"One That Got Away"

oldgoldbee

oldgoldbee

Flats Noob
Joined
May 15, 2003
Messages
592
Tra Battle who walked on at UGAG
as a "preferred walk-on", I have
to ask myself how did we miss
this kid?

He is currently a second string
DB for UGAG and is making an impact.

Battle played at Mary Persons High
School in Forsyth Georgia, home of
the retired and legendary Dan Pitts.

Here are some numbers for you academic
people out there;

Battle graduated with a 3.5 G.P.A.
Had a 1070 SAT and is majoring in
chemsitry at UGAG

In a conversation with CCG last summer
at a pre-season BBQ, CCG was specifically
asked by a friend of mine why WE did
not recruit the schools like Mary Persons.

His answer was......."because they cannot
pass at GT."
 
There could be any number of reasons, but the one most likely is that the kid simply wasn't interested in coming to Tech. 90% of HS kids in Georgia really don't want to go to Tech. That's the way it was, is and will be. and why we have to recruit nationally.
 
Considering, we made no offer,
I don't buy into your rationalization
that the kid had "no interest" in
us.

I know for a fact that the kid was
told he was too small to play at
Div.1-A.

I guess kind of like Renso Perdoni
being told the same thing by many colleges
too.

Size is a bunch of crap in my book, it's
what's between a man's breast that counts.

I suppose that Jerry Mays was also too little
to play Div.1-A.

But getting my back to my thread, our coaching
staff has to come to the realization that there
are many kids like Tra Battle in the State of
Georgia that can make the grades and play at
this level. I think it is a crying shame
if we turn our backs on kids in this state
who have the grades and would most definitely
come to GT, if offered.
 
You say 90% of HS kids don't want to go to Tech. I assume this is a guesstimate on your part and not attributable to any hard data or research...but regardless, I'm interested to know why you and anyone else thinks it is that a highly regarded, ranked and respected institution with a long and storied athletic tradition is such a non-factor and non-choice among qualified student-athletes in this state.

Do you think that Tech receives less respect now in-state than it did 15, 20, 30 or 50 years ago?
 
oldgoldbee, I agree that we need to do a better job of finding Ga kids with the interest to do well at Tech. Coaches should never make assumptions on how all kids from any school will do at Tech.

As far as this kid goes, I obviously don't know the story. If he wanted to go to Tech he could have walked on, and with some prodding from his HS coach could even have been a "preferred" walkon maybe. OTOH, do you know that he had any interest at all in going to Tech? Not to slam anybody or any school, but a 1070 and 3.5 aren't that big a deal these days. I know some of our scholarship athletes don't have those numbers, but as a "regular" student majoring in chemistry that sounds pretty low to me.
 
if you only care about making it in the nfl, why take management with a chance to flunk out, when you can take basketball 101...

imho, most blue chip athletes could care less about tradition. exposure, girls, and winning is probably their top 3.
 
One thing that pisses me off is a post that talkes about missing on ONE recruit.
 
Originally posted by BarrelORum:
One thing that pisses me off is a post that *****es about missing on ONE recruit.
Click to expand...
<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">Censoring yourself? Interesting.
Harsh tone in your post, but won't say the word "*****." I can't decide whether or not this means that you are smoking again.

On a side note, I think the original post was citing one example of a bigger problem, which is that we completely dimiss ANYONE from certain schools based on the assumption that NO ONE from those schools could pass at Tech.

If we are truly practicing this policy, I'd be surprised and somewhat distraught.
 
Originally posted by chilidogking:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">Originally posted by BarrelORum:
One thing that pisses me off is a post that *****es about missing on ONE recruit.
Click to expand...
<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">Censoring yourself? Interesting.
Harsh tone in your post, but won't say the word "*****." I can't decide whether or not this means that you are smoking again.

On a side note, I think the original post was citing one example of a bigger problem, which is that we completely dimiss ANYONE from certain schools based on the assumption that NO ONE from those schools could pass at Tech.

If we are truly practicing this policy, I'd be surprised and somewhat distraught.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">I'll be damned. This thing censors us automatially. Probably not if I say B!TCH though.
 
Considering, we made no offer,
I don't buy into your rationalization
that the kid had "no interest" in
us.
Click to expand...
<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">Why would we make an offer if he has no interest in us? ???

I think it is a crying shame
if we turn our backs on kids in this state
who have the grades and would most definitely
come to GT, if offered.
Click to expand...
<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">I STILL say the vast majority of kids in this state WILL NOT come to Tech, even if offered.

If you have specific knowledge that this particular youngster wanted to come to Tech, I have no answer, I have no idea if he did or not, but I do know that absolutely most D-1 caliber Ga HS players have little interest in coming to Tech.
 
MsTA, the GA coaches told Ball he could never play QB at D-1. Why is this happening? Guess they should all be fired?

The fact is some kids are too small, slow or whatever to play. Recruiters make judgements. Sometimes those judgements differ and one school will take a shot where others won't. Sometimes it works out. But you know what, often the original judgement was right. It's a crap shoot. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Every school in the nation has passed on kids who panned out somewhere else.
 
Originally posted by ncjacket:
MsTA, the GA coaches told Ball he could never play QB at D-1. Why is this happening? Guess they should all be fired?

The fact is some kids are too small, slow or whatever to play. Recruiters make judgements. Sometimes those judgements differ and one school will take a shot where others won't. Sometimes it works out. But you know what, often the original judgement was right. It's a crap shoot. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Every school in the nation has passed on kids who panned out somewhere else.
Click to expand...
<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">NCJ: You are correct and here's a good one for you. Doug Flutie the Heisman Trophy Winner from BC had his high school coaches in Natick, Mass. send tapes and information to GT's coaches. He was very interested in GT and they also passed on him because they said he was too short/small to be a Div. 1 QB!

I have met Doug a couple of times and found that very interesting. He said he knew a lot about GT because his family was originally from Florida and they moved to New England when he and his brothers were young. He use to watch GT football as a kid in FL! A loss for GT and a gain for BC!
 
MsTA, I can't remember when Flutie was in school. Was that during the Curry years?
 
Originally posted by oldgoldbee:
"One That Got Away"
Click to expand...
<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">"One is the loneliest number"
 
Originally posted by ncjacket:
MsTA, I can't remember when Flutie was in school. Was that during the Curry years?
Click to expand...
<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">Yes...during the Curry years. Doug was the 1984 Heisman Trophy Winner. I can't remember who Curry's OC was but I know he said he talked to him.

Remember Joe Hamilton talking about Doug and Doug mentioned in an interview when Joe was here how he thought a lot of Joe and how he thought he was a serious Heisman candidate. He even mentioned in the interview how he had been interested in GT when he was in high school.
 
In defense of Gailey, he may not have known much about the specific kid. But, I live near Forsyth and our local HS played them for many years. If you look back, Mary Persons has had a lot of talented athletes but many of them have been non-q's. Peppi Zellner, who was with the Cowboys, wound up at Fort Valley St. because he didn't have the scores/grades. Alvin Jefferson, 6-9 basketball center, had to go to JUCO before he went on to play at Auburn. There was a TE, highly regarded, out of there a couple of years ago who had to go the prep school route, and I'm not sure if he ever wound up at UGA or is on their team. He was committed to them. Also, UGA recruited a DB from there a few years back, and he basically went up to Athens and rode the bench for 4 years. We are going to miss on some and hit on others. How many folks took a pass on Chris Dunlap, and he is already on the depth chart at a position, WR, where we probably lack the least? UGA has also had some injuries and suspensions in the d-backfield, so I don't know if that has something to do with a walk-on getting p.t. for them. Just some things to consider.
 
Tre Battle will be a 4th stringer when their DB's come back from suspension.
 
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