Mailbag 7/17

How excited are you about the new arrival of adidas gear at the Georgia Tech bookstore?

Andrew: I wish they would let me trade in all of my old Russell gear.

Jake G.: If only the bookstore had longer summer hours, I’d go over there to get the full scoop for the good people of FTRS. I’m holding out for better baseball stuff. And that Navy T hat with the gold.

Akshay: The more, the merrier, honestly. It’s nice to have an apparel provider that actually churns out gear once in a while (however, the volume of said gear is...subpar).

Carter: Ladies, you will be ecstatic to discover that after over a year of waiting you may finally purchase a gold, adidas brand polo and/or T-shirt. And that’s about it. And why is there so much blue gear and so little gold gear?

Living in CT, I don’t have the ability to frequent the store for Tech gear, so I quickly went to their website (through news that spread on Twitter) and purchased a few items. Unfortunately, two shirts are on backorder but I’ll at least get the Tech hat. Will my wife be happy about my expenditures without her knowledge?

Ben: You just gotta find her something nice before she finds out!

Jake G.: I’m gonna defer to the married men of this fine establishment on that one.

Jake P: Just get her something at or above the value of what you got from the store. But I’m not married so take that advice as you wish.

Akshay: Double down and buy more. It’s Tech gold all the way down.

Carter: That depends on your definition of “a few” and the general state of your finances.

What can we do to make the eternal offseason go by quicker?

Ben: Find a new hobby! Start a new show on Netflix, listen to a new podcast.

Jake G.: Take up underwater basketweaving. Stake out your local Waffle House. Make up fantasy conference realignments where we get to play Auburn every year. Start doing something random and leisurely like swimming golf or tennis.

Akshay: Start tailgating now. You’ll definitely be ready for kickoff that way.

Carter: I mean, we’re only about 40 days from the first college football game of the season. You’ve basically almost made it! But if you really need something new to do, try picking up Pokemon Go. It’s a great excuse to finally get outside, meet new people, and be weirded out by the players that take it way too seriously. You’ll know them when you see them.

What other football team(s) at any level should be interesting to watch this year?

Ben: Living in Athens, there is some pretty solid talent around the area at the high school level, specifically with Max Johnson at Oconee (my alma mater) and Brock Vandagriff over at Prince Avenue. I may not make it out to a ton of games, but I’ll definitely be following them this season.

Andrew: I watch Georgia Southern and Kennesaw State. KSU should be one of the better FCS programs out there, they have had deep playoff runs the past two years. I’ve also started watching some CFL games, it’s an interesting take on the game.

Jake G.: Random story you almost certainly haven’t heard of, but the Illinois High School Association got rid of conferences, but only in football, starting the year after next, so the schedules are going to be whack and there’ll be a bunch of never-before-seen matchups happening because essentially 8A schools won’t play 6A schools anymore just because they’re in the same conference and supposedly that’s going to solve schedule inequality. But it seems like the rich get richer, so to speak. I’m just salty that my alma mater won’t be guaranteed to play the Fightin’ Andy Demetras of Hinsdale Central, among our other traditional rivals, anymore, but, needless to say, the landscape of high school football in Illinois is about to look a lot different.

Jake P.: Here’s my Panthers plug. Ron Rivera is now calling the plays on defense, so that will be interesting. Cam Newton will also be recovering from another shoulder surgery and I’m expecting that the team will live and die by his ability to actually throw the ball more than ten yards. Christian McCaffrey will look to build upon last year’s success for the second year in a row we don’t have an owner that is racist and sexist. Plus, anything is better than the Falcons.

Akshay: Hear me out on this, you CFB fans - Iowa State. The Cyclones’ fourth-year head coach Matt Campbell garnered interest from better P5 jobs and chose to stay in Ames — AMES, of all places. Not only that, he has put together a solid program (obligatory: with great uniforms) that might be the only one in the Big 12 that can challenge the Oklahoma-Texas football industrial complex this year. Are you not entertained about the potentially spicy possibility of Iowa State knocking OU and Texas out of CFP contention? Talk to your kids about a NY6-bound Iowa State. If you're also into the other type of football, the US Women’s National Team just bagged another World Cup title and the Men’s team is...well, it’s coming along.

Carter: If you’re dying to watch some Texas high school football, my alma mater is looking to four-peat this year. If you’re asking about a second FBS team to adopt for this year, I’d suggest Army, but we all know they run a gimmick high school offense. Oregon should be fun again this year, watch them. And don’t watch UConn. For any reason.

What movie that’s widely considered a bad movie do you actually enjoy (or a guilty pleasure movie)?

Ben: My favorite is Troll 2. “They’re eating her. Then they’re going to eat me. OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!” Also hot take, I’m not a fan of The Room.

Andrew: I love Waterworld. I also really enjoyed Jupiter Ascending, but I have a love for Eddie Redmayne, so that explains that. Same reason I liked the Fantastic Beasts movies.

Which flavor of Starburst is the best?

Ben: Red or Pink are best. Pretty much anything but Yellow.

Andrew: Pink, not sure what the official flavor is, but the Pink one.

Jake G.: Orange. Next.

Jake P.: Cherry 100%

Akshay: Orange by a wide margin.

Carter: Cherry.

When do we get a final decision on who gets a waiver from transferring to Tech?

Ben: Jake is pretty spot on with his answer below. It’s at the mercy of the NCAA. I’d like to think they’ll find out sooner rather than later. I get more nervous with every week that passes where they don’t announce, though.

Jake P.: Whenever the NCAA wants to. Remember, James Banks didn’t get his waiver until just before the second game of the year against Tennessee. I wouldn’t expect all of the football players requesting a waiver to not receive a decision later than the second game though, and it would surprise me if the NCAA doesn’t inform them before the first game.

Akshay: Jake is on the money. The NCAA giveth, and the NCAA taketh away, with no regard to actual team needs.

During the “Great Blink/Blackout”, Old Gold and White Pantone colors are wiped from existence. What colors should GT officially adopt?

Ben: Blue and Orange are a pretty common color scheme, but it’s one that I like a whole lot. I don’t know how it would look with Tech, but I’d like to see it.

Jake G.: Grey for the steel of Bobby Dodd and because of iron and its strong engineering connotation. And, I know this is a bold take, but maroon would pair with it well, for the vernacular red brick that is everywhere in campus architecture. Not red. Maroon. Maybe sky blue highlights.

Akshay: You’re asking me to imagine a world where the Ramblin’ Reck isn’t Tech/Old Gold? shudders

Carter: I want to say blue and brown, because no one else wears blue and brown, but the more I think about those colors on football uniforms, the less I like it. Replace brown with gray. Blue and gray sounds good to me.

Thoughts on where Tech is placed in most categories? (Source Tweet)

Ben: I certainly don’t think that Georgia Tech is the worst team in the ACC in terms of talent. I understand it since Tech is a large unknown, but I think the whole thing is pretty harsh.

Jake G: I’m the non-rev guy so I guess on some level that makes my soft spot for special teams make some sense, but as much as I love them, I still think they’re ranked too high. I think the USF back-to-back kickoff returns will appear in my nightmares for the foreseeable future. However, our Large Punting SonTM is great and Wesley Wells and Juanyeh Thomas are fantastic, too. Still something seems a little high to me. Something something “you stand when they stand.”

Akshay: Like Ben said, you can’t effectively evaluate what you haven’t seen. The talent on Tech’s roster is either young and unproven OR older and trying to overwrite muscle memory of previous schemes. We need data points to definitively say how good these players are (and reinforce how good we think they’ll be), and we just don’t have those yet. Tech is not the worst team in the conference, but it is the biggest question mark.

Carter: It’s July, don’t think about it too much.