is known for being "hurt" and not injured and missing practice a good bit according to my sources up there. A nice add in terms of having game experience, but the expectations are other kids will play and CBK isn't going to play soft guys anyways. He will have to really step it up to push others out of the rotation on the OL.
FOOTBALL RECRUITING
There are two guys who I would say may be silent commits are like 95% GT leans right now. Both have asked me not to say who they are yet. The staff is getting traction but neither are four-star guys just for reference's sake.
Most of the offensive targets want to see what the hell GT is running on offense. I get that a lot as does Russell from kids. I think spring practice visitors will be a key indicator of guys who are seriously thinking about jumping onboard.
I got Russell to give me his 11 most-likely to commit guys for you all to chew on.
In no order:
QB- Tee Webb
RB- Mecose Todd
WR- Ryan King
WR- Javon Baker
TE- Billy Ward
OL- Trey Zimmerman
DL- Akelo Stone
LB- Tyson Meiguez
CB- Jalen Huff
CB- Javier Morton
S- Rashad Battle
WOMEN'S HOOPS
So Machelle Joseph has kept up the narrative she had no idea why she was placed on leave by GT including to people she is close to and several mutual friends. Someone who used to work at GT in the AA made an interesting point to me which I'll point out here. They said Stansbury must have compelling evidence of misbehavior because he could've just waited two weeks and fired her anyway but instead is going for a "cause" based dismissal and the headache over that isn't worth the little bit of money they'd save on her two remaining years on her deal.
What I can say is the allegations involve abuse of her position toward players and I'll leave it at that. There have been rumours about her since I first started covering Tech and she was never particularly nice to people who've worked for her in the past, so that may bite her if this becomes an ugly battle. Machelle was always great to me in the little we interacted however.
MEN'S HOOPS
Stansbury is fully onboard with Pastner for 2019-20 as he should be. There will be a lot of pressure on Pastner to win and make a leap at least into being a bubble team if not an all-out tournament team next year or there will be a warming seat. He is aware of it. Pastner thinks they will be a top 9 ACC team next year and likely a tournament team without adding anyone to the roster, so they hope they can add at least one transfer and one HS signee to round out the class at key spots for next season. There are several players who will be very interested in playing with GT given the pieces in place as well despite the negative narrative some Tech fans have at the moment.
