Mailbag 3/4

Why the [Foghat] can’t we beat the dwags in any sport?

Ben: Because sports are stupid.

Levi: Because God hates me and wants me to suffer.

Jake P.: Because it would be a nice thing if we did. You should know by now that Georgia Tech fans never get nice things.

Andrew: Straight cash homie. Their spending dwarfs ours.

Carter: We demolished them in WBB.... did you already forget? Shame. Shaaaaaaaaame.

Jake: Also, name a club sport and we got their number down. Women’s soccer beat ‘em 5-0 just this past Sunday.

Jeff: Because we have yet to invite George O’Leary to every sporting event involving CoFH.

Schools who would join us in a NCAA’holes suit?

Levi: Definitely Louisville, Baylor, Miami, Kansas, UNC. To name a couple. Penn State excluded on purpose.

Jake: My head canon is that we exist on an island where no one really likes us, particularly in ACC HQ, but I it would apply here, too.

What’s your go-to Waffle House order?

Ben: Sausage, egg, and cheese on Texas Toast with hash browns all the way.

Chau: All Star Special with bacon and a waffle. Root Beer to wash it down. Put $10 in the Touchtunes app and play Freebird (live version because it's 4 minutes longer) once right before you leave. Watch as people breath a sigh of relief as the song ends, and then queue it up 9 more times as you walk out the door. Also if anyone wants to open up a new Waffle House on Roswell Road please do, I can't show my face in certain locations anymore.

Levi: All-Star Special: Chocolate chip waffle, eggs scrambled with cheese, sausage, white toast with grape jam, substitute grits for hashbrowns (plain w/ ketchup), Coffee, tons of cream, tons of sugar. I miss Waffle House every single day :(

Chris: Since I was a little kid and my Dad would take me on Saturday mornings: scrambled eggs, sausage, raisin toast. Now that I’m an adult I’ll usually add coffee and hashbrowns (smothered and covered). Seconding Levi, Waho is low key one of the things I miss most about living in the South.

Jake P.: All-star special with a regular waffle, bacon, hashbrowns (smothered), and a Diet Coke or water.

Andrew: Either a cheeseburger or a Texas patty melt, hashbrowns; smothered, covered, chunked, peppered.

Carter: Waffle with pecans and chocolate chips. Hash browns smothered, covered, and chunked, and plenty of that salsa.

Jake: Used to be an All-Star Special man, but I’ve aged into the Texas Bacon, Egg, and Cheese. Hashbrowns scattered, covered, smothered, chunked, and capped. Add a pecan waffle if I’m hungrier than usual. It’s a nice balance.

Robert: Order Scramble Cheese Plate with a side of Bacon. Also, I worked there for a summer. I feel like this is very important.

Jeff: I like the cheesesteak omelet with a generous helping of Tabasco on top, large hashbrown, and coke. If you feel like you’re cholesterol needs to be skyrocketed though then ask for the waffle sandwich. It’s two waffles with hashbrowns, eggs, and bacon between them. It’s not on the menu, but I’ve never had a cook not know what I was talking about.

How big of a deal will it be when our current junior class (more on the current roster than any other class) leaves after next year? With the NCAA penalties hamstringing recruiting efforts (assuming we lose the appeal, because of course we will), will it be similar to a new coach starting over or is that too far of an exaggeration?

Levi: You’re living too far in the future. That’s two recruiting classes from now. Everyone or no one could be around by then.

Jake P.: It’ll be tough, but it can’t be any worse than the past 16 years.

Carter: It sounds like a lot, but basketball is not like football. It’s a lot easier to replace a whole class since the rosters are so much smaller. That said...... it all depends on how Pastner recruits the next couple years.

Jake: I like to point to 1) Pastner’s success developing a few of his talents (Moses Wright, Evan Cole) and 2) his success at poaching players that want to come home (Jordan Usher, James Banks, Bubba Parham) to say we’ll probably get surprised either from our roster or by Pastner going out and grabbing someone completely new and not on our radar. Note: please continue to ignore that Shembari Phillips was not, in fact, all that successful of a transfer, despite the hype.

Apparently we’ve dropped the appeal... Thoughts? The recruiting disadvantage seems much worse than the lack of postseason long term.

Ben: Apparently I don’t know how appeals work. I didn’t realize that they could drop only the appeal on the postseason ban. It’s a great idea. They weren’t going to do anything this season.

Levi: Copy what Ben said. It was never clear that we could drop one aspect of the appeal. This is absolutely the correct call. We are no world-beaters. Take the punishment and move on. It only hurts because the season developed this way but remember, outlook was grim to start the season. A worse scenario is that we didn’t drop it and our juniors perform even better next year.

Jake: It sucks to be sitting in a tie for fifth in the conference and be looking at an opportunity to get a bye in the tournament for the first time in a while, but, really, that was probably all the postseason action they’d get, anyways. Take the lumps now and don’t risk it for next year. A great move.

Looks like the QB competition is gonna be wide open this year and obviously each QB brings a different skillset to the question. Based on film alone (NCAA game film for Graham and high school game film for the other three obviously), who would you say has the edge in this competition? And, based on said film, what do you think stands out about each QB?

Ben: If I had to pick a guy right now, I would pick Jordan Yates. While his ceiling might not be as that of Graham or Sims, I think he’s still a really solid option at quarterback. He’s also much more accurate than Graham or Sims, which is much needed in this offense after watching them play last year. As for the other quarterbacks, I’d say that Graham is probably the most athletic, either Graham or Sims has the best arm, and Gleason or Yates are probably the most accurate.

Levi: I have seen several people suggest that James Graham will start the first few games unquestionably. I have seen Jeff Sims tape/Elite 11 performance and I’m very impressed. The Elite 11 usually consist of a few first rounders and lots of draft picks EVERY YEAR. I just can’t see Graham fending off Sims. He’s already a well developed passer with lots of potential. It’s Graham’s job to lose but Sim’s is at the top of the roadmap for sure.

Robert: I shared more extended thoughts here, particularly on the two incoming freshmen. I came away from Gleason’s film way more impressed than I expected. He has solid fundamentals, consistent mechanics, and accuracy that exceeds anything we saw from the quarterbacks who played last year. Sims has the strongest arm of the four and intriguing athleticism. To me, Graham did not show enough progress last year to think he is the quarterback of the future. He may start at the beginning of the year, but I would not be surprised if he was playing a different position by his junior year. Yates lacks ideal size for throwing from the pocket. Overall, I see Gleason as the most fundamentally sound, Sims with the highest upside; I hope Sims wins the job.

Jeff: You’d think Graham still has an edge with the experience he has, but Sims has a canon that could turn Brown into a very dangerous downfield threat.

Clearly the ATL approach was a huge failure for the headaches that are kickers. Wells who was the next Butker fell apart quickly. Do y’all see one of our PK moving to punter to replace Harvey in the future? Would that be a PWO job to win?

Ben: I don’t think Wells is actually as good as he was his freshman season or as bad as he was last year. I think he’s somewhere in the middle, but given the situation, I can’t say I’m super surprised that Wells left. I believe one of the walk-ons will probably end up at punter.

Chau: Wouldn't be surprised if we offer a punter to bring in to #COMPETE with anyone we have. Other than that no idea who we have. Just watch warm ups when specialists warm up (~75 minutes before games) and see if anyone else is good at punting.

Levi: We’ve argued at length about this amongst staff. I was always anti-King but Wells leaving was a surprise. Unfortunately, improving our talent means that good kids and even popular players will be supplanted. It’s the nature of the beast. I really think the nature of your question was to probe us for scout reports on the PWO’s. That is a mystery to me.

Chris: This question was probably asked before our top two PKs were announced to be leaving, so in the light of that new information, no, we definitely can’t afford to have our PKs not PKing.

Jake: I had a completely different answer until I saw Chris’ reply. Yeah, we need warm bodies placekicking.

Carter: Who’s going to be the next punter at Georgia Tech? Well, guess what, reader: it’s you!

Jeff: The recruiting staff is setting up cameras in the college football hall of fame as we speak.

With Baseball’s embarrassing defeat to that other school, what is everyone’s go to anti UGA argument?

Levi: I’m a big fan of the Wal-Mart fan argument. Most people who are Tech fans either went there or have a family member who did. The world’s biggest dwags fans must be from my hometown and I doubt most of them have even been to Athens. Reminder: You don’t have to cheer for georgia to be proud that you’re from Georgia.

Chris: I usually also go with the Wal-Mart.

Carter: It’s definitely not that we live in their heads rent-free, and we know that because their fans tell us they don’t care about Georgia Tech all the time, completely unprompted.

Jake: I appreciate that all of our fans - alumni, staff, relatives, sidewalk, or otherwise - have some sort of meaningful connection to “why Tech.” Definitely don’t get it as much from the other side.

Jeff: If you really want to get them fired up and mad just present this stat that doesn’t get enough attention. Since 1990 GT has beaten Georgia 7 times. Also, Georgia has only beaten Florida 9 times since 1990. So is Georgia Tech a rival or is the “Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” a sham of a rivalry? You know you have to be competitive to call it a rivalry! (Granted, this carried a lot more weight before the past few years.)