Mailbag 11/17

Where were you when gt football die? - DTGT

Ben: Oh yeah, I remember being at home watching Georgia Tech lose to The Citadel. It was not a fun experience.

Logan: I was trying to do productive things with my life instead of thinking about GT football.

Chris: Getting off a plane. And like an idiot going straight home and turning on the second half.

Jake P.: I was in-person at The Citadel game. With a couple of The Citadel’s fans. That was rough.

Austin: I was also at that Citadel game, but I think that loss merely put us on life support. At that point there was still a lot of hope. Unfortunately I was also there on September 4, 2021, the day the sun stopped shining on Bobby Dodd as we lost 22-21 to NIU.

Jake: I was sitting in Collins’ opening press conference and standing at the goal line by the Reck when Tech came up short against The Citadel. Ask me anything.

Carter: ....I’ll just say I was asked to leave that game early.

Sammy: I’ve blocked it out of my mind, but I’ve been lying down, bleeding... For a while.

Nishant: In line with Sammy’s video: we ain’t dead yet. (Remember when even mediocre Tech teams would occasionally rise up and punch someone in the mouth? Good times.)

Best dish to bring to family potluck Thanksgiving? - UnCivilEngineer

Ben: Exert your dominance by bringing the turkey. Specifically, you should dry brine your turkey and then slather it in your preferred fat before roasting. It will be deliciously juicy with super crispy skin.

Logan: Key Lime Cheesecake Cupcakes I made them for dessert once on a whim. Since then my family wants me to make them for every get together. It’s a little niche but they are great. You can also just take out the key lime for regular cheesecake cupcakes if you want. I recommend topping with strawberry pie filling if you go without the key lime.

Jake P.: Sister Shubert’s rolls are always a great option.

Austin: Dinner is never ready on schedule, so some sort of dip is a must to tide everyone over until feast time. Underrated and always appreciated.

Jake: Green bean casserole. Very hard to mess up, and, at least to me, all the ingredients in it are staples.

Sammy: MAC AND CHEESE. Gooey in the center with a little bake on top.

Nishant: We never really did much for Thanksgiving when I was growing up, and as a person who’s perpetually late to everything, my only answer is Night Ham.

Conspiracy theory time. The NCAA as we know it, only has another 10 to 20 years of life. The big 12 will fade into the ether as the big east did, once Oklahoma and Texas join the SEC. Its no secret that the SEC still wants to expand. If the SEC is able to pickup 4 more big programs (Big 10, Pac 12 and ACC got nervous and rushed to make their alliance with rumors of FSU and Clemson poking their tows into the SEC waters), could you see the SEC breaking from the NCAA to form its own league? 4 more teams will give the SEC four 5 team divisions which I could see yielding a nice 4 team playoff system. - gtbadcarma

Ben: I don’t think this is that far-fetched at all. A big shift in the NCAA is coming, and if you don’t see that, you’re not looking for it. I believe in the next 10 years, there will be some kind of split in the FBS where the majority of the SEC and a few other powerhouses form their own superleague.

Chris: Yeah, I could see it. They’d be able to pull a bunch of huge TV contracts and force advertisers to move. I absolutely think something like that will happen in the next ten years. Maybe not exactly the SEC, but I could totally see a scenario like “SEC and BIG10 decide to break off into two divisions of a super league”.

Logan: I’ll be honest, 10 to 20 years is giving the NCAA a lot more life than I would expect at this point. I could absolutely see the SEC doing this. There are also many other creative possibilities, but SEC currently drives the money so they control their own destiny.

Austin: I’ll take the under on that timeframe. The NCAA is a sinking ship and despite their EFFORT and how hard they BATTLE to stay afloat, pretty much every passenger knows it at this point. Your hypothesis for an SEC SuperLeague is certain the most likely next evolution of college athletics. Maybe the ACC can absorb the Big East and control the basketball landscape. A man can dream.

Jake: I don’t think that’s far fetched, but I also fail to see how any conference would then turn around and let them compete in any national championship tournaments, and them doing their own thing would ruin the whole point of interesting college sports, anyways. But no one at the SEC asked for my opinion, anyways.

Sammy: The NCAA is still a thing?

Since the consensus is that the defense needs the most improvement. Let’s help them. Let’s give 5 strategies to improve the defense that do not include firing anyone. We have no control of the firing. I would love to hear suggestions. - Rbissman

Ben: Any suggestion would require trusting the coaching staff in place to implement them. Simply put, I don’t trust the coaching staff. And from hearing the pressers, it seems like that lack of trust is what’s causing issues. That isn’t something that can be schemed around. As far as what can be improved, my first notion would be to figure out why all the tackling fundamentals drills we see on Twitter every week don’t actually work. We see these videos on Twitter, yet when it comes to the game, we see defenders reaching only for the ankles or just trying to pull the ball out, but we don’t see a lot of form tackles.

Chris: Simplify and consolidate. Rotate players and give some of the newcomers a chance. Do something aggressive once in a while. Actually adjust based on what the opposing offense is doing. Stop with the “let’s give WRs 20 yards of cushion” thing.

Logan: 1) shuffle backup players and starters more. This isn’t about improvement, but if our defense isn’t great we need to get future players more experience on the field.

2) put more focus on blitzing and getting in the backfield. Look, we can’t cover downfield, only option is to try and get in the QBs head by being in the backfield.

3) Focus on stopping plays over the middle. Stopping short passes over the middle and runs up the middle need to come first before we focus elsewhere. Keep the game in front of us, sometimes you’ll get burned but this is where we need to start. get the basics down first, start inside then train outward.

4) Improve cardio. I really don’t know on this one, I’m just making this up. I always see our guys lifting weights, but maybe that’s not helping as much as we think. Maybe they need to focus on endurance and speed over raw power.

5) Get a better turnover chain. I really only had 3 somewhat decent ideas, this one is for fun. Let the turnover player press a button to launch a rocket into space if they get a turnover. That’s gonna motivate some people to get turnovers.

Carter: I don’t know what to offer here. This staff believes their BS and won’t change.

Austin: We have no control over firing. Nor do we have control over improving the defense.

Sammy: Seeing as how my first suggestion is the same as Chris’ first suggestion, I’m going to keep mine SIMPLE. It literally can’t get any worse. Honestly, if we gave up 600 yards per game the next two weeks but tried anything other than what we’re doing now, I would be happy. When we blitz, it seems like players have other things on their mind besides ripping the QB’s head off i.e. they’ll pick up a RB out of the backfield or something which is fine, but it always seems so indecisive because the scheme is too complex (see the play last week where Jordan Domineck was in coverage downfield). So I want to see more aggressive pressure and simplified coverages, which when you’re blitzing means you have to run man a little more often.

Nishant: 1) Go back to having a single secondary coach. Use the extra staff slot for a dedicated special teams coordinator. 2) Have your long, physical corners press and jam guys at the line more often like you said you were planning to back when we still had hope for this administration. Yes, it’s risky when you don’t have an effective pass rush, but nothing you’re scheming now is effective anyway. 3) Honestly I don’t feel like finishing out this list because the constant refrain we hear from the staff is that there are “trust issues” in the secondary and I really can’t even begin to fathom how that is possible with the continuity we’ve had in that unit. Most of the veteran defensive backs have been starting alongside each other for three years. They’ve had the same DC and position coaches in place for that entire timespan. Something is just broken back there, and I can’t imagine any scenario in which it isn’t rooted in misguided coaching or inconsistent teaching.

What is the future for Conference USA? Since it’s being raided by the American, the Fun Belt, and the MAC (assuming MTSU and WKU go to the MAC). Does it follow the WAC (and, I guess the new, un-American Big East) and become a non-football conference? Does the G5 become the G4? And what happens to LA Tech, FIU, and UTEP? And I presume the Fightin’ Falwells of Liberty U and NMSU as well. - jabsterjacket

Ben: Paging Matt Brown. But yes, in addition to the creation of a superleague, I think you’ll see a lot more consolidation among some of these lower level conferences. I think you’ll also see some FCS teams make the move to FBS like James Madison recently did.

Chris: Yeah, I think some form of consolidation is gonna happen at the lower levels. It feels like the only way they’re gonna get anywhere is by banding together and using numbers to influence things.

Jake: Just today Loyola announced they were leaving the MVC for the A10. I know that’s outside of football, but you can’t separate these changes from the changes on the football side. I don’t think we’ve seen the end of the shifting sands.

Logan: This has nothing to do with your question, but since you brought up Liberty this is where my mind went... Can we get all the religious colleges to form their own super conference of constant holy wars? I don’t know why, but I find that idea amusing.

Austin: I always saw C-USA and the American as two sides of the same coin, and it looks like the AAC has finally won the battle for our nation’s naming rights. We’ll have to wait and see what happens with the scraps of C-USA.

Sammy: Conference USA is ELITE.

Nishant: Liberty might end up on the outside looking in. Wouldn’t be the first time.

Women’s hoops – is it just me, or has Nell really elevated the excitement around the program? I mean, we’ve made NCAA’s before, but I really feel like she’s brought something to the program. What is your estimated finish for us in the ACC? - CTjacket

Ben: I love what Nell Fortner has been able to do for WBB. I remember when she was first hired, there were some folks that weren’t sold that she would be able to do a good job. I wish we had a football coach who could do that.

Logan: They are good bro. Sky’s the limit.

Jake: Nell has meaningfully upped the recruiting and gotten more out of the talent she’s already had. I think that has a lot to do with her as a dynamic person, and probably why she’s also shone as a tremendous ambassador for the program. Tech’s finish last year was just the second time they’ve made the Sweet Sixteen, and it feels like they have even more untapped potential if things break their way this year. I am incredibly excited for the upcoming year, and it seems like way more people than in the past are, too, based on how many people are talking about them. I think we are the clear number 3 in the ACC behind stalwarts NC State and Louisville, and that’s a great place to be. If things break our way, they have a legitimate shot at the ACC title in the regular and tournament formats.

Carter: I am on record as being unimpressed with the Fortner hire when it was announced, and I happily own being 100% wrong on that. After treading water in the latter Joseph years, Fortner brought the team back to borderline tourney participants in year one (we’ll never know for sure thanks to COVID, but I was feeling pretty optimistic about it) and a decisive Sweet Sixteen berth in year two. This team is very good. Getting to that next level is really hard, and I don’t think it’s there yet. But they’re capable of finishing third in the ACC, which is no small feat.

Austin: Nell is a Grade A coach and pretty clearly Stansbury’s best hire to date. Women’s basketball is very good this year, but the latest recruiting class is what has me most hopeful for the future. Fortner clearly isn’t satisfied competing for 3rd place in the ACC and is aiming to build a formidable program to challenge the conference elites.

Sammy: Nell Yeah!

Volleyball – any prediction on NCAA tourney? How far can this team go? - CTjacket

Logan: They are good bro. Sky’s the limit.

Jake: Tech currently sits at #13 in the Coaches Poll, and this is a body of voters that have routinely gone out of their way to underestimate the ACC. In rankings that matter, the selection committee has them in the top 10, and the top 16 teams host the first two rounds of the tournament. Tech also, related, sits at #6 in RPI. To say this is the very best year in the history of ACC volleyball is an understatement. In almost any year pre-eating the remains of the old Big East, Tech would be far and away running with the conference title, and in most other years would only be facing one of either Pitt or Louisville at the top of the mountain. This year, all three of them are among the top 6 teams in the country. Georgia Tech has a legitimate claim to a 3 seed in the tournament, which would set them up for a theoretical matchup against 14 and 6 seeds in their home gym. Though their two losses to undefeated Louisville essentially eliminate them from the conference race, they’ll sew up second if they beat #3 Pitt for the second time this year on Friday at O’Keefe (and on the ACC Network at 4:00 PM). Tech has played with the best of the best this year, and can beat any team in the country on any given day. I say a Sweet Sixteen bid isn’t out of the picture, and, if they’re lucky, a trip into Lousiville, Pittsburgh, Baylor, or Texas’ gyms could very well be in the cards if they take care of business. If you’re looking for a team to throw your weight behind for the next month, make it this one.

Carter: Similar to WBB, volleyball isn’t elite, they’re simply merely very good. They got dealt a bad hand with the schedule having to play juggernauts Pitt and Louisville twice, but a 1-3 record against that (the team is currently 1-2) is nothing to be ashamed of. This is a sweet sixteen team for sure; anything beyond that is upper crust territory you should be excited to see this team reach but not expect.

Nishant: I had honestly forgotten how fun this sport could be until fairly recently. The field seems pretty top-heavy, as I think is the case most years. But like the others said, we’ve already seen Tech beat a top-5 team and put up a very good fight against some other title contenders. Never say never.

Men’s hoops – last season definitely made us all feel a lot better about the program. Question – do we make the NCAAs this year? - CTjacket

Ben: At this point, I will say probably not. I think they’ll be NIT-bound this year. I always thought they would have a slow start, so unless they make another ACC Tournament run, I don’t see NCAAs happening this year.

Logan: They are good bro. Sky’s the limit.

Jake: It’s easy to overreact to the nonconference slate, sure, but I think Tech is showing they’re back to being a younger, growing team. I1 know I wrote a ton of words on the last two questions, but I am letting my opinions be formed a little slower here, given that a bit more seems to be unknown (especially compared to volleyball, who is in the waning days of the regular season). I was at McCamish last night, and I really liked what I had to see from Deebo Coleman and some of the players we haven’t seen as much from yet. I also think Coach Pastner is saying all the right stuff in the press conferences. I wouldn’t say we should say ACC title or bust, but I think Tech could be an at large if they improve well, and should be an NIT team at the very least. I am cautiously optimistic.

Carter: I don’t know if it’s fair to expect that from a team that lost the ACC player of the year and ACC defensive player of the year. I’ll accept any postseason play from this team this year. And Josh? Buddy? Friday would be a great time to finally get your first win vs. georgia.

Austin: It’s one thing to bring in high caliber players. It’s another to see the immediate impact they are having on the team thus far. Pastner mentioned before the season that he didn’t really know the roles of the team going into the season, and I think that showed in the first game loss to Miami (OH). However, the contributions of Miles Kelly and the extended run Deebo Coleman has gotten as of late shows Pastner trusts his freshmen to contribute now, and that really raises the floor for this team. I don’t expect Coleman to make five threes every game, but the energy and poise the freshmen have shown thus far really gives me hope not only for a strong year this year, but for sustained success in this program.

Sammy: This team won’t make the NCAA tourney if we continue to average 13 turnovers a game. We’re letting teams compete with us because we’re shooting ourselves in the foot too often. That being said, the team has a lot of youth, and I believe those mistakes will get fixed (case in point, only had 10 turnovers last game... slight progress is still progress). I love what we’re seeing from a talent/athleticism perspective, and my prediction is that the Jackets will be back in the tourney. Probably a 10-12 seed, but we’ll be back.

Have any of y’all played this Halo Infinite game yet? - Logan Sandor

Ben: I haven’t owned an Xbox since the 360, so nah. I am particularly excited to get Pokemon Brilliant Diamond this weekend though!

Chris: No, but I’d like to. Halo was where a lot of my time went at Tech.

Logan: They are good bro. Sky’s the limit... wait what are we talking about?

Carter: The last Halo game I played was 4, almost a decade ago. Are they really just now getting around to 6?

Sammy: Not yet, but my buddy sent me a video last night, and he was smashing people with an energy hammer, and it looked awesome.

Early in his Post-Game Presser, CGC mentioned how difficult the atmosphere was in the locker room after that loss. Is this just him making a side note of how bad the loss was, or do we feel CGC is starting to lose the faith of the players in the locker room? - Logan Sandor

Ben: I mean, if folks are all cheery and happy after a loss, I think that’s more concerning.

Chris: I didn’t read too much into that. I took that as “this sucks, we don’t like losing”. That plus the later comments about trust issues makes it seem like there’s just a lot of emotion flying around.

Logan: No idea other me.

Jake P.: Winning just 9 games in almost three seasons will start to make players numb to losing. I bet it was dead silent.

Jake: I don’t even want to speculate.

Sammy: I could be wrong, and I probably am because none of us really know, but I feel like the team and coaching staff all still feel pretty close, which is good. At the very least, I think the players all still feel really close. I don’t think there are too many divisive egos on this team that would truly sway/divide the group.

Why? Just… why? - YJAlleyCat

Chris: I could ask you the same thing.

Jake: Who? What? When? Where? How?

Logan: It’s always darkest before the dawn.

Austin: “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” - Frederick Douglas

Nishant: Thanks, Drax.

You wake up and it is November 29, 2018. You are Todd Stansbury. Paul Johnson has just announced his retirement. You now have the knowledge of what Geoff Collins’s tenure at Tech would look like. Who do you go after to be head coach of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets? - thebugman10

Ben: Before I get too much into my answer, I want to issue an apology to Ken Whisenhunt. When it was rumored that he was getting the job after being the only person interviewed, I—along with several others—were understandably upset. However, here we are three years later, and I look at a team that made a similar move in Arizona State’s hiring of Herm Edwards, and I’m left wondering if Whisenhunt would have found success. I think it will go down as a what if, but I do want to say that I apologize for making such a quick judgement without really knowing how things would have went.

Now, if I was in charge, the first person I would have talked to is Scott Satterfield. He was arguably the best name available at the time, and Tech didn’t talk to him. He had a lot of success at App State, and while Louisville isn’t perfect, they aren’t bad. Even in their worst season under Satterfield, they had more wins than Tech has had in any season under Geoff Collins. It also would have allowed Tech to hold on to Nate Woody, who I’m a big fan of. If you don’t remember, Woody was previously Satterfield’s DC at App State, and I would have liked to see what he could do with more than a year. Other than him, I would have liked the idea of an offensive-minded head coach who runs an option-based offense. That is what would have brought the closest thing to immediate success. I think we would have gotten something like that with Satterfield, but I digress. Another name I would have liked is Jeff Monken. I believe he has made it known that he is not necessarily tied to keeping a flexbone-based option offense like Tech was running, so that would have made the transition away from that kind of offense go a whole helluva lot smoother.

Chris: Someone like Brian Bohannon would’ve been super interesting and made the transition easier. I was kinda into the idea of Tony Elliott at the time. Luke Fickell could’ve been cool but probably wouldn’t have been available, same with Billy Napier. It would be interesting to see what would’ve happened if we went with a more offensive-minded coach. Maybe since that’s the biggest “project” we would’ve been further along with a guy who lives and breathes it? There are tons of G5 guys who run super interesting offenses that I think could’ve mapped well to the personnel we already had. Anyways that’s where my mind’s at - in a do-over situation I’d probably go with the cutting-edge offensive guy.

Logan Sandor: Bill Belichick. Go big or go home buddy.

Jake P.: I’m going to have to go with Brian Bohannon as well.

Jake: This is lame, but I also liked Bohannon. I was also pretty interested in Scott Satterfield, too.

Carter: I was also a proponent of hiring Bohannon at the time, with Jeff Monken and Scott Satterfield being good alternates. Obviously, Satterfield hasn’t worked out at Louisville, but I don’t know it would have worked out similarly had he come to Atlanta.

Austin: Tony Elliott.

Sammy: ^^^^^^^^

Nishant: One guy who hasn’t been mentioned yet is Mel Tucker, who was hired at Colorado that offseason. If he were interested and the boosters didn’t refuse to consider hiring a guy from UGA’s staff, it could have been a fascinating fit. It’s possible he could have bounced after a year like he did at Colorado, but hey, Satterfield also openly flirted with another school early in his Louisville tenure.

Related question: I feel like we were in a rare position during the coaching search in 2018. The only blue blood school that was also looking for a coach (from what I recall) was Ohio State. They didn’t even have to really search as Ryan Day was already in the program and was named HC after being the interim that season. So as I was saying, I feel like we were in a rare position in 2018, where you could make the argument that we were the best job available. Does that mean we could’ve gotten the pick of the litter? Not necessarily, some top coordinators or coaching prospects might have decided to wait another year for more lucrative openings. But I also feel like we had a really great opportunity to choose a HC with little to no competition, and we completely blew it. What do yall think? - thebugman10

Ben: I don’t think the argument that Tech was the best job available at the time is a very strong one. Tech is historically a tough school to recruit for given the academic restrictions and the surrounding competition. North Carolina was also open, and since they don’t have those same academic restrictions—and it was much less of a rebuild project—I would say that UNC was the best job available. My biggest regret is that Tech didn’t interview more candidates.

Logan: I know we’re all on the CGC hate train right now, but picking a coach is not an easy thing to do. Sure, looking back we can say that CGC was not the correct hire. At the same time, anyone we did pick up is not guaranteed to succeed either. I don’t think hiring CGC was necessarily a bad decision at the time. He was relatively inexpensive, he had ties to the program, he wanted to be here, he was a defensive coach who had some success (some might be a stretch depending on who you ask)... logically he wasn’t a terrible choice. That said, I understand how it can feel that we made the worst possible decision with the frustrations the fanbase has built up over the past 3 years. I’m not saying he’s the best or worst option, but you never know how someone will perform until they take the job.

Chris: Yes and no. We were a good job at the time, but I think a lot of candidates would know going into it how difficult the transition would be, so you need someone very invested and ready for adversity (e.g. a Collins who has institutional ties and therefore is invested). The other thing is that a lot of hyped young guys took jobs in the year or two preceding that so the “cool” candidate pool was limited. I have no idea what the search actually looked like behind closed doors but it does kinda feel like we went with the first guy who wanted the job (and gave Whisenhunt a courtesy). Especially considering Collins’ HC experience was just two years (also kind of a red flag to jump ship from Temple after that length of time). I’m still not all the way out on him, but I do feel like we didn’t necessarily do our due diligence of really doing a full search.

Carter: Collins had a previous connection to Georgia Tech and was supposedly campaigning for the job. I don’t blame Stansbury for giving him the nod, but I will say I hope he’s learned a lot from his first football coaching search.

Austin: A little bird told me CGC wasn’t garnering much support at Temple, but even they believed that Collins “coming home” would yield good results. Hindsight is 20/20.

Sammy: ARE YOU SAYING WE COULD HAVE HAD URBAN MEYER????????????

Nishant: You’re overestimating what we had to offer. All things being equal, most candidates wouldn’t want to deal with Tech’s budgetary and academic situation, to say nothing of how challenging it is to sell recruits on playing for an ACC team in the unofficial capital of the SEC. I was pleased with the Collins hire at the time—he had a great track record as a DC, was all about leaning into Atlanta for the recruiting pitch, and generally seemed like he’d be a good ambassador for the program. It hasn’t panned out, but that doesn’t make it a bad decision in retrospect. As others have said, what may need a deeper dive is Todd’s hiring process.

Don’t think this is possible, but do you think TSan could do the following? Todd goes to CGC and says Thacker is not working out and he needs to go (I mean he prob should). Todd gets real with CGC, says the defense sucks, and that he’s going to find a DC who is allowed to manage the defense more independently (I.e. he sets up the system and can make run game time defensive decisions). Todd goes shopping for an rising DC from Anywhere and tells him behind CGC’s back, show what you can do on the defensive side and if CGC is still failing, he has a inside track of becoming the next HC. Not sure if I’m wording this correctly, but I guess could we score a good DC who could also make a good HC coach candidate with the idea that if CGC is gone, he could essentially take over. Regardless, I’m nervous once Thacker is gone that CGC will still interfere with the defense and not get it where it should be. - YellowJacketHeritage

Ben: I think this would end very poorly. I think if you’re going to have a head coach in waiting system like you mention, Collins needs to be in the loop. Otherwise, it looks like you’re forming a coup against the head coach, and things would just get messy.

Chris: I don’t think that’s a selling point TStan would make explicitly because that's a bit shady, but I do think that any good candidate would recognize “hey if I do a good job, I’d probably be top of the list to prove myself as interim HC in the event that he’s fired”. I am all about TStan telling Collins that Thacker has to go though.

Jake: Something has to give. I don’t know about some of the wheeling and dealing part of the question, but one would think that a coach with aspirations and the ability to say “look, I made improvements in a meaningful way there” would be a strong allure.

Carter: You lost me at “behind CGC’s back”. Cloak-and-dagger stuff like that seems like a real bad idea at a division one athletics department. Something need to happen at defense, just..... maybe not that.

Austin: Sounds like a recipe for failure, and quite the power grab by the AD. A better option would be sitting Collins down, shooting it to him straight about what’s working and what’s not, and setting clear expectations going forward. i.e. No more subtweeting the media, non answers, and used car salesman schtick.

Sammy: You see the thing about ethics is...

Hey guys,

So... how’s it going? My weekend was good. I got the booster shot and flu shot at the same time on Friday, so I was too groggy to really pay attention to anything this weekend. I just sat around, eating cheese puffs, being all fat and sassy...

Anyway, there seems to be some frustration floating around right now about how GT seems to be performing. I’d like to say I’m frustrated too, but honestly I’m just so numb to the whole thing at this point it doesn’t even matter. But, with that idea in mind, my question is what competition would you be interested in seeing Tech students compete in right now. It can be sports or design or quiz related up to y’all. Honestly I don’t think we even got a chance at that college quiz show hosted by Peyton Manning and I was pretty offended by that.

I think it would be cool to see us in a rocketry competition. Seeing us in a drone racing competition might be neat. Seeing us in one of those competitions where they design a way to launch a pumpkin... Anything engineering related basically. That would be cool.

What do you guys think? Hope you have a good rest of your week. Later guys,

Signed

A particularly literate four year old (submitted via email)

Ben: I would like to see Georgia Tech form a robot battling team. Each member builds their own robot, and they duke it out in an underground arena.

Chris: Drop 10 students from a bunch of colleges on a giant remote island with limited supplies. Give them like 3 months to duke it out and compete for control.

Logan: First off, upset we weren’t in the quiz show. Second, I want us to compete in underwater basket weaving.

Jake: I think Tech has some pretty interesting competitive design-build organizations already, but I also recognize the cool things that bubble up through the Inventure Prize. While both of those are cool, what I want to see is a college design show where students get to build the ridiculous things that get memed about happening on April Fool’s Day, a la a ski lift up Freshman Hill or something fun like that. Would it ever happen? No. But it would be cool.

Austin: Assorted engineering schools get an allotment of money to build a bridge, best Design + Strength + Budget wins. Yeah, infrastructure!

Sammy: Chris, they made a movie about that. It was called Hunger Games.

Ben (again): There’s also a book that’s kinda similar: Lord of the Flies.