End of the Hewitt Era? UPDATE!

Well, it appears that Paul Hewitt has turned down St. John's offer of its head coaching position. Citing that "his family loves Atlanta" and that "he is happy here", Hewitt will be the coach of the Yellow Jackets next year, unless St. John's decides to either up the amount or another team comes a calling.

And just for fun!
The AJC UGA Ridiculous Vent of the Week!
If one of those Navy pilots had dropped a bomb on Grant Field it would qualify as urban renewal.
Actually, that one was kind of funny.

End of the Hewitt Era?

If you believe some of the stories coming out of the Atlanta Journal Constitution and various New York media outlets, St. John's is gradually making progress on getting Paul Hewitt from the Yellow Jackets. Coach Hewitt is from the New York area and has been on the wishlist for the St. John's program for quite a while. Apparently, this is the SECOND time that they have pursued him, with the first coming after Tech's Final Four appearance a few years ago.

Tech fans, at this moment, are holding their collective breaths. Many would be thrilled with Hewitt leaving to go to St. John's so that Paul Johnson can come over and install his Triple Option offense into the basketball program...kidding!

Hewitt has become an estranged person from the Tech fan base lately and has publicly feuded with several Atlanta Journal Constitution sports reporters over the "fairness" of their columns towards him and his basketball team. Hewitt has used his Twitter account to post his disgust in 128 character posts. Many fans thought that this year Tech could be something special with Lawal staying and highly touted recruit Derek Favors coming in as a starting Freshman, not to mention several key players staying.

However, Tech did have a successful year by all accounts, even if their record in the ACC was awful. They made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament (North Carolina didn't even MAKE the tournament) and came close to beating second seed Ohio State. Many will point to Hewitt's record in the ACC as proof that he did not get the most out of his team, but it is how the year ends right?

The Yellow Jackets were a very talented team this year but did not reflect it on the floor as they were awful in turnovers, free throws and fouls. A reoccurring problem that baffled fans was the team's inability to successfully inbound a ball under pressure which caused numerous turnovers that hurt the Jackets late into games.

I don't want to get into the good or bad of Paul Hewitt, he has a done a decent job with the Jackets and has shown in his last two classes that he can recruit, bringing in some really highly rated players and even putting this year's class in the Top 5 in recruiting. Not bad at all! Some fans are angry because of his high buy out of $7 million but that is the contract that was offered and he signed it, plain and simple. But what would it mean to the Jackets if he left?

If Hewitt left, I can imagine a decent percentage, especially Favors would be gone. He was 50/50 about staying and if Hewitt was to leave, I would guess that Favors would make the jump although I think that he is not ready yet. Lawal would be gone, Peacock will be gone as well. Essentially, the new coach would have to start from scratch and will not have a loaded team to take over a la Paul Johnson.

What does the Mash on the Gas Nation think about this??

A Blessing - The touch of the divine

Georgia Tech Recruiting

Signing Day is now over and we have a more solid idea of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket's recruiting class of 2010. The first thing one sees that the number of players is a bit short compared to other D1 programs. The Yellow Jackets offered scholarships to 18 players, or if you like 17 players and one kicker. Many of the other programs has up to 25 - 27 scholarships offered. In hindsight, 18 was more than expected and was due to the four juniors leaving the program to go professional (Dwyer, Thomas, Morgan, Morgan). With those four additional slots, the coaching staff was able to bring in some players to boost this year's class.

Out of the 18 slots, the staff really did a good job of identifying players that could come in immediately and address some areas of weakness or to provide depth to others. Here is a brief breakdown of positions brought in:

RB - 3
OL - 2
DE - 1
DT - 2
LB - 2
DB - 5
ATH - 2
K - 1

Keep in mind that although these recruits were brought in for a specific positions, it is likely that they can switch to other positions as they develop and the coaching staff is more aware of their abilities. It is not uncommon for a recruit that is brought in as, say, as DB to be turned into a LB or even a RB.

But, for fun's sake, let's take a look at this class and see what the coaching staff was trying to do (or guess what the coaching staff was trying to do). I think all Georgia Tech fans would first say to any other fans is that CPJ is looking for recruits that fits what he wants to do and could not care less about rankings. Want to know what? That is right! In a recent interview, CPJ even stated that he doesn't even know rankings or how they rank. What he is looking for is a certain set of skills, ability and to see if the players performed at a high level. While other programs are looking at the number of squats a kid can do, CPJ and AG are seeking players that fit their schemes.

The biggest number that jumps out at you is the number of DB in this class. It was no secret that our secondary was not that good and gave up a ton of big plays. With Morgan leaving, there is a significant gap in experience and they are hoping that with this class along with the current players, they can find a good combination of players to fit the bill.

One notable stat was the lack of recruits in either the DL or OL. My guess is that AG feels that he has enough young horses to do what he wants to do on the DL and wanted to focus more on the secondary. I am truly excited to see how a 3/4 is supposed to look. The OL is also pretty strong from the last couple of recruiting classes and the amount of time the backups got due to injuries is going to serve the team well.

Georgia Tech's Recruiting Ranking and Players:

Although we all know that these numbers mean nothing, Rivals. com has Tech's recruiting class listed at #43 in the country. Scout.com has Tech's class ranked only slightly higher than that at #41. I am sure that the other Georgia school is boasting about it's high ranking and their message boards are already being slobbered over talk of a National Championship, but for Tech, these numbers mean nothing. CPJ and his staff have already stated that they don't check out rankings when recruiting. The one bit of news that shook up things was the bringing in of a four star defensive back and a highly touted linebacker that was set to go to Virginia (gee, wonder how that happened). Other than that, the class is seen as decent but not blowing up one's skirt.

So let's introduce the newest Yellow Jackets. We all look forward to seeing them run out of the tunnel following the Ramblin' Wreck and continuing the quality that is Georgia Tech football. For the sake of time, I will link to their profiles in case you want more information about them.

Catlin Alford - OL - Adairsville, Georgia
Jeremiah Attaochu - LB - Washington, D.C.
Ryan Ayers - DB - Douglasville, Georgia
Morgan Bailey - OL - Loganville, Georgia
Barry Bostic - ATH - Loganville, Georgia
Synjyn Days - ATH - Powder Springs, Georgia
Shawn Green - DT - Loganville, Georgia
Deon Hill - RB - Phenix City, Alabama
Fred Holton - DB - Thomasville, Georgia
Isaiah Johnson - DB - Tyrone, Georgia
Denzel McCoy - DT - Duluth, Georgia
Justin Moore - K - Atlanta, Georgia
Quayshawn Nealy - LB - Lakeland, Florida
Charles Perkins - RB - Suwanee, Georgia
Jake Skole - DB - Roswell, Georgia
Anthony Williams - DE - McDonough, Georgia
Louis Young - DB - Olney, Maryland
Tony Zenon - RB - Albany, Georgia

This is the first real test of Paul Johnson's staff as they have been doing great work with the recruits from Chan Gailey. They are able to now target the players they want to bring into their system(s) and I am counting the new DC into that column. Another huge test will be the development of Nesbitt's replacement. After this season the responsibility of running that offense will fall onto someone new's shoulders and this is a huge deal because of how good Nesbitt has become and a potential dropoff. With Nesbitt having surgery there is now an open audition for quarterback and this is a blessing in disguise.

We all know that Nesbitt can come back and run this team but the open audition can do more for the future of the team once Nesbitt moves on. This audition will give coaches a chance to identify the player(s) that can take up the helm or for them to begin recruiting the next option QB to put under center.