Here you go.
2002-2003 Recruiting Class Analysis
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Al Peña (Early Signee)
Mansfield Wrotto
Chris Dunlap
Kyle Pupello
Brian Fleuridor
Kevin Tuminello
Adamm Oliver
Joe Gaston
Joe Anoai
Nick Moore
Matt Rhodes
Pat Carter
Reggie Ball
Reshaun Grant
Eddy Parker
Sam Williams
Leshawn Newberry
Kenny Scott
KaMichael Hall
Avery Roberson
Phillip Wheeler
WELCOME TO GEORGIA TECH!!!
We've read from all perspectives this recruiting season. Some will always think we have a great class, some want to withhold judgment for years, some want to just bash and some have pretended to be supportive while making sarcastic and wholly negative undertones throughout the process. In essence, my analysis is just another opinion mixed with known facts, but I will try to be as straight with you as I can possibly be. There were some good and bad things to take away from this recruiting season, so to be overly to one side or the other is probably not fairly assessing our efforts. This was essentially this coaching staff's first recruiting class. They come away from this with some good highlights and a few lowlights. Surprisingly we did things like having unprecedented success in the state of Florida while also showing our inexperience in this "game" at times.
I will break this down by position, starting with the offensive players first. I will give information on our newest Yellow Jackets and analyze how we did by position. I have been doing this type of analysis for years now and looking back at some of my old work, it is not an exact science but I will give you my BEST effort. So, let's have fun with this and take it all for what it's worth.
Offense
Quarterback
Patrick Carter
Reggie Ball
Al Peña
Not a single complaint here. I think we got a great group with these three. Many feel that our QB of the future will come from this group. No doubt though that 1 or 2 from this group will eventually end up at another position. It may happen later rather than sooner, but as soon as one of the three establishes themselves then the others might start looking for other positions. Hopes are high here but again there are no guarantees as we can see from the previously highly touted group of QBs we brought in 2 seasons ago with Bilbo, Landry & R Johnson. There is still hope for Bilbo to represent this group at the QB position but he's definitely at the point now where he's been given a chance and a younger group will start to push him right away.
Different people have different opinions on which they think will emerge from this group and I'm no different. I think Carter will end up being the QB of the future from this group although I really like what I've read from the others as well. Carter is a very confidant, tall, lanky and fast. He has good football bloodlines seeing that his brother was a star at WR for Auburn and now plays for the New York Giants. Patrick seems to understand that he is coming in as an "athletic" QB that will need to be a playmaker, so look for him to do it in the air or on the ground. He is familiar with that role considering he now holds 9 of his high school's records including: career passing yards (3,277), career total offense (4,153), career pass completions (224), season total yards (2,136), season passing yards (1,889), most passing yards in a game (336), longest run (99) and season marks for both attempts and completions. If QB didn't happen to work out for Carter, he'd have the perfect build & speed to be a standout WR, as his brother was.
Another standout QB that may see as the possible future QB at Georgia Tech is Reggie Ball. Ball is generally considered one of the top 2 QBs to come out of the state of Georgia this year. He is another guy that seems to fit Gailey's plan to bring in an athletic guy at QB. From scouting reports I've read on him, Reggie is capable of making all of the throws you can ask from a QB. The intermediate route is supposed to be his best though and is also known to be adept at throwing on the run. Most importantly of all though, Ball has a reputation of making good decisions with the ball. He threw for just over 2,000 yards and 18 touchdown passes on the season while only throwing two interceptions. The only knock is that Reggie doesn't have great size, but he should be able to overcome it with his athleticism, as Joe Hamilton did. If QB didn't work out for Ball, he could possible become our version of Hinds Ward. Like Hines he is similarly built, can likely play multiple positions, and is generally considered a winner. Hopefully his hands would be as good.
Normally I think Peña would be getting some big time hype as the future QB too but most of the talk so far has been about Carter & Ball. So Peña comes in as a bit of a dark horse at the position but he'll start with a huge advantage. Al is already in school, getting used to college life and will actually get to see the field starting in Spring Practice. He's not quite as fast as Carter or Ball but he is easily the biggest QB in the group at 6'3", 200 pounds. I have read a scouting report on him that says he's "a little rough around the edges and will need developing but has the tools to be successful". With his early start and big body, I am certainly not counting out Peña as a possibility to be running our offense in the future. If QB doesn't work out for Al, he could take a similar path as Landry has: start at QB and then move to Safety and work his way up at that position. If he bulks up more, he could also stay on offense make a good fullback, since he's supposed to be such a good runner.
Running Back
Reshaun Grant
Certainly I can't complain too much here either since we landed one of the top players in the country at a position we needed. The only thing that eats me up here is that we may have bungled a chance to land another top-notch player in Tashard Choice, who by all accounts, wanted to be here. But it didn't happen that way so I won't focus on what we didn't get here. If Grant can get his previously dislocated ankle back into shape, we will likely use him a good bit next season as a true freshman. He is one of the most important recruits in this class. Although you don't like to put a lot of pressure on one guy to come in and be a star, Reshaun will have that kind of pressure. From all accounts, if he's healthy, he should be the type of player that can handle the role of an immediate impact player on offense and hopefully a guy we go to a lot over the next 4 years. He has great speed and great hands. He's a little slight right now IMO to take on a full load at RB right away but he shouldn't have to do that if Hollings comes back healthy, which I think he will. Also, we have some other "big" backs that we'll be able to pound in short yardage if they're able to step up their games. In 2003-2004, we should look pretty decent at RB with the addition of Grant. I think the number of injuries we had at that position last year was very unusual and we will be much improved here next season. I'm sure the coaches felt the same way since they originally felt like we could get by with just 1 RB in this class.
Wide Receiver
Chris Dunlap
Nothing against Dunlap, but I am a little disappointed with the overall recruiting at this position. I thought 2 receivers would be a must in this class with the possibility of getting 3. Earvin Taylor would have made this all better but again, we can't focus on ones that got away for too long. The biggest problem I have here is that WR position didn't seem to be a high priority early on in the process. All of the names we saw associated with GT in recruiting didn't pop up as serious considerations until late in the process. We have made due with smaller receivers in the past but took on huge losses with Watkins and Glover graduating. It would have been nice to add a 6'2" or taller receiver to this class to go along with McGuire from last year, but it didn't happen. As for Dunlap, he could turn out to be a good one but he's not expected to contribute right away. When he committed, we told him he'd be either a WR or a Corner, but since we filled out needs at Corner, he is no doubt slated to be receiver. He made some big plays as a receiver in HS. He finished this season with 38 catches for 715 yards (an average of 18.8 ypc) and 10 touchdowns, with one interception on defense. It may take him some time to work his way up over Curry, Thomas, Smith, Bridges and the others. Unless we sustain some injuries at WR or he makes a big impact early in fall practice, I'd expect him to redshirt. Another consideration I should mention here is that one of our QB recruits could very well end up at this position. Carter or Ball would seem most likely. I believe either are athletic enough to be a solid player at this position down the road but we may have to wait a year or longer to see that happen. One other way the WR position could be addressed is by moving Dennis Davis over there from corner. I don't know where rumors of that started but it would seem to make sense to me. With us signing 3 new corners, it appears to be a feasible option.
Tight End
None
We didn't land a TE this year but I thought we should have brought in at least 1. We've got some numbers at that position but a lot of it is largely unproven. Foschi is solid but a senior next year. Cooper may be the answer for the future but after that there are no guarantees that we have what we need. Darius Williams, Brian Johnson, Cory Wallace make up the rest of the squad. Johnson & Wallace are at TE from different positions last year and Williams has never realized his potential. I think we had 3 players we really would have liked to have had here: Cole Bennett, Patrick Danahy or D.J. Norris. Other than those, there didn't really seem to be too many with mutual interest between the two parties. FWIW, I think the TE class in recruiting this year was a little down compared to most seasons. Since we didn't get one of the ones we were after, I don't have too much of a problem not addressing this. Next year, it will be a must to get at least 2 though.
Offensive Line
Eddy Parker
Kevin Tuminello
Matthew Rhodes
This is another place where I don't think we quite met expectations. I had hoped that since we only landed 1 OL last year that we'd get at least 5 and maybe 6 here. According to chats we've had, Wrotto could end up on the OL as well, which would help the numbers. Also, there are rumors of Brad Brezina possible moving to the OL to compete with Clay Hartley for the starting RG position next season. Given some of those unknowns, I can't really criticize us for numbers at the position because it turns out we might be just fine here. We have a veteran group returning and some decent competition at some of the spots including a healthy Jeremy Phillips pushing both starting tackles. I watched Wrotto play several games in the playoffs and thought he looked more natural as an OL. I know OL talent is tough to evaluate but we are bringing in just 1 guy that is for sure an OL and a consensus solid talent in Parker. I am very thankful that we were able to stave off the other Texas schools for this kid. He was recruited as a tackle and will likely play at the college level at 300+ pounds. With Chan looking to upgrade the overall size of the OLs in the program, Parker was a great start. And as big as Eddy is, he supposedly has very little body fat. He also grew two inches between his junior and senior years in HS so there's no telling if he's even done there. Many were worried when Eddy decided to schedule some other visits but personally I felt good about him especially since the only link he had on his personal website was ramblinwreck.com!
Tuminello is less touted but has great size too and good pedigree since his brother appears to be a solid OL and leader (team captain) at Toledo. His size and bloodlines alone make him worth keeping an eye on. He is thought to be a Center prospect, so his size is a real asset.
Rhodes is a guy that came from completely off of the radar at first. He's another guy with a good 6'6" frame with room to add more weight. I see him red shirting for sure and adding more muscle to his frame. I will have to say that Matt seems as enthusiastic as any of our recruits to be a future Yellow Jacket. He was absolutely blown away by his visit. Despite being a deep sleeper, Rhodes seems to have a great attitude and frame. Brandon Helwig (Jacketsonline.com) tells me that from interviewing him, he sounds like a good ole Texas boy with his accent. His HS coach describes him as a "real good football player out in the space". In other words he has good mobility for a lineman and is adept at protecting the QB's blindside from quick rush ends as well as being used on counters. Matt is also one of the top students in his senior class.
With all of that said, it seems like something was missing from this class of OL. Ian-Yates Cunningham would have been just what we needed to have a blue-chip name anchoring the class but we came up just short for him. We made good runs at other blue-chippers like Joe Thomas, and Brett Byford but couldn't quite land one. Don't even mention David Price to me though, we could have had him but didn't want him. I've heard that a small football program that saw film on him too decided not to offer as well, so our coaches weren't alone in their evaluation of him. The other thing I would have liked to see is for us to bring in an OL from Georgia. We didn't really ever seem to be in it too well with some of the big names from here like Zeb McKinzey, Trey Chandler or Britt. But if we're taking a chance on a guy or two, I'd like to see a local kid get a shot but that's just me.
Defense
Defensive Tackle
Mansfield Wrotto
#68
LeShawn Newberry
On the surface, we did pretty well at Tackle recruiting for a change. However, I believe Wrotto will eventually go to the other side of the ball. Since we don't know yet for sure, I'll keep him on the defensive side. Wrotto is a guy you'd like to have about 5 (or more) of. He reminds me a lot of a guy like Leon Robinson. This is a BIG, agile kid that can play on the O-line or the D-line. You can never have enough of these players. Mansfield is one of the more highly touted players in the class and I think he'll be a good contributor sooner rather than later. A lot will depend on which position he plays as to how early he'll play. If he stays at DT and comes in with good strength, I think he can get into the rotation as a true freshman. Otherwise, we will need him at OT as a future starter since our top 3 tackles will all be juniors next season. As I said above, from watching him some in this year's playoffs, he looked a little more comfortable as an OL in my amateur opinion. Either way, we NEEDED a guy like him badly. Newberry is an interesting case. He's probably the first 300-plus-pounder we've brought in at DT in a while. He's not real tall (~ 6'1") so he should look pretty stout and have a low center of gravity. From what I've read/heard he's not expected to make an immediate impact but he's an interesting project nonetheless. LeShawn finished the 2002 season with 75 total tackles, four sacks, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries. He is also one of the top wrestlers in the state of Florida.
I'd say this is a fairly solid group with good potential. What would have made this better was if Josh Thompson had kept his silent verbal commitment to us. It really looked like he was going to change allegiance from Auburn but they were able to keep him. We flirted for a while with some big-timers but in the end didn't really get too close with guys like Carnell Stewart, Ryan Watson. Those guys are always hard for us to get since they can pretty much have their pick of schools. Jeromy Jones would have been another solid local guy but he choose early on to go to Wake.
Defensive End
Joe Anoai
Adamm Oliver
Neither Oliver nor Anoai are considered blue-chippers but neither is really considered a deep sleeper either. Both appear to have solid potential because of their good size and speed. Anoai especially appears to be pretty fast for his size. D-line has been a real hit and miss position (like OL) in recruiting, so I don't really have a problem bringing in a sold, albeit non-blue-chip class at this position. I think Oliver and/or Anoai have as much chance at being successful as many others rated ahead of them.
Oliver played both ways for his HS and had a big part in leading them to their first ever appearance in the Florida State Playoffs. As a tailback for Ridgewood HS, he had a whopping 1,200 yards rushing. He was named the conference's Offensive Player of the Year. And that was just on offense. On defense, he believes he may have had the most tackles in the country. He made 108 solos and about 50 assists. He also had six and a half sacks and five punt blocks. It's a good thing that we got to this kid early.
Anoai also appears to be a solid prospect that several teams tried to get in with late. He has great speed for a guy his size. Anoai finished with season with more than 100 tackles and 10 sacks as a linebacker, but he was moved all over the field so that offenses couldn't easily run away from him. He could have the opportunity to come in and get early PT like Hargrove did 2 years ago at DE. We've got some good numbers at the position right now so we may have the luxury of letting him develop for a year before using him, but speed kills and if he can handle the load in fall, he could join the rotation as could Oliver. Since there is talk of moving an End or two inside, this could open up PT at this position.
We really didn't have any heartbreaking losses at this spot in recruiting but our lack of interest may have caused a couple of other decent players to end up at other ACC schools. We probably could have had good shots at Matt Robinson (Wake) and Jermaine Lemons (Maryland) had we wanted them more early on but we ended up with 2 that are just as good IMO. Time will tell if we should have paid more attention to those two but I think we did an adequate job at this position.
Linebacker
Phillip Wheeler
Nick Moore
#44
KaMichael Hall
Kyle Pupello
I would have to say that this was this year's most confounding and frustrating position in our recruiting efforts. What a roller coaster ride this position was. We originally had a great need at the position but watched our neighbors to the East cherry pick all of the top LBs they wanted out of the state of Georgia. Normally I don't concern myself with them too much but I would have thought we could have landed one of them. I was going to be pretty tough on us for our overall linebacker recruiting but the big signing day surprise of turning back Nick Moore really helps. So we ended up with: two solid talents in Wheeler & Moore, a sleeper in Hall and a deep sleeper in Pupello. I would imagine there is a good chance now that Pupello could end up on the offensive side of the ball but for now he's a LB.
Garrett seemed to really like what he saw of Wheeler on tape, so I'd have to say he's a solid addition. I watched him some in the playoffs and he seemed to have a good motor but sometimes overran plays. But there is nothing wrong with being overly aggressive as long as it can be harnessed. He played DE in HS but will be an outside linebacker at GT. Phillip was named to the Georgia Class AAAA All-State team as a defensive lineman. I think he has solid potential but will have some work to do if he wants to contribute immediately over current backups Green, Wilkinson, McNair, & Anyansi. The good thing for Phillip is that none of those 4 have firmly established themselves as our LBs of the future, so there is a window of opportunity for him to come in and steal early PT away.
Nick Moore, wow, we finally have a signing day surprise: in our favor! I was a little bummed when we initially lost Nick because I knew he was a solid talent. He doesn't have great height at 6'0" but from all reports, he can really hit and is very intense. He will likely get an immediate shot to get into the rotation at middle linebacker. I'd like to see him do well and push Anyansi to the outside. He feels like he can be Daryl Smith's successor once he graduates. As a senior at Arlington High, Nick had had 172 tackles, five forced fumbles and four recovered fumbles. No doubt he can lay the wood. Moore was named second team All-State and was a finalist for MVP of the entire district. The best comparison I have read on Nick was one where his was compared favorable to Dat Nguyen, which is a high compliment. I really look forward to seeing this kid knocking heads in practice come fall.
KaMichael Hall is an interesting guy. He came out of nowhere originally but once we showed interest, he seemed to garner some more interest from bigger schools like UNC, Northwestern & Arkansas. They too must have seen enough potential in him from film to warrant visit invitations to their school. He's not huge at 6'0" and around 200 pounds but seems to have good speed and a knack for hitting. He would seem like the kind of guy you could at least see on special teams sooner rather than later.
Kyle Pupello really came from nowhere. Physically he seems like a solid get. He's big (6'1", 230), built well (from looking at his picture), and has great speed for his size (4.60 40). The only concern is that no other schools of note seemed to know anything about him. Hopefully Chan found a real gem here. He could end up at several positions including inside or outside LB, DE or even FB. Originally I thought he'd start off at MLB but with the addition of Moore, he may end up on offense. Joe Pupello, Kyle's father, played with Coach Gailey at the University of Florida. He was a freshman offensive lineman when Chan was the senior Quarterback.
Now for the frustrating part: I was going to mention how maddening it is to lose a recruit that you already had committed, but that problem seems to have taken care of itself. Losing him would have hurt. Also, the recruitment of Dana Graydon represents everything that frustrated us fans during this recruiting season. Dana may not have ended up here but we were certainly HIGH up on his list. We got on a roll and made the mistake of thinking that we'd hit all of our spots and not need him. Apparently we burned a bridge with him and couldn't get back in when we lost the 1 recruit and couldn't land others we thought we might get. Next, it was probably out of our coaches' hands but we likely could have had Jarvis Jackson and Mike Heard. I'm not sure if they felt Heard would qualify and Jackson is one of two guys that were eligible by NCAA standards but reportedly couldn't get into GT (although I'm sure that will be debated, that's what I have heard). We ended up with a pretty decent class at LB but doesn't appear to be quite as highly touted as some of the past classes when we had big needs there like: 2001 (Anyansi, Wilkerson, Hargrove who was later a DE & Kuale) or 2000 (Fox, Smith, Holiday). Adding Nick Moore really helps the overall rating of this group though.
Cornerback
Kenny Scott
Brian Fleuridor
Sam Williams
It appeared that we might not fill our needs at this position until the last week of recruiting and then: bam! Three guy committed in the last week. At corner you will find the crown jewel of this recruiting class: Kenny Scott. Not since Ken Swilling have we signed a defensive back so highly touted. We stole him from all of the Florida school in their own back yard. He admits that the pressure to go to one of those schools was great. I think there is little doubt that we'll see some of Mr. Scott next season. By all accounts he could be the very rare type of kid that is a defensive impact player as a true freshman. He actually mentioned redshirting to our coaching staff. I would have liked to have seen the looks on their faces when he said that. Fair or not, the coaches and fans have high expectations for him and watching from the sidelines isn't in his plans. Kenny is also not shy in his expectations of our football team. He expects to challenge for a BCS bid NEXT season, then hopefully a National Championship after that. Coaches Nix, Modkins and Gailey all deserve a pat on the back for landing Kenny. Also Reuben Houston must have done a great job as his host, now he just has to fend him off for the starting spot he's after. From being around our team, Kenny thought that we were a pretty close-knit group. In contrast, a couple of Tennessee football players got into a fight with each other while out at a club during his visit. That did nothing but play right into our hands because he was really turned off by that.
Besides Scott, we added two other recruits that project as corners: Brian Fleuridor & Sam Williams. Fleuridor seemed to have a better year in his junior season than his senior season. It looked like he was going to be a hot prospect after his junior season, in which he had 7 interceptions. He made second team All-State and was a nominee for the Wendy's High School Heisman. In his senior season he had only 2 interceptions. He and his coach say that teams just stayed away from him. He returned two kicks for a touchdown this year and had 30 to 35 tackles. He had some interest from a couple other good teams in Oregon State & Colorado State but I think once we became interested, he was more interested in staying closer to home. It's possible that we got us a pretty good talent that just slipped through the cracks due to less than eye-popping stats in his senior season. He's about the right size for a prototypical corner: 5'11", 181. He seems to think that he'll have a shot at earning some early PT when we go against three or four receiver sets. We're starting to build up some good talent at the position, so he'll have his work cut out to join a group that includes: Houston, Cox, Scott, Harris, Gilliam, Davis (if he stays at corner), & ELI Jr.
Sam Williams appears to be a deep sleeper. I know less about him than probably any of our other commits. Like Fleuridor, he has what I consider prototypical size for a corner: 5'11", 170. He is also said to be a pretty fast kid. We certainly have had good luck with speedsters from Mays HS, because that's the alma mater of our all-time leading receiver Kelly Campbell. Like Kelly, Sam is big into track as well. I wish I knew more about him, but with him added to the class our numbers at corner are more than fine. So much so, that we could possibly move a current corner to another position. And I already mentioned Dennis Davis as a possibility there.
Overall I'm satisfied with what we have at corner. Certainly I can't give bad marks to a position where we signed 3 players, including the top rated player in our class. We did however have several misses at this position that would have made it a phenomenal class of corners. First one to mention is Jeramie Jackson. I hear that he was ours, but just couldn't make it into school. That's too bad but that's the hand we're dealt. Mike Phillips is another that we came close on but he ended up at Pittsburgh. And Chris Houston is a kid from Texas that we offered but he ended up at Arkansas. Also, we never seemed to get too involved with Deante Battle even though he seemed to like GT. He would have seemed like a good fit but I'll leave that one up to the coaches because I know they were very familiar with him. I don't want to belabor the losses but rather just wanted to give them mention. One of those other kids could have made this class of corners more glamorous but I'm not at all complaining with what we got there. Nice job!
Safety
Avery Roberson
Joe Gaston
Safety is another position where I'm very pleased by what we ended up with. Avery Roberson was the marquis name in this group but Gaston is a kid I wanted all along. We might have even been able to add a third safety because our numbers are just that low. If either or both guys are ready to play, they could see the field as early as next season. None of the 4 safeties we currently have are by any means "proven". Butler is likely to be the starter (but not a lock) at strong safety but free safety competition could be wide open. Others in the mix are Dawan Landry, Nathan Burton & Chris Reis. It was important to bring in some solid talent at safety and I think we did.
Unfortunately for Avery, we weren't able to get his other two teammates into school. It would have made for a nice trio. But I respect Avery for sticking with his guns and being his own man by parting ways with them. Physically Avery is all you would want from a Safety. He has good size (6'2", 190) and, like Kenny Scott, has legitimate 4.4 40 speed. There's no reason to think that he won't have a great opportunity to crack the two-deep right away.
Finally, we added Joe Gaston to the class by giving him a late offer. We seemed reluctant to offer him but I, like many others, was glad that we did. His situation reminds me of when Matt Harpring wanted to sign with GT in hoops but Cremins was equally hesitant to give him an offer right away. Hopefully Gaston will reward Chan's eventual faith in him the same way Matt did for Bobby. Joe didn't get a lot of attention, which is surprising, by reading everything we have about him. He's built solidly, runs the 40 legitimately in the neighborhood of 4.5 seconds, is known to be a hard hitter, did well at the Nike camp and stepped up in big games. What more could you want? Gaston was named to the All-County first team for defense and second team All-State. He had 12 touchdowns as a running back. Not all of his TD's were from running the ball though, because he was also a good receiver out of the backfield. On defense Joe had around 80 tackles and approximately 15 for loss. Not sure how many interceptions he ended up with but at one point he had 3. He had a great game against the best team they played this season, Harrison. He had 11 tackles including 2 for a loss. Joe's numbers in the Nike camp were said to be better than the nation's #2 corner Paul Oliver in every measurement but the 40 yard dash. In that one, they were equal and Joe was 10 pounds heavier. I hope this local hero can continue to overachieve as guys like Keith Brooking and Chris Young did at GT. Like James Butler, Gaston is slated as a strong safety although he could possibly grow into a linebacker.
As for what we didn't get at Safety, the biggest piece that would have been nice to have was LaRon Landry. Unfortunately for us, having his brother here at his same position ultimately hurt us with him plus I don't think he really wanted to stray too far from home. We also missed out on Lamar Morgan but I honestly don't think he was a crucial piece to this class. He felt more comfortable at Louisiana-Lafayette and that's good. Players should stick to where they feel most comfortable. We got Gaston after Morgan decided not to come here and I think all sides will be happy with the way things worked out in the long run.
Punter
Kyle Keown
We were told that there may be as many as 3 or 4 punters asked to walk-on next season and compete for the starting spot. It just so happens that the only one we know of for sure is Kyle Keown but rest assured there will be others. The winner of the competition will likely win a scholarship but none are being guaranteed to anyone right now. Good luck to all of them and I hope we can find someone as good as the two we just lost in Dyke & Morehouse.
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Finally, we're almost to the end. For those that made it through all of my writing, I thank you and hoped it was enjoyable and worth your time. Finally, I want to give my overall impressions of the class and our efforts in general.
This was the first full recruiting season for this staff and I will have to mark them with mixed reviews overall. We nabbed a few guys that I didn't dream we'd get. We collected a group that seems to have what Gailey professes to seek: speedy players that hit hard. I think we may be taking a chance on bringing in a few too many sleeper types though. Too many times we seemed to have competed with programs that we normally don't. I like doing this on occasion and I'd like to end up with only a small handful of players like that in each class because they really are fun to follow and easy to root for since they are underdogs. I just think we might have taken a few too many chances with those types this year.
I think this recruiting class was at an all time high after the weekend of December 13th. We eventually landed 8 players of the 12 that visited that weekend and the other 4 we were pretty much in it until the end with them. The great 8 from that weekend were: Roberson, Grant, Carter, Hall, Scott, Oliver, Rhodes, & Dunlap. I thought we'd carry that momentum into January and finish with an incredible class. Unfortunately, I think our coaching staff may have gotten overly confident at that point. After that, a few things that they seemed to be counting on didn't pan out, and that's okay, it happens to everyone. But I don't think we planned well for that situation. By then we had already burned bridges with good players like Tashard Choice and Dana Graydon that we would have liked to have gone back an offered. I think though that this is something that can be learned from. Last season the staff learned that you need to keep making the kids feel wanted or they'll leave you in the end as Adam Jones did. And you'll notice that this year, they seemed to do a GREAT job of that. In fact, we only lost 1 commit, check that, ZERO commits lost, and that has not happened for us once since I've been following recruiting. This year the main lesson has to be that even if you don't think a good player will fit in with the numbers you are expecting, you still need to recruit them hard and keep them "on the hook" so to speak. I think that if we had done this with Choice & Graydon, for example, we might not have ended up with them but we would have had a much better chance once we found out that some things weren't turning out as we had hoped.
Another point that I'll take the coaches to task on is not using up close to our allotment of official visits. Money should not an issue here even though I understand that these things can get expensive. If nothing else, it is a great recruiting tool for future seasons. The HS coaches are happy that their kids were invited and given the red carpet treatment. Plus kids talk. You may hear something like, no man I didn't get an offer but we did this and that: it was great. Now the younger talent has heard great things about Tech and wants to visit and get an offer when it's their time. Again, IMO this is was a strategic error that can easily be improved upon.
I also have to give coaches their due credit. One thing I was proud of them when reading updates was a theme that was repeated over and over from kids that visited us. They all appreciated the honesty of our staff and Coach Gailey in particular. We won over some great kids that way including Kenny Scott & Reshaun Grant. Go back and read their updates. Both felt like they could trust Coach and didn't think he was just giving them lines like others were doing.
Overall on the offense I am very pleased with the talent we are bringing in at QB and RB. I think we could have done more at WR & OL. The offense gets just an average rating overall mostly due to lower numbers than I had expected and hoped for. 8 offensive players were not enough IMO. On defense, we didn't have a bunch of marquee names other than Roberson, Scott & Wrotto, but our numbers were about right with what we needed. I like the solid talent we brought in on the line with the 4 of Wrotto, Newberry, Oliver, & Anoai. I am very happy overall with what we were able to get in the way of defensive backs. I was honestly a little disappointed with the way the linebacker position was shaking out but adding Moore makes it all look much better. I had hoped to land a blue-chip LB since it was such a big need for us but 2 solid talents and 2 sleeper types leaves us with good numbers and potential there. I will say that our defensive recruiting ends up with very good marks overall. I think as a group, we finished up with an above average class that could have been better had we signed more linemen, taken less chances on sleepers and had some other things shake out our way. It seems to be a fast and blue-collar group though so I think there is plenty of potential. I might have been a little tougher on the coaches than I normally am but I do think they showed the ability to be big time recruiters. From bringing in some blue-chip talent, their ability to retain commits and to learn from past mistakes, I am encouraged enough from what I've seen of them. If we don't fall apart on the field again next season, they'll be able to take what they've learned from this recruiting class and bring in an excellent class next year. I am a firm believer of that.
- Master B
