Small Recruiting Tidbits

Axe

Flats Noob
Joined
Dec 31, 2001
Messages
539
It sounds like Parkview OL Zeb McKinzey really liked the time he spent at the GT camp. He went up there just to hang out with some of his Parkview teammates but had a great time. He said he really liked the staff a lot and the way the camp was run. We went from being out of the picture to nearly a three-way tie with UGA and Clemson.

I've seen a couple other comments from guys that were at the camp and they really liked the staff. From what I can gather we are starting to pickup some momentum.
 
Axe;
That is good news. From what I'm hearing (fwiw - 2nd hand) there is very little info coming outta GT about recruits. Apparently Chan is keeping a very low profile, avoiding publicity about who we're going after, maybe to reduce pressure on recruits. If true, a very interesting approach. 'course the lack of news is getting some hivers' panties in a wad....
 
Axe, have you heard anything about the Cunningham-Yates kid from Texas? I was just curious b/c we seemed to be in pretty big for him. I'll hang up and listen to your response.
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Well, I thank you for your call. Last I heard IYC likes A&M, ND, and UVA the best. Hi-ever, we are listed in his top 6. He actually lived in Atlanta from 92-98. His dad was a part of the AOC. We are a longshot, but you never know what will happen if we start winning. There is playing time here as well.
 
When 'Buck' Gailey was hired, the story on the hive was that it didn't matter if he stayed with the Miami Dolphins during recruiting season because he was such a great coach, etc.. etc., blah, blah....that the recruits would flock to him regardless.
Well, believe it or not this didn't happen....didn't even come close to happening.
I guess now 'Buck' has changed his strategy and now it is 'stealth' recruiting. Maybe the recruits are just a little slower to warm up to 'Buck' than all the gold-smoke blowers and Braine-kissers on here and on the hive?!?!
We will win in spite of 'Buck' this year and maybe next but the time will come that 'Buck' will have to sink or swim ....perhaps on these 'stealth' recruits.
Let's all wish 'Buck' well as he desperately tries to learn the job.

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In 'Buck' We Trust
 
Beeware.. I am sure you hate to hear this.. but Tech is going to do fine with recruiting this year... and Gailey is going to do just fine... if I were you I would be more worried about Clemson... your Dawgs might not win that one....
 
Just a thought...

Remember O'Leary was HC at Tech BEFORE the Hive (Tech's first unofficial major website devoted to Tech sports) was introduced. He sort of had to learn how to deal with the internet and stuff being publicly released about recruits, etc., on the fly. Hence, he chose Greg Garrett as his whipping boy mouth piece.

I believe Chan and Wilson among others are much more educated about the positives and negatives of public information, rumor, etc., today. There's a fine line between what should be held in confidence that could make or break a sale with a potential S-A in the recruiting process and holding down fan support of the program which we need. In other words, we need people to talk up recruiting. Specific recruits would like to see discussion about them I think as it shows our interest and desire to have them wear W&G. At the same time, the internet can be harmful too and we all know and have seen cases of it.
 
One difference is that Coach O'leary was a proven recruiter (just look at this year's roster) and 'Buck' is not. In fact, some have speculated that 'Buck' may mistakenly think that he is still at Troy State, and that he is supposed to wait until after everyone else in Division 1 gets who they want and he will take the left overs.
Or maybe all the recruits that all the Hivers assured us would flock to 'Buck' just made a wrong turn somewhere??

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In 'Buck' We Trust
 
Good points JT, all I can say is we haven't had anybody like Dave Wilson at GT and he is going to be huge for us. Can you believe we upgraded the DOFO position from O'Leary's Brother-In-Law, to Dave Wilson. That is going to be huge. I've been pretty happy with what Chan has done recruiitng wise. He held on to 7 of 8 of our previous commitments when he took over and added 8 more of his own. We missed on some big names, but we weren't exactly leading with those kids when O'Leary left. If O'Leary had stayed who knows what would have happened. I'm not trying to knock GOL, I loved him as a recruiter, but we were never able to close on the big names late.

I love GG's information, but if GOL was still around he would be having chats telling us all about the sleepers the staff is in on. As you say, Dave and Chan aren't passing that information along right now.
 
Actually it was 6 out of 8 recruits that he kept and virtually all the key big names that we were in on took a wait and see attitude and then voted NO with their feet...usually the next day after 'Buck' visited them.
'Buck' has shown no ability to recruit or even much of an understanding of recruiting...even though we were told that the recruits would flock to 'Buck's resume.
But y'all still follow him blindly like he is 'Buck' Van Winkle or something?!?!
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In 'Buck Van Winkle We Trust
 
Originally posted by beeware:
Actually it was 6 out of 8 recruits that he kept and virtually all the key big names that we were in on took a wait and see attitude and then voted NO with their feet...usually the next day after 'Buck' visited them.
'Buck' has shown no ability to recruit or even much of an understanding of recruiting...even though we were told that the recruits would flock to 'Buck's resume.
But y'all still follow him blindly like he is 'Buck' Van Winkle or something?!?!
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In 'Buck Van Winkle We Trust
<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">And you keep spewing venom Beeware... you remind me of a senile old man that everyone chuckles at.. but never takes seriously...

O'Leary's first class at Tech had exactly 17 signees.... go look it up... the class was not a highly rated class... I hope you were spewing your venom then too....
 
I just can't let this go...

Beeware,

WHY do you insist on hammering the new coach at every turn? WHAT do you hope to accomplish? It's certainly not helping the program. No one thinks you are brilliant for figuring this out. The only possible result is to hurt the program. I'm beginning to believe that you really do want Gailey to fail.

Frankly...I was an O'leary supporter but you've turned me against him. I'm sick of hearing how great he was and how bad Gailey is. If he was so great and had all this wonderful talent that you say he left gailey, why did he stink the joint up last year? It was a miserable coaching job. Gailey will have to be as bad as you claim if he is to match that pathetic performance.

O'Leary was 6-5 in his first year and 7-5 in his last year. Wow, very impressive improvement.

We've all heard it and we all know how you feel - for the good of the program - give it a rest.
 
First of all, I would like to welcome Al Pena to the Flats. I hope he has a wonderful career at old Ma Tech.

Next, Dave Wilson was brought in for his recruiting and he will do an excellent job. He was Miss. State's recruiting coordinator last year and a key instrument in their recruiting efforts the last couple of years. Last year he brought them the best recruiting class they have ever had. He was also the key reason they signed several very highly rated recruits, the likes their football program had never seen before (such as Dante Walker ,#2 or 3 rated RB in the nation at the time, Kevin Fant, consider to be right behind Chris Simms and Eli Manning, and Fred Smoot, #1 DB at JUCO level, and others). If he can sell Starkville, MS then he can sell anything. For those who haven't been there it is aweful. It is an extremly small redneck town. You couldn't pay me enough money to live there for four years. He will be a very successful recruiter for GT. Just some of my thoughts.
 
Mississippi Jacket,

Coach Wilson reputation coming in was exceptional. Had the opportunity to meet him several times. He has a unique ability to communicate. By talking to him it's odvious that he wasn't shooting from the hip with no plan of action. He's there on a mission!
 
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