Technical Tidbits 6/10

In case you missed the news that broke a couple of months ago, associate AD Ryan Bamford will be moving on from the Flats to pursue a career as the new athletic director at UMass. Before officially moving north, Bamford was gracious enough to leave the AJC's Ken Sugiura with some cool insight into what all he did during his four years with Georgia Tech.  We talk a lot here at FTRS about the possibility of renewing the rivalry with Auburn, and Bamford's comments make me think that the fans are not the only ones hoping to see the Tigers more often -- he hints at some level of effort to schedule Auburn, though it appears that negotiations haven't gained any traction.

It only seems appropriate to follow up an article about the departure of a senior AD with an article about the hiring of a new one; Georgia Tech announced yesterday that San Diego State's John David Wicker would be the man to replace Ryan Bamford. Though he has spent the majority of his professional career outside of the peach state, Wicker did work on the Comittee for the Olympic Games ahead of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and spent three years at UGA. He most recently oversaw four successful seasons of athletics at SDSU as the Deputy AD. Welcome to the Flats, John David!

Despite a near-consensus that Justin Thomas is a top-2 quarterback in the ACC, the folks over at Athlon Sports seem to think that there is not one but two better signal callers in the conference -- they named Thomas to their Third Team All-ACC list. Athlon put both Clemson's Deshaun Watson and Miami's Brad Kaaya ahead of Thomas, which just seems a little bit crazy given that Kaaya will be breaking in an entirely new offense without help from Duke Johnson, Clive Walford, and Phillip Dorsett. The bad news is that this means Thomas isn't getting the universal respect he deserves. The good news? The list means absolutely nothing. See you soon, 2015 season.

Game times have been released for each of the ACC's bowl tie-ins for the 2015 season. Because the Orange Bowl will be one of the sites for the NCAA Playoff this season, the ACC's New Years tie-in will be with either the Fiesta Bowl or the Peach Bowl. The winner of the conference, or the highest ranked team if the winner makes the playoff, will play on New Years. Though making a bowl is still nothing to write home about for most teams, it will be especially hard from now on in the ACC because Notre Dame will be awarded an ACC bowl tie-in as a result of their contract with the conference.

How do you rank the ACC's quarterbacks?

Have a great Wednesday!