Mailbag 7/7

GTBuzzed: Why should a casual college football fan (not Tech affiliated) tune in to watch Tech play?

Ben: It’s tough for casual football fans, but really, the best answer is just by winning.

Jack: The cynical answer is ‘the other team.’ I think in reality though our appeal is in our unknown ceiling. I think we certainly are raising the floor of what this team can do, but how far they can go is still a question.

Logan: I think you have a chance to watch a team develop from the ground floor. We have plenty of new talent and a new coach coming off of the lowest period for us in the past 30 years or so. This is a good chance to see a team grow from the bottom back to being a contender… or at least that’s how I’m selling it.

DressHerInWhiteAndGold: How are we on Girl Groups?

Ben: I’m that weird guy that really doesn’t listen to a lot of music, so I’m probably not super well-suited to answer this.

Logan: last girl group I really followed was the spice girls… was the Cramps an all girl group? I liked them.

Jack: I don’t understand this question. If it’s actually music related, go listen to Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and First Aid Kit.

Partywaggin: Can we get another recruiting update?

Ben: Things are trending well right now, but a lot of the high team rankings are heavily impacted by the sheer number of commits that Tech has, so that will probably start to come down as we get into the season. Two of the recent ones I’m really excited about are Edge CJ Jackson and WR Isiah Canion. Both are composite 4-stars at pretty key positions. Thus far, I will say I have been pretty impressed with Key’s recruiting. I think a large part of it comes from having a high school coaching legend be the high school liaison. I’ll look more deeply into each of the commits in the next couple weeks. I didn’t realize that we weren’t doing the recruiting series until mid-August.

GT Guy: Why was Bryce Dopson removed from the team?

Ben: What I can see from Chad’s article before the paywall cuts it off is that he was released from his NLI “to allow him to explore other opportunities” according to a person familiar with the situation. Take from that what you will.

Dinowizerd: How are we feeling about the name change? Tech certainly needed the money. I personally don’t mind putting “Hyundai” in front of Bobby Dodd Stadium, but not sure how most fans feel on the matter.

Ben: Mo money! Mo money! Mo money! Yeah, I wish Tech could hold onto the Grant Field name, but Tech needs the money.

Jack: I don’t believe Hyundai is going in front of Bobby Dodd Stadium, but instead possibly replacing the Grant Field part of the name. That’s still TBD though, as nothing official has come from either Hyundai or Georgia Tech.

Submitted via email: Hey guys,

Hope the summer month is treating you kindly so far. It’s too hot for my tastes but otherwise things are going good.

Question this week. I went to the college football hall of fame recently. The hall of fame has our top rivals listed as uga, Clempson, and FSU. FSU stood out as a strange one to me since we don’t play them every year and other than the Miracle on Techwood I can’t remember a ton of super contentious regular season games against FSU. So I guess my question is threefold: would you define FSU a rival? What rivalry would you put as our 3rd biggest rival at this point in time? Are there any other Georgia Tech opponents would consider rivals that the rest of the fanbase would not traditionally think of?

Have a good one guys.

Brian Courtney

Ben: I could understand FSU as a secondary rival, although I’m not as familiar with the history there as others. In terms of more recent rivals, it’s a crime that Virginia Tech is not listed there.

Logan: Rivalries in college football can be rather subjective, depending on who is making the list any team your school has ever played could be considered a rival. Some schools just make up rivalries, so I’m not super concerned about random schools being added to the rivalry list. I don’t think FSU is a top 3 rival, but I could see them being a rival given the number of times we have played with the ACC championship or a division championship on the line. Currently I would mark VT as one of our top rivals since we play consistently and we have had some close matches over the past decade. As far as other rivals you may not consider... Maybe UNC. I’m not sure they would call it a rivalry, but we have been a major thorn in their side the past few years so that might make the relationship sour.

Drew: I agree that I’d place VT or even someone like Miami over FSU, but if you’re gonna reference the Miracle on Techwood then you need to remember the Miracle on North Ave from 2008.