2023 GT Spring Ball Thread

00Burdell

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Our game against UNC last year is on replay on ACCN this morning. Its Q2 and we are down 10-0 and I literally have no idea how we won this game.

But anyway, what I wanted to point out is how damn big Weinke is - the camera just showed Weinke standing next to Key - he's way bigger - pretty sure Weinke would stomp Key in a fight.
 

33jacket

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Our game against UNC last year is on replay on ACCN this morning. Its Q2 and we are down 10-0 and I literally have no idea how we won this game.

But anyway, what I wanted to point out is how damn big Weinke is - the camera just showed Weinke standing next to Key - he's way bigger - pretty sure Weinke would stomp Key in a fight.
Old qbs were big because they were allowed to get hit. You should see the size of dan marino and some of those guys. Look like DEs.
 

stinger78

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Our game against UNC last year is on replay on ACCN this morning. Its Q2 and we are down 10-0 and I literally have no idea how we won this game.

But anyway, what I wanted to point out is how damn big Weinke is - the camera just showed Weinke standing next to Key - he's way bigger - pretty sure Weinke would stomp Key in a fight.
Weinke is listed at 6'4" 235 and Brent Key is listed 6'4" with a playing weight at 290. No doubt he's smaller today and CCW may actually be bigger today, but I wouldn't bet against CBK in that one. Still, Weinke was always a really big dude.
 

The Jacket

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Around minute 21-22 Brent Key grabs the question mike and harasses Weinke about telling him who the starter is.
Wasted opportunity.

"He is that he is. Jesus said that, and it's still true today."

Weinke is listed at 6'4" 235 and Brent Key is listed 6'4" with a playing weight at 290. No doubt he's smaller today and CCW may actually be bigger today, but I wouldn't bet against CBK in that one. Still, Weinke was always a really big dude.
It helps when you're the oldest guy in the room by five years, in every room.
 

The Jacket

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A lot of people don't know this, but a young Furman Bisher was there to cover the day Chris Weinke was born. Weinke invited him.
 
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Georgia Tech players give their approval to new strength coach A.J. Artis
Georgia Tech's running back Dontae Smith (4) celebrates a touchdown in the first half of the Western Carolina at Georgia Tech NCAA college football game in Atlanta on Saturday, September 10, 2022. (Arvin Temkar / arvin.temkar@ajc.com)

Caption
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

GEORGIA TECH
By Ken Sugiura, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
21 minutes ago

In the words of Georgia Tech quarterbacks coach Chris Weinke, Tech strength-and-conditioning coach A.J. Artis came highly recommended to coach Brent Key, both from himself and numerous others.

Guard Jordan Williams had another review.
“That junk is crazy,” Williams said Friday, following the team’s third practice of the spring.

That was meant as approval. Williams went on to call Artis consistent in ensuring that players are going through the same workouts as their teammates and that everyone is giving full effort.

“I’m going to have to shout out coach A.J. because that really changed the mentality of the team,” Williams said. “Toughened everybody up, got everybody pushing past their limits when they’re dead tired. I’m going to have to give my props to him.”

It is one of the enduring phenomena of football – the new strength coach is doing wonders. Yellow Jackets players raved about Artis’ predecessor, Lewis Caralla. It certainly can be possible that both are effective in their craft, and Artis received his plaudits Friday from Williams and running back Dontae Smith.
Artis was hired by Key in December after he dismissed Caralla, who came to Tech with former coach Geoff Collins. (Caralla now is the head strength-and-conditioning coach at Charlotte.) Given how much time they spend with the team and the influence they can have, strength coaches often are culture-setters in college football, and in Artis, Key has his own.

“I think that position sometimes is overlooked,” Weinke said. “Maybe the most important staff member in an organization because of how much he’s with those players.”
Artis came to Tech from his position as the director of football strength and conditioning at South Florida. He was recommended to Key – highly recommended, even – by Weinke, who had worked with him at Tennessee from 2018-20. Weinke was running backs coach and then quarterbacks coach while Artis first was the No. 2 person in the weight room before ascending to the top spot in 2020.
Weinke called him young (Artis is 29), energetic and smart. Married with two children, Artis played college football at Campbell, earned a master’s degree in exercise science from Appalachian State and worked at Duke before he was hired at Tennessee.
“I think A.J., our strength coach, and his staff have done an outstanding job of setting that mentality in the weight room, which has carried over not only in our meetings, but into practice,” Weinke said.
To Smith, Artis and his staff of four are vocal and get players cranked up. Smith said that he liked that they explain the rationale for workouts and the speed and explosiveness training that they incorporate.
Smith also was high on technology that has been implemented that measures the speed at which the weightlifting bars are being raised and lowered on repetitions.
“So week in, week out, you can see how fast you’re moving the bar so you know if you’re getting stronger or you know if you need to bump it up or something,” Smith said. “Week by week, you can tell you’re getting stronger doing the same weight over and over.”
“He brought technology with him; I think the kids see it,” Weinke said. “We’re seeing the results, so that’s a huge bonus for our program.”
Smith commended Artis and the staff for helping running backs Jamie Felix and Antonio Martin drop weight.
“They had a little bit of weight on ‘em,” Smith said. “So we got coach A.J. and his strength staff come in, and those boys dropped weight. Jamie dropped a lot of weight and got faster. So when you see that, we just see that growth from (Felix and Martin).”
Another plus for Smith. Artis and his staff (Byron Jerideau, Jordan Diaz and Tyler Smith) all played college football.
“So you can talk to them about strength and conditioning or you can talk ball with them,” Smith said. “So that’s always a blessing. They’re cool. They’re cool people, and they’re real direct, too. I appreciate them.”
Caption
Georgia Tech football strength-and-conditioning coach A.J. Artis was hired in December 2022 by coach Brent Key. (Georgia Tech Athletics)
 

Dirty Jacket

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Faulkner tried his hardest to not mention uga by name. “The last place I was at”. Only after the reporters kept asking more questions about uga than Tech did he finally say uga. Thwg
 

00Burdell

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Faulkner tried his hardest to not mention uga by name. “The last place I was at”. Only after the reporters kept asking more questions about uga than Tech did he finally say uga. Thwg
I noticed that also. I could almost see him rolling his eyes as if to say - "can you doofuses see how I'm handling references to the dwags and stop focusing on it?"

And I don't know about you but I'm kind of enjoying being able to post and read others' posts without anyone being called a pussy and sans thousands upon thousands of clown emojis.
 

Dirty Jacket

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His boss was sitting there daring Faulkner to mention his former employer.
Maybe true. But he actually really seemed like he did not want to discuss his last job. But it sounded like Kelly and Ken who kept asking about it. Fair questions kind of. They kept asking if he’d run an offense like he did at uga. Bro…I was just an analyst and qb whisperer at uga.
 

stinger78

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I noticed that also. I could almost see him rolling his eyes as if to say - "can you doofuses see how I'm handling references to the dwags and stop focusing on it?"

And I don't know about you but I'm kind of enjoying being able to post and read others' posts without anyone being called a pussy and sans thousands upon thousands of clown emojis.
Idiots all of them, especially that guy from Birmingham that kept asking about QB's.
 

OptionJacket

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I noticed that also. I could almost see him rolling his eyes as if to say - "can you doofuses see how I'm handling references to the dwags and stop focusing on it?"

And I don't know about you but I'm kind of enjoying being able to post and read others' posts without anyone being called a pussy and sans thousands upon thousands of clown emojis.
The whole thing had to run its course. Now, that we have something actually happening on the field the page can be flipped. Yes, our school had a wasted 4 years, but if you step back and look at the big picture most schools have lost decades. Think of schools like BC, NC State, UNC, UVA, Arkansas, South Carolina, and so many others who haven’t sniffed an Orange Bowl or conference championship in forever. In the scheme of things we’ve been alright with a 4 year blip. It’s up to this staff to save us from becoming totally irrelevant.
 

RoanokeJacket

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I like the idea of young strength guys, should be able to big brother them a bit while the other coaches are more Dad-like.
 

Vespinae

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Maybe true. But he actually really seemed like he did not want to discuss his last job. But it sounded like Kelly and Ken who kept asking about it. Fair questions kind of. They kept asking if he’d run an offense like he did at uga. Bro…I was just an analyst and qb whisperer at uga.
That's been the tone I've seen for other coaches when they're new to the program. They usually avoid directly mentioning their previous school, I'd guess to remain focused on where they are now. Except, of course, for Collins. That man brought up Temple as if he'd built a DB pipeline directly to the NFL.
 
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