Mailbag 8/25

What would be your “YOU CAN DO THAT” level words of wisdom at FroshRATS Convocation this year? Besides “Beat Dwags, so you can take off those silly beanies… - DressHerInWhiteAndGold

Ben: It probably wouldn’t match the excitement level, but the best pieces of advice I could give new college students are this: (1) Get involved in something on campus. Doesn’t matter if it’s a campus ministry, an academic club or some other special interest club. College is a big place that is easy to get lost in, so get involved and meet people to make it through college with. (2) It’s okay if you don’t finish college in four years. It took me seven years and two schools to finally get my bachelor’s degree, and I don’t regret a second of it.

Jake: Honestly, I don’t think anyone could ever match what that guy brought to the table. Anything close feels imposter-y. So I’d probably be a little less exciting.

Logan: JUST DO IT! DON’T LET YOUR DREAMS BE DREAMS!

Took a dive into the Clempson recruiting rankings from 2007-2016 when they won the natty.

2007: 18th one behind us.

2008: 10th

2009: 36th

2010: 27th

2011: 10th

2012: 20th

2013: 15th

2014: 16th

2015: 9th

2016: They won the natty.

Do you believe Tech is capable of achieving those levels of recruiting classes given that this coaching staff can win football games in the future? It certainly seems like there has been a recruiting bump that overlaps this achievement? - DTGT

Ben: I won’t say this is impossible, but I don’t think it’s very likely that Tech ever recruits consistently at that level. Why? It’$ a very $imple rea$on.

Jake: There’s definitely been a bump - but I would argue that retention and development are a big part of it too, and that remains to be seen. Also, that recruitment would definitely need to keep trending up, too.

Robert: I’ll be the downer here; GT is not going to get a top 10 class, probably ever. Mid teens is the uppermost ceiling, with mid 20s to mid 30s being much more likely.

Logan: I’m never going to say something is impossible. It probably won’t happen in the next few decades, there are too many problems facing Tech. Too many other big programs in our recruiting pipeline states, the GPA requirements (which have actually be lessened but are still a problem), lack of a good sports management program (i.e. a major for kids who don’t want to be engineers) for players who are focused purely on athletics, lack of finances for continued development of facilities, uncertainty of coach stability... I could go on but I won’t. But with all the changes on the college football horizon it is certainly possible that in 20 years or so GT becomes a recruiting powerhouse in whatever entity ends up taking the place of the NCAA. So that’s a fun idea.

What would be the impact on OOC games (including COFH) with an ACC/B1G/Pac-12 Alliance? More specifically, would non-Alliance Division 1 OOC games go away? - jabsterjacket

Ben: I don’t see it happening, but I would love to see the fallout of a complete cut-off of the SEC from other P5 OOC games.

Jake: Signs point to no. Today’s announcement seemed pretty boilerplate, though, so it doesn’t seem like anything is finalized.

Robert: It seems more likely that potential B1G/Pac-12 games would replace series like Ole Miss, UCF, Bama, etc. I don’t think COFH is going anywhere.

Logan: We may be losing a lot of the old school ACC/SEC rivalries. say South Carolina v Clemson, FSU v UF, Kentucky v Louisville... other matchups between SEC teams we don’t really care for. I think that will be the biggest impact of the alliance. Also, I just want to say, I wish they had thought of a better name to call the whole thing than “The Alliance”. How boring can you be.

Better show: Parks & Rec or Brooklyn 99? Answer for both “peak season” and “over the entire run” - ramblin gooner

Ben: I’ve never watched all of Parks & Rec, so my answer by default is Brooklyn 99, which I also think is an amazing show.

Dottavio: Euphoria

Jake: I’d say Brooklyn 99 for both, but I worry that it is recency bias. I think Brooklyn 99 was a better serialized show, but I think I like just tuning into any old episode of Parks and Rec better. But NBC really was killing it on Thursday nights for a long time, regardless (The Office, Community, 30 Rock, etc.).

Logan: I have not seen the entirety of both shows, but from what I have seen I would have to choose Brooklyn 99. Tough call because both are funny and have great characters, I just think the outlandishness of Brooklyn 99 suits my comedy tastes better. Parks and Rec tends to be, despite some of the ridiculous premises of the episodes, more subtle in its comedy.

Favorite gif and what do you use it for? - Notwima13

Ben: I’m a big fan of the gif of Obi-Wan Kenobi dropping down in Revenge of the Sith and saying “Hello there.”

Jake: I like the Fiddler on the Roof tradition GIF and usually that’s for sending around the FTRS slack room to justify some nonsense. Or the Paul Johnson tongue wag, for similar reasons.

Dottavio:

Carter: Pretty much any GIF of professional wrestling stable The New Day, which I use instead of actually answering your questions. There was supposed to be one here, actually. Weird.

Logan: I love cocaine GIFs. Particularly I’m a big fan of the one where Thad Castle from Blue Mountain State shoves his face in a pile of cocaine then lifts his face up and yells “COCAINE!!!!” while his face is covered in white powder. Gets me every time.

Favorite prospect game from the Big 10 or PAC 12? What team from those other two conferences would you most be interested in seeing in a football matchup? - DTGT

Ben: Give me Georgia Tech of the West Stanford! For your other question, give me Nebraska vs. Colorado. Two former Big 12 teams going at it.

Jake: Is none an answer? If not, then Cal. There’s some Rose Bowl-related angst that needs to get resolved. The other Bay Area school might be a good option too - good schools, historic programs, etc. We don’t really have a lot of built-in animus with any of these schools. A little history with USC from the independent days, some games with Maryland, the Quick Lane Bowl and Minnesota...there’s not a lot to work with.

Robert: #1 for selfish reasons: Utah. I live two miles from Rice-Eccles Stadium. Top 3 in terms of spectacle/ticket sales: Ohio State, USC, and Michigan. Honorable mention because of academics: Stanford.

Logan: Hmm... this is a tricky question because there are plenty of options for interesting matchups. How about UCLA v Maryland? I think this would be a chaotic matchup with a potential for plenty of offense and a big comeback opportunity for teams based on their history in cross-conference matchup upsets.

Other conference matchup I would want to see? PAC-12 v Big 12 tends to have the high scoring ridiculous games. I’d be down for an Oregon v Baylor matchup. I seem to recall the last time they played being quite fun. Oddly enough that is happening in 2027 and 2028.

Carter: Somewhere up in the Cascades, please. Give me a Washington or an Oregon or even an Oregon State.

Speaking of Charlie Watts, please to power rank Stones’ songs. - DressHerInWhiteAndGold

Ben: I’m not the biggest Stones fan, but I do love Paint it Black and Sympathy for the Devil.

Jake: I don’t think I’m the most qualified here to do that!

Dottavio: Wild Horses

Robert: The entirety of 40 Licks is excellent. A few favorites: Gimme Shelter, Paint it Black, and Beast of Burden.

Logan: Sorry, I know they were important to rock history but I’m not that big of a Stones fan.

If you were a head coach and were choosing which schemes your team would run, which offensive and defensive schemes would you choose? - goldfella

Ben: Ideally, I would want to run some sort of option-based spread offense. Probably not quite Oregon-levels of speed, but maybe something like what Auburn ran with Nick Marshall. I would also want it to be flexible enough to adapt to the personnel. On defense, I would want to run a 4-3/4-2-5 with a hybrid LB/S that can pretty much do it all.

Dottavio: Offense- let Jeff Monken get creative and do whatever he thinks will win. Defense- At GT? A 3-3 so it’s “different”

Logan: Theoretically I would draw up my strategy based on the players available on my team. Assuming I have everyone I want I would probably run I-formation on offense because of its simplicity, and 3-4 on defense to allow versatility on blitzing and zoning schemes. I would be fired pretty quickly as a head coach in this day and age.

What are your predictions for the Klimpson v. georgie game? - goldfella

Ben:

Logan: Klimpson, but its close. georgie trips over her own dress and falls in dog do do on the last play of the game.

What do you think the outcome will be for Texas and OU once they move to the $EC? - goldfella

Ben: They’re going to make some money, and Texas will still be bad. Oklahoma might push for a championship after a couple years, though.

Logan: in the game against each other or against the rest of the SEC? I think Texas consistently wins 7 games a year and not much more. I think OU goes 10-2 each year but can’t get over Alabamer or whoever comes out of the east. Against each other, Oklahoma makes Texas look bad 2 out of every 3 games. In the third game Texas wins, but its close.

Yada Yada questions...

Have you seen the new suicide squad movie?

What did you think of it?

Is there any movie that you would like to see rebooted?

Something Something nice day,

The Cloud (submitted via email)

Ben:

1. Yes! I watched it on HBO Max.
2. Before I give my opinion, I will say that I’m not the biggest fan of James Gunn. As for the movie, I thought it was good junk food for the brain. It was certainly better than the original Suicide Squad movie, though. To be fair, though, that’s not difficult. I will also say, instead of this, I think you should go see Free Guy, starring Ryan Reynolds instead. That movie had me dying the entire time, though it also isn’t without its issues.
3. Honestly, I want to see the DC Universe reboot. Right now, they are doing some weird soft reboot where they just aren’t talking about movies in the past and just trying to throw stuff at the wall. Personally, I wish they would just take a few years and then restart, but this time, try not to be Marvel. By that, I mean, don’t build towards a team-up movie. Make more standalone movies, like Joker or The Batman. You can even have this idea on me. Make a Mr. Freeze movie starring Mads Mikkelsen as the titular Victor Fries. But use his backstory from Batman: The Animated Series. It would be incredible.

Jake:

1. No
2. N/A
3. Seems like everything is rebooted or existing IPs. I’d rather be surprised by something new. Sorry to not actually answer the question...

Carter: hi Cloud, love your video games.

1. unusually, yes, I have, despite it having just been released
2. it was good! I didn’t have any previous Suicide Squad movie experience so that may have affected my opinion. my other opinion is that James Gunn is pretty good at directing these here comic book films
3. feels like Hollywood has been going back to the reboot well pretty often these past few years so I too will pass on this one

Logan:

1. I saw it in theaters
2. I really enjoyed it. I was not expecting it to be as fun as it was. Totally ridiculous and fun in a way that almost made me forget I was watching a superhero movie, if not for the person throwing polka dots and the talking shark.
3. Not a movie, but I would like to see a reboot of the 90’s cartoon Re:Boot. That was a fun show with surprisingly deep characters and a complicated story. I feel the advances in 3-D animation technology could be highly beneficial for that type of show. Netflix get on that!