Drama, the Home Stretch, and the Beginning of Courtship...

Hey there Tech fans, just keeping you up to date on the 2013 Football Recruiting picture. In this installment...1 week left until NSD, a duwop song turns sour, man I really hate Purdue (Tennessee kind of sucks too), and GT gets a head start on recruiting Georgia Juniors. As of this moment, I believe Tech is working with a couple of scholarship spots (one definite) ahead of NSD. This last weekend will determine a lot, as I will discuss in detail.

2013 Recruiting Getting Any Clearer?

Hell no.

That Cornelius Elder visit over the weekend? Didn't happen. But wait, it might have not happened for a good reason. The 4-star RB/3-star PG asked to reschedule his OV to Tech so he could take in a GT home game (this Sunday against UVA). As we have discussed in previous installments, Elder is intently focused on being a 2-sport athlete. He's been given the OK from every school to do so, except his favorite Ohio State. He has visited UCLA, Ole Miss, Ohio State, and will visit Auburn before coming to Atlanta this weekend. Things are pointing positively towards Corn Elder donning the White and Gold, but...

Then those damn Purdue Boilermakers (it's an IE thing) had to go and do something really annoying...and offer Corn Elder straight-up as a Basketball player. This is his best basketball-only scholarship. Couldn't he go to Lafayette and walk-on the football team, you ask? No, actually, the NCAA has one-way football-centric rules that force you to be on a football scholarship if you want to play a sport in addition to football. In short, if you are on a basketball scholarship, you have to sit out 2 years before you are eligible to play football. So if he goes the basketball scholarship route, he's pretty much locked into a basketball career. It's definitely a possibility if the right school (IMHO...better than Purdue) offers a basketball scholarship.

The next major target remaining, Jaylen Miller, is still waiting it out with Tennessee. His first choice is obviously the Vols, but we may get the speedy DE if the recent visits of 5-star DE Carl Lawson and 4-star LB Trey Johnson are any indication of some last-minute flourish in Knoxville. He is no longer scheduled for anymore visits, so I think he's setting us up for the always much-appreciated hat game on NSD! We never seem to get picked...and I don't see it happening now either. There are rumors that CTR might bring in some additional recruits this weekend, perhaps another DL prospect like Kingsley Opara from Mandarin HS (Jacksonville, FL), or 3-star Parker Cothren (currently committed to CTR's previous school, Penn State) from Hazel Green HS (northern Alabama), although Cothren has remained solid to the Nittany Lions thus far. In addition, a recent scholarship offer has been given to George Adeosun, an OL prospect from Alpharetta HS who also has offers from Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Purdue.

And lastly...I told you earlier we might have to worry about QB Damon Mitchell. In what's beginning to be a yearly "I'm committed to GT, but I owe it to myself to check other places the week before NSD" drama and nonsense, "Duwop" Mitchell is looking at taking an OV to Arkansas this weekend...after telling CPJ about a week ago that he was solid. Mitchell's coach is still whispering Rutgers as a contender, as well (which says a lot, if you ask me). If he goes to Fayetteville (by the way, the kid's parents want him to go to Tech), his scholarship will be shopped around as is CPJ's (and pretty much everyone's) policy. Back on January 11, Tech hosted many committed players...but also an option-style QB from McEachern HS in Kennesaw named Ty Griffin. While a 2-star QB prospect, the 5'11" 185 lb Griffin has offers from option-oriented Army and Navy, and with the QB depth at Tech likely cemented for the next 3-4 years with Vad Lee and Justin Thomas...why not take a versatile athlete who could add QB depth and perhaps develop into an A-Back or CB? Signing high schools QBs always is a good thing.

Recruiting Prediciton

This is going to be interesting. If Mitchell takes the visit to Arkansas, we probably sign Griffin. If Mitchell stays committed to Tech and signs his letter-of-intent (LOI), we get either one of either Corn Elder or a last-minute surprise (likely a late visitor) as has been the usual the last 2 years. I envision we go into the 2014 recruiting cycle with an extra scholarship, which is great because...

2014 Football Recruiting Already In Full Swing

Back on Sunday January 20, Tech hosted one of the most exclusive Falcons watching parties in the state of Georgia. In attendance were a collection of the best Junior football talent in the state. In what was a Tech bonding experience not seen since the 2007 recruiting class, GT coaches invited and hung out with the recruits while watching the 49ers beat the Falcons running the read option (not that it probably mattered). In the next 12 months we will get to know more about these current 16-17 year olds, as they are courted by the finest football schools in the Southeast.

Some of the talent on hand at the Elite Junior Day were...

DL - Kendall Baker (Marist HS)

WR - Nate Brown (North Gwinnett HS)

DE - Lorenzo Carter (Norcross HS) - might be ranked in the top 50 players in the nation

RB - Nick Chubb (Cedartown HS)

ATH - Terry Googer (Woodward Academy)

RB - Elijah Hood (Charlotte Catholic, Charlotte, NC)

DB - Cortez McDowell (Locust Grove HS)

MLB - Kevin Mouhon (Norcross HS)

DB - Nick Ruffin (St. Pius X HS)

DT - Dontavius Russell (Carrollton HS)

DL - Caleb Samuel (Stratford Academy, Macon, GA)

OLB - Bryson Allen-Williams (Cedar Grove HS)