I am now writing to you not as a student, but as a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Saturday was the big day so I've been trying to come to grips with my adulthood ever since I walked across the stage. But I have finally conquered THE INSTITUTE and couldn't be happier about it.
Now onto some recruiting news. I plan to do a series of posts about all 13 of the current commits for the 2010 recruiting class. Even though the letters of intent will not be signed until February, it is safe to say that everyone in this class is a very solid commit to Georgia Tech. As you may know, Coach Johnson has a very strict policy regarding verbal commitments from high school players. Once a player gives CPJ his word that he will be accepting a scholarship offer from Georgia Tech, that player is expected to immediately end his recruitment process. This means that the player will only take official visits to Georgia Tech until signing. This policy is not held by many other college coaches (to my knowledge) and is something that I'll try to delve into further in the future.
11 out of the 13 commits were on campus this past weekend for their official visit. I saw many of them in the GT Hotel this weekend along with all the assistant coaches because my parents were staying their as well for my graduation. My parents even saw CPJ on Sunday morning as they were getting breakfast at the hotel. They texted me saying "We're so excited... we just saw Paul Johnson!" I am training them well.
The first player we'll look at is Charles Perkins. Charles is a running back from Collins Hill high school in Suwanee, GA and was the first player to commit in the 2010 class. He is listed at 6'1" and currently weighs in at about 200 pounds. It is unclear right now what his final position at Tech will be... he is projected at both A-back and B-back. Check out his mid-season highlight tape below to see his running style. It is easy to see why CPJ and his staff are so high on Charles. The kid is an absolute hoss.
As you can tell, Charles is a very assertive runner, which will certainly serve him well in this offense. He will learn quickly in college that he can't bounce every run out to the outside due to the speed of the defenses. However, he will be a powerful force in our backfield for many years to come. He finds his running lane quickly and hits the hole at full speed. These are attributes that you will see from every RB recruited by CPJ. We don't want someone dancing around in the backfield for 3 seconds before picking out a lane. I can certainly see Charles playing either position in the backfield, but I would like to see him at B-back. He'll need to add weight while maintaining his speed, but I think that's where he'll fit in best at GT.
In addition to being a standout on the football field, Charles is like most GT recruits in that he has excellent grades and is very well spoken. I have read many of his interviews on the various recruiting sites and it seems that he will be an outstanding representative of the Institute on the field and off. Charles will be graduating high school early and will enroll at Georgia Tech for the start of Spring classes on January 11. This will give him a head start in the training room and allow him to bulk up before spring and fall practices. Joining him as early enrollees are two other recruits for the 2010 class: BJ Bostic and Isiah Johnson. I'll be doing profiles of these players later.
On a note unrelated to recruiting, here's a feature that was done by one of the local news stations in Atlanta about us taking the Reck to Tampa for the ACC championship game. I don't think any of the other guys posted it, so here is the link. I don't think I got enough face time personally, but that's just my humble opinion. Enjoy!
THWG