2023 Recruiting

“That hot girl gave me a fake number. I didn’t see YOU get one!”
She probably was drunk and simply got a digit wrong? Me? I just call all the numbers of the area codes and likely exchanges until I get her. I can usually do it within 5000 calls. Try it. It shows you are really into her.
 
So, I went back and checked top DL in 2022. Of the top 20 DT's named, 4 of them were between 5'11" and 6'1". That's 20% of the NFL's top 20 DT's according to this article. They were:

Aaron Donald (LAR) - 6'1"/ 280 lbs.
Poona Ford (SEA) - 5'11"/ 310 lbs.
Grady Jarrett (ATL) - 6'0"/ 305 lbs.
Ed Oliver (BUF) - 6'1"/ 287 lbs.

It's really not uncommon to have a shorter, but very stout man playing the DT position. I wouldn't say it's the norm, but it's certainly not uncommon.
Closer to home---Ivery Lee and Rock Perdoni.
 
There are reasonable defenses of PJ's recruiting, but I'm not sure having a 5-star DL commit then almost immediately decommit is one of them.
He decommitted from Notre Dame and committed to Tech, but signing day was basically a week away and Notre Dame brought the bag to get him back. It's not like we were his first offer and he jumped as soon as he got another.

Anyway, my original comment was more an attack on Collins than a defense of CPJ's recruiting.
 
The following are GA Tech players recruited by Paul Johnson who were recruited or at least ended up on a practice squad in the NFL. This is certainly missing a few, like Orwin Smith who signed a 2-year, $930K contract with the Packers in 2016 but failed to make the team. None of it was guaranteed, so I suppose he walked away with nothing. Anyway, here are 25 players over 11 seasons or a little over two per season - 8-10 over a recruiting cycle. This is certainly not Alabama or Ohio State, but it's not like CPJ wasn't recruiting good college players.
  1. Anthony Allen - 7th Round
  2. Jeremiah Attaochu - 2nd
  3. TJ Barnes - UFA
  4. Harrison Butker - 7th
  5. Jalen Camp - 6th
  6. Tariq Carpenter - 7th
  7. Jack Coco - UFA
  8. Kevin Cone - UFA
  9. Nathan Cottrell - UFA
  10. Adam Gotsis - 2nd
  11. Pressley Harvin - 7th
  12. Stephen Hill - 2nd
  13. Isaiah Johnson - UFA
  14. Jordan Mason - UFA
  15. Shaq Mason - 4th
  16. Chris Milton - UFA
  17. DeAndre Smelter - 4th
  18. Rod Sweeting - UFA
  19. Trey Swilling - UFA
  20. Jemea Thomas - 6th
  21. Juanyeh Thomas - UFA
  22. Darren Waller - 6th
  23. Brandon Watts - 7th
  24. DJ White - 6th
  25. Louis Young - UFA
 
You could almost add Jonathan Dwyer to that list. CPJ recruiting him pretty hard to come to Navy and when CPJ took over at GT, Dwyer was elated and probably would have transferred out if it had been anyone else.
 
The following are GA Tech players recruited by Paul Johnson who were recruited or at least ended up on a practice squad in the NFL. This is certainly missing a few, like Orwin Smith who signed a 2-year, $930K contract with the Packers in 2016 but failed to make the team. None of it was guaranteed, so I suppose he walked away with nothing. Anyway, here are 25 players over 11 seasons or a little over two per season - 8-10 over a recruiting cycle. This is certainly not Alabama or Ohio State, but it's not like CPJ wasn't recruiting good college players.
  1. Anthony Allen - 7th Round
  2. Jeremiah Attaochu - 2nd
  3. TJ Barnes - UFA
  4. Harrison Butker - 7th
  5. Jalen Camp - 6th
  6. Tariq Carpenter - 7th
  7. Jack Coco - UFA
  8. Kevin Cone - UFA
  9. Nathan Cottrell - UFA
  10. Adam Gotsis - 2nd
  11. Pressley Harvin - 7th
  12. Stephen Hill - 2nd
  13. Isaiah Johnson - UFA
  14. Jordan Mason - UFA
  15. Shaq Mason - 4th
  16. Chris Milton - UFA
  17. DeAndre Smelter - 4th
  18. Rod Sweeting - UFA
  19. Trey Swilling - UFA
  20. Jemea Thomas - 6th
  21. Juanyeh Thomas - UFA
  22. Darren Waller - 6th
  23. Brandon Watts - 7th
  24. DJ White - 6th
  25. Louis Young - UFA
But over that same time span, NC State - a school we should be at least on par with or recruit better than - had 30 guys DRAFTED into the NFL. That's not even counting UFA's. Their recruiting classes over that span averaged in the 40s-50s. It's true we had good players and some that made it to the NFL but we never had AS MANY on the roster at once as most every other school.
 
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