Sorry I've been MIA for a few days. I was in Chicago last Wednesday and Thursday with some family. I was hoping to write some at the hotel on Wednesday night, however our hotel, the Hilton Palmer House, charged an arm and a leg for internet access. I don't understand it... the nicer the hotel the less free crap you get with it. Me, Winnie, and Dane along with others in our roadtrip crew stayed at a Days Inn in Chapel Hill this year before the DOOK game and we got free breakfast and internet! What gives?!
Had to get that off my chest. Now onto more recruiting info. Over the past weekend we had the other 2 commits, from the 2010 class on campus for their official visits. Everything I heard seems to indicate that the visits went well. As you might expect, we'll be doing a feature about both of these players soon.
The subject of today's post is Denzel McCoy. Denzel was the third player to commit to Georgia Tech in the 2010 class. He is a defensive tackle listed at 6'4" and about 270 lbs. McCoy hails from Northview high school in Duluth, GA and plans to major in Computer Science at Georgia Tech.
While the other two commits we've highlighted so far are very important, Denzel was the first premier player on a national level that committed to GT. McCoy had 34 offers at the time he committed to us from programs like FSU, Notre Dame, Auburn, among others. The fact that we were able to get hushed the doubters who said that CPJ could not recruit top notch players to his program against all the other major programs.
Here are some highlights of Denzel from his junior campaign at Northview, he is number 72 playing defense. You can tell that Denzel has plenty of raw talent by watching this clip. He comes off the ball quickly with plenty of power and still has the foot speed to chase down a running back; albeit a high school RB. He reminds me of Vance Walker, in terms of their traits on the field. McCoy will have to add about 20 pounds in order to be effective at the college level, so I would guess that he will redshirt his freshman year.
There has been a lot of speculation among fans about whether or not we will go to a 3-4 defense in 2010. Based on the defensive tackles in this class, Denzel and Shawn Green, I don't see that happening. We are not recruiting the typical nose tackle seen in a 3-4 scheme (think of Mt. Cody at Alabama). The only guy on our roster who resembles that type of player is T.J. Barnes. All of our other DTs are better suited for the 4-3 defense. I'm not saying there's no way we could make the transition, but based on the way we have been recruiting I would say it is highly unlikely we change schemes next year.
One final thing I wanted to share with y'all in case you didn't see it. After the loss to Georgie, the AJC interviewed a number of our commits in the 2010 class about the game. Almost all of them were present at the game that night. I love how they all took this loss personally and plan to train extra hard to avenge it next year. This class seems to have "gelled" the same way the famed 2007 class did, and that is a sign of great things to come. Next up for recruiting, we'll talk about B.J. Bostic...
THWG