The #1 recruiting priority should be a

[GT Ace]

running back with SPEED. It's a crying shame that a program as good as GT has no speed for 7 deep. Hollings made me remember how great it is to have a RB who can carry the mail all the way to the post office without being stopped. Burns(comparison purposes), Ford, Hatch, Eziemefe, Sampson, Daniels, Clinkscales (potential here) have no where near the speed of Hollings. If necessary, we need to recruit the speed & teach em how to be a RB.
I suppose the last one was Mays, who couldn't break a single tackle, then all the way back to Ivery, then Sims. I had gotten numb to not having anything exciting from our running backs. Then I watch TV & see the 'speed' backs the very good teams have. To me, the very top teams set themselves apart with the speed to take the mail all the way at any given time on any given play.
Ga Tech needs to have a breakaway back more often than once a decade or more, for crying out loud. Hollings was a 'difference maker' & GT surely needs some players who can make a 'difference' with speed. That should be Tech's #1 priority. 2nd would be DE, but that's another topic.

 

[gnats67]

Good point. I say we recruit QB heavily. We need one of the top QB prospects in the country in the recruiting mix every year. Run & pass. We need to be QBU. Maryland gets good QBs, Duke gets good QBs, Wake gets good QBs, ad nauseum. TECH should be a school that attracts the best talent.

 

[certx55]

I thought about that earlier in the year...Nothing against Joe Burns but it was great finally having a RB thats a threat to take it to the house like Hollings was/is.

As for our #1 recruiting priority though I think we need a few big time DT...That would help alleviate alot of other defensive problems we have.

 

[CrackerJacket]

We need DTs before anything else. The Wake and
UMD games exposed our interior defensive line.

 

[AlaGold]

Guys, As long as you are wishing and hoping then ask for a coaching staff than can develop and bring out the very best because we are not get going to get the top hi school stars (and really got only so many previously).
Duke is now competing(22-24 NCST) with maybe 2 guys that FSU would have even offered.What does that tell you?

 

[ahsoisee]

We had a super year recruiting QBs, year before last, and we already had some good ones on hand. We were greatly stocked with very good QBs. They are being misused, not coached up.

We do have some quickness at halfback, but it is being used improperly. Even if Hollings had not gotten hurt, it would not have taken long for the opposing teams to devise schemes to stop him. You cannot continue to run one back all the time with the other back used for blocking only.

How many times has Dixon touched the football? He was the second or third rated back in the nation by several recruiting analysts. I have no doubts he could carry the mail if he were used effectively.

We take a great back and make a blocker out of him. How many good backs will shy away from a Team who wants them to be blockers. They are runners and want to go to schools where the coaches expect them to run. Use diversion to free the runners, don't take a good running back and make him a blocker. It is a disaster for recruiting good backs.

 

[83jacket]

If you have attended any practices you would see why Jimmy Dixson is not a featured back. He runs straight up with no forward lean and has average speed at best

 

[ahsoisee]

83jacket, that is no excuse for not ocassionally handing him the ball from the fullback position. He has proven he can run the ball, and it would be a diversion to keep the defense from loading up on the main running back.

I really don't care if a back runs straight up, squats on the ground, or tip toes, as long as he knows how to get yardage. I feel sure he could gain a few yards now and then to keep the defense honest. He would either touch the ball at least eight times a game or I would put in another back that could.

 

[toe meets leather]

more than a running back, how about a head coach.

 

[Gold Rush]

How about just recruiting anybody !! (?)

 

[GTCrew]

Not playing Dixon for having a 'poor' running style is retarded.

I suppose by the same logic Philip Rivers should have been benched until the coaches could work on his awful throwing mechanics.

 

[BuzzFlowerz]

He may be ugly and slow, but there are players all through the history of football who didn't look right or fast enough, but had one heck of nose for finding the endzone.