GT Recruiting has an Interesting Weekend (UPDATED)
by LilBroey700 on Jan 22, 2012 12:00 PM EST
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The Good News: We're Hosting a Thumper from Down Under
For those who have not yet heard, this weekend Georgia Tech is playing host to a recruit who reigns from Australia. His name is Adam Gotsis. He is 6'5", 295lbs, and carries that weight VERY well. We're recruiting him to play DT. He's 19 years old, and has spent much of his life playing what is known as "Gridiron" in Australia (the sport known as Football here, and American Football everywhere else in the world). Even played on the Australian national team in some tournament I had no idea existed. Kid is very athletic and brings the size we've been looking for in the middle. It's very feasible to think that in a couple years, he could pick up 30lbs (especially given his frame, which has plenty of room for further growth). He has a scholarship offer, and is expected to be commitment #16 by the weekend's end.
UPDATE: As of Sunday morning, Gotsis is officially committed to Tech! Word is that he had been a 'silent commit' for a while (he had committed to the coaches, but hadn't told anyone anything), and has now made it official.
I just heard each of you collectively ask, "Wait, #16? Wasn't that S Lynn Griffin earlier this week?" Which serves as a perfect lead-in to the other half of this article.
The Bad News: We Lost a Commitment
Sad news today out of Lanier County HS, as Tech lost the original commitment of its 2012 class, DE Junior Gnonkonde. Interestingly, this case is not what folks around these parts have come to expect when hearing of a de-commitment -- he is not yet committed anywhere else. Rather, he was dropped because he did not make grades to qualify for Tech's requirements. He qualified by NCAA standards (and is being pursued by USF and Ole Miss now), but is reportedly very upset with the whole situation. He's a talented defensive end who was really excited to play on the Flats from the day that he founded our most recent recruiting class, and it's a shame that he won't ever get the chance to even enroll.
This is just one more example of how trying to field a high-caliber football program at a world-class institution can at times be very difficult, and how the rigor of academics at the Institute is both a blessing and a curse. I wish Junior the very best in the near future.
UPDATE: More Good News, We Just Got Commitment #17!
Further good news from Sunday morning, Georgia Tech offered punter Ryan Rodwell of Deland, FL and got its 17th commitment immediately. We've been looking for special teams help in this recruiting class, and hopefully Rodwell can provide quite a bit of it. Watching his highlight video (featured below), looks as though he can consistently get punts to go 40 yards, with around 4 seconds of hang time. That doesn't make him a Brad Wing per se (that guy has trouble keeping the ball out of the end zone from his own 20 yard line, it seems), but given a little time to develop he should turn into an asset for us on special teams.
Ryan Rodwell - Punter - Football Highlight Video ('08-'11) (via level37sports)
(credit to Kelly Quinlan and Eric Thompson of JacketsOnline.com for much of the info contained in this article)
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I feel for the kid....
And CPJ… Rival fans (georgie no lives) are calling him out for trying to be like saban which is not true. While Junior may be eligible to okay according to the NCAA, that doesn’t mean he’s eligible for Tech per se…. Tech’s requirements are slightly higher than the NCAA’s (something like a 2.5 to a 2.0 gpa respectively). Please correct me if I am wrong.
This is my Family Tradition
by The_GT_LineageX11 on Jan 22, 2012 12:34 PM EST via mobile reply actions
And they're all
pointing to the AJC article as their evidence. That article is the most disgustingly biased article I’ve read in a long time.
Go Jackets, go America.
THWG.
by JohnHeisman on Jan 22, 2012 1:26 PM EST via Android app up reply actions
I agree...
I like reading Michael Carvell’s pieces, because I’ve gained a lot more insight into the recruiting process. Also, I am a fairly liberal guy, not one to buy into the passing fancy of calling it “the liberal media”…
However, I hate this brand of “comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable” victim-oriented reporting in how this report was done. It was completely devoid of a lot of facts that would have been helpful, and not told from a balanced viewpoint involving input from both parties.
"Reach down in there...TURN THAT DAMN THING UP!" - Coach Paul Johnson
Just heard we picked up a P, Ryan Rodwell
Here are some highlights http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OjqGUbOf6g
Atlanta Sports: Allergic to big games
Loss of Junior Gnonkonde
The problem is that the coach waited as long as he did to let him know. One does not wait that long to tell Gnonkonde that he has not made the cut. The articular sates "We cuts ties with all the other schools when he committed 11 months ago. " If I were a future recruit I wound not trust Johnson. THE COACH NEEDS TO BE CALLED OUT FOR THAT REASON. Not that the kid did not make the cut.
Be well and God bless
John Johnson
The article is all quotes from the high school AD
I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he only misunderstood what was going on, but I do not believe that it went down as stated in the article.
But we’ll never know, since he’s the only one talking, and Tech can’t talk.
It seems more likely that Tech agreed to hold the scholarship for him while he tried to get his test scores up, but, on his last attempt “a couple of weeks ago”, he didn’t.
They could do like Alabama, and give him another year to take the test, but instead they are trying to help him get a scholarship to another school.
I'm not blaming CPJ for this one
Junior qualified by the NCAA’s academic standard but not Tech’s. Now we know Tech will make exceptions only about 19% of the time historically, which means over 4/5 of the football players could’ve gotten into Tech legitimately as regular students. One other thing to consider is that the college admissions system for Tech is thorough but very slow. If he went through the front office the same way all the other kids have to then…yeah, you won’t know for a while whether you got in to the school. Anyway, in the mean time, his HS coach sounds like he didn’t have him retesting just to be sure. That sounds like a bad idea if your kid is committed to a school that’s got high academic standards. He shouldn’t have just expected to be granted the academic special exception waiver and not keep trying to test higher. Seems unfortunate, but nothing to freak out about. And it’s not like the kid couldn’t transfer into Tech later if he really wanted to play there. I’m not saying he’d want that, but it isn’t illegal or anything once he’s got a high enough GPA at some other college.
I met her on the campus, sir, cheering the Brave and Bold.
A little vindication
Coaches can’t talk to the media about recruiting, but a scout for Rivals (who talks to the Tech coaches a lot) can. At the bottom of the article is what was added to clarify what happened from Tech’s perspective:
It really does a lot to shed light and kind of clear CPJ’s name in all of it. He was trying to give the kid his best shot at big time college football.
I met her on the campus, sir, cheering the Brave and Bold.
y=Vyt - 0.5gt2; X-Vxt Sort of . . .
So someone give me a hand here. I was trying to calculate good kicks as measured in a reasonable way by hang time and such. Ryan Rodwell looks decent enough but I confess I am most excited about his academics given the aforementioned conversation. He looks like a good student.
I swear I saw Billy Lothridge kick for the Falcons once and have a five second hang time with a distance of 50+ yards. I was young, so don’t hold me to it. Supposedly Ray Guy was the greatest punter of all time and could achieve 6 second hang times.
by Atlanta's original team on Jan 22, 2012 2:41 PM EST reply actions
Heard Steve Bartkowski speak last evening, very uplifting.
His comment on his 30 plus year marriage was that he “out kicked his coverage” on marriage, and married UP.
You'd do it for Randolph Scott!
RANDOLPH SCOTT!
by DressHerInWhiteAndGold on Jan 22, 2012 2:57 PM EST up reply actions
What is the initial velocity, and maximum Y-axis altitude
of a Six second hang time punt, if the maximum X-axis is -50 yards to + 50 yards (can add +14.5 yards for punting out of the End Zone), no wind, and we’ll assume a maximum “drift” of 1/2 of 53 yards (punting to the corner from a center of field snap), no Rugby style side drift?
Bonus points for calculations that include a rushed punter under maximum Tenuta Rush pressure.
You'd do it for Randolph Scott!
RANDOLPH SCOTT!
by DressHerInWhiteAndGold on Jan 22, 2012 5:15 PM EST up reply actions
Do I get B.S. bonus points for suggesting an unexpected wobble in the earth’s rotation at maximum apogee?
by Atlanta's original team on Jan 22, 2012 6:51 PM EST up reply actions
Seriously though . . .
I did not think the stats on the video for Rodwell were all that spectacular. Hate to say that because it comes out sounding snarky. I like the fact that it looks like he can stay in school.
by Atlanta's original team on Jan 22, 2012 6:55 PM EST up reply actions
But
Consistency. According to the AJC, we were looking for reliability instead of a coin flip adventure when we kick.
I met her on the campus, sir, cheering the Brave and Bold.
Coin Flip Adventure
Replaces: Inbounds Play Fail
You'd do it for Randolph Scott!
RANDOLPH SCOTT!
by DressHerInWhiteAndGold on Jan 22, 2012 7:57 PM EST up reply actions
Rodwell wants to be an IE...
which brings me a smile.
"Reach down in there...TURN THAT DAMN THING UP!" - Coach Paul Johnson
by TBuzz on Jan 22, 2012 11:16 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
Good on 'ya mate
You'd do it for Randolph Scott!
RANDOLPH SCOTT!
by DressHerInWhiteAndGold on Jan 22, 2012 2:51 PM EST reply actions
Welp
we threw a couple more shrimps on the barbie, mates! Big DT and a punter. Let’s get Dalvin Tomlinson and call it a class.
I met her on the campus, sir, cheering the Brave and Bold.
BECAUSE This is so mysterious to me help me out with this question . . .
According to ESPN (no, I don’t believe them on everything) there are at least 13 undeclared athletes who have Tech on their list and who have received offers from Tech. This list includes OLB, ATH, DE, CB, OT, OG and DT.
I assume there are inside on-going conversations going on between coaches and players that we do not know about. So that being the case, and with Gnonkonde now going elsewhere, who do you think we will get?
Who do we need?
And who did we really want that we had to take someone else in place of?
by Atlanta's original team on Jan 22, 2012 3:19 PM EST up reply actions
Coaches will offer 35-40 players scholarships, just knowing that so few of them will actually end up here
But it’s nice having options once half of them tell us no.
Other than that, the two largest remaining targets are DT Dalvin Tomlinson and DE Alex McCallister (making an OV to Florida as we speak, and will announce his choice between them, us, and UNC this week). If we get those two, we’d have 19 total commits, and with 21 open scholarships would probably leave the other two to reward walk-ons (like Robbie Godhigh).
The Church of Paul Johnson - There's not much to it outside of whooping ass and giving haters the finger. To HELL With georgie!
Didn't NC just pick up a defensive line commitment?
Might that not influence those who are left out there like McCallister?
by Atlanta's original team on Jan 22, 2012 6:56 PM EST up reply actions
Justin Thomason
But I think we like McCalister to play OLB, not sure what Thomason would have done. We weren’t really expecting to get him anyways, as I understand it.
The Church of Paul Johnson - There's not much to it outside of whooping ass and giving haters the finger. To HELL With georgie!
I have
no idea. I like Tomlinson to compete with the Aussie for DT….and it seems like the more the merrier at any defensive position right now. But I’m no coach.
I met her on the campus, sir, cheering the Brave and Bold.
Yep. Me too.
I would like to see about 10 defensive linemen. I’m exaggerating but you get the point.
by Atlanta's original team on Jan 22, 2012 6:57 PM EST up reply actions
Tomlinson is more a 3-4 DE...
I think anyway…he’ll probably be able to develop into about 280-290 lbs. 3-4 DEs are typically larger than 4-3 DEs because they play a bigger role in stopping the run. 4-3 DEs typically pickup the slack in rushing the QB whereas in a 3-4 it’s the OLBs.
"Reach down in there...TURN THAT DAMN THING UP!" - Coach Paul Johnson
by TBuzz on Jan 22, 2012 11:12 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
Right
But how does Tomlinson compare to Gotsis in size? Gotsis is tall and has a lot of leg muscle (all his weight right now appears to be in those thighs), and he’s being recruited for DT. Whereas I thought Tomlinson was shorter but heavier. Both seem like they’re gonna be bigger than a 4-3 DE, but which is large enough to be the Earth-moving DT?
I met her on the campus, sir, cheering the Brave and Bold.
Gotsis looks like his frame could add 20-30 lbs or more. A 6’5" 330-340 lb DT with his lateral quickness and agility is ideal for that 2-gap DT in a 3-4. With his size, you just need to teach him to stay low.
"Reach down in there...TURN THAT DAMN THING UP!" - Coach Paul Johnson
by TBuzz on Jan 22, 2012 11:33 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
Tomlinson reports in about 6'2" 270...
That would probably play as a DT on a 4-3 if he got up to 290 or more.
I also say DE for Tomlinson because of the wrasslin’ background.
"Reach down in there...TURN THAT DAMN THING UP!" - Coach Paul Johnson
by TBuzz on Jan 22, 2012 11:36 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
I would love to have them both on the D-Line at the same time....
Size suggests Tomlinson and DE and Gotsis at DT if that’s the case, but they could also be a revolving door at DT so that we always have a “rested” guy to clog up the middle.
The Church of Paul Johnson - There's not much to it outside of whooping ass and giving haters the finger. To HELL With georgie!
Would this the same
hypothetical line that Francis Kallon could be playing DE for on the other side? Because THAT line would be amazing in about two or three years!
I met her on the campus, sir, cheering the Brave and Bold.
The one and only.
The thought of Kallon and Tomlinson on either side of Gotsis gives me shivers.
Assuming they all pan out, because we do have occasional people who are freaks in high school who never really contribute too much….
The Church of Paul Johnson - There's not much to it outside of whooping ass and giving haters the finger. To HELL With georgie!
Seriously, you're now talking about 3 guys that it could nearly take 5 to block. Outrageous.
The Church of Paul Johnson - There's not much to it outside of whooping ass and giving haters the finger. To HELL With georgie!
Sack'd
Tackled for loss
Sack’d again
Punt. Tech offense holds ball for 8 more minutes.
Win.
I met her on the campus, sir, cheering the Brave and Bold.
Not that I don't like holding onto the ball for 8 minute drives,
But if you want to put the game out of hand you have to score quickly and fast to demoralize the other team, kind of what West Virginia did to Clemson in the bowl game. Long drives would keep the game closer I would think.
by RamblinWreck7 on Jan 23, 2012 7:41 PM EST up reply actions
Well sure
No one’s gonna say “No, I’d rather score slowly.” I mean look what we did to Kansas by scoring quickly! All I’m saying is with a better defense, it gives our offense leeway. Scoring slowly (when you actually score at the end of those drives) bleeds the clock AND puts you ahead. And if your defense is standing up, that is quite demoralizing as well, because they know “Oh NO! Another 3 and Out. We have to watch GT march down the field and put this game away for the rest of the night!” Both are ways to win, so I love both. But this thread was about defense, so I just love the thought of that sinking feeling that GT just forced your team to punt the ball back to their soul-crushing offense. Glorious!
I met her on the campus, sir, cheering the Brave and Bold.
Let me second that emotion
When the defense is playing well and making the other team work really hard on offense then a long scoring drive by the Tech offense creates panic in the other team. They begin to think they have to score every time they get the ball because they may never get the ball again. This leads to pressing too hard and making mistakes. Problems compound for the other team and Tech starts to score more and more off of turnovers and three and outs.
by Atlanta's original team on Jan 24, 2012 7:06 AM EST up reply actions
Why do yall thinking Francis Kallon would play 3-4 DE?
He’s around 6’5" 250-260 lbs… I’d say he might play pass rushing OLB. If he is as athletic as people say then him being a pass rusher makes more sense doesn’t it?
by RamblinWreck7 on Jan 23, 2012 7:39 PM EST up reply actions
Typically guys add as much additional weight as they can carry...
And Kallon (a lot like Gotsis) has so much more frame to fill out. I would argue that Kallon might get up to 270-280 lbs and super-quick, and he’s a disrupter on the line. This is DE size, even for the 3-4.
Given his limited time playing football, I also wonder how difficult it would be for him to play in space.
"Reach down in there...TURN THAT DAMN THING UP!" - Coach Paul Johnson
That's my biggest concern
It wouldn’t be easy for a guy who had never played football a year ago to drop into coverage against D-1A prospects. And if he were to play OLB, he’d have to have that capability, if for nothing else than keeping the offense on its toes.
The Church of Paul Johnson - There's not much to it outside of whooping ass and giving haters the finger. To HELL With georgie!
And
No one ever said a 3-4 DE couldn’t be schemed into a pass-rushing situation. Groh can probably figure something out and put him there…ya know “just for sacks and tackles” as they say. (joke)
I met her on the campus, sir, cheering the Brave and Bold.
I agree that the nose tackle needs to be able to get low.
Whichever recruit does that will help determine who ends up playing end.
Of course, I am already thinking about the Spring training report. We are all acting like freshman can come in and immediately make a difference. I am not saying that isn’t possible but I would caution that this rarely happens.
All good stuff guys. Love the discussion.
by Atlanta's original team on Jan 23, 2012 8:25 AM EST up reply actions
BTW off topic
NFL/GMC
Never Say Never moment
WTF, no Megatron?
You'd do it for Randolph Scott!
RANDOLPH SCOTT!
by DressHerInWhiteAndGold on Jan 22, 2012 4:33 PM EST reply actions
What the heck Georgia Tech...
You better be trying to work with Junior Gnonkonde to see if he can raise his test scores quickly. You don’t just leave a guy a week before signing day without any other options… Very poorly handled situation by the admissions office.
If you ask me, this isn't anything CPJ is proud of or happy about
Not sure he’s the kind of guy that would do this consciously to a recruit. He’s always been good to recruits and preaches how coaches should be good to them and treat them with the utmost respect. I can’t help but think that someone else isn’t holding up their end of the bargain, and while it could be Junior, it’s likely to be the admissions office. I feel like if they told Johnson that his scores weren’t quite up to snuff a month or two ago, he would have absolutely relayed that info to Junior, giving him the opportunity to have a plan B available. But seeing as he was caught so off guard, that likely didn’t happen, and that really sucks.
The Church of Paul Johnson - There's not much to it outside of whooping ass and giving haters the finger. To HELL With georgie!
In CPJ, he held the schollie for JG for nearly a year under the condition that he meets grades/test scores. For his coach to come out and say “why can’t Tech take him he meets the NCAA sliding scale” is not giving the full answer.
They knew where they needed to be, and while it’s debatable that sufficient notice was given…it’s not like CPJ left the kid hanging without other options. Could an exception have been made or guarantee a spot in 2013…hard to say and assume he wants to give up 1 year of eligibility.
"Reach down in there...TURN THAT DAMN THING UP!" - Coach Paul Johnson
by TBuzz on Jan 23, 2012 8:39 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
Nail, Head etc.
Go Jackets, go America.
THWG.
by JohnHeisman on Jan 23, 2012 9:29 AM EST via Android app up reply actions
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