Mailbag 11/21

DressHerInWhiteAndGold: Time for our annual, “What’s on your Thanksgiving spread?”

Ben: This year, my wife and in-laws are headed to the beach for Thanksgiving! This is something they’ve done in past years, but this is the first time since my wife and I have been together that they have done this, so I’m pretty excited to have some seafood for Thanksgiving.

Chris: My family has the most straight-down-the-middle spread ever - all the usuals, nothing particularly interesting.

Logan: My wife and I are going (mostly) low carb this year. Mashed cauliflower can be surprisingly good if you add garlic. We will obviously be ham and turkey. Probably collards with bacon mixed in and green beans. I’ll miss the yeast rolls.

Jack: We’re pretty standard at the Purdy home as well. We love our smoked turkeys on the B.G.E., the leftovers becoming the main platter of a tradition we’ve started called the Leftovers Hullaballoo, where all of our friends bring their thanksgiving leftovers and it turns into a friendsgiving + clean out the fridge party all in one day!

R.L.: When all is said and done, what do you expect our final football recruiting ranking to land nationally?

Ben: Georgia Tech’s recruiting class is currently ranked 23rd on Rivals (2nd in the ACC), 20th on 247 Sports (3rd in the ACC), and 22nd on On3 Sports (3rd in the ACC). Honestly, I don’t know that Tech will move much from this spot. If they do, I think it’ll mostly be influenced by other teams moving.

Chris: 30ish

Logan: I have no idea because I can never tell who is going to stay and who is going to back out at the last second, but probably between 25 and 35.

Frodo Swagginz: First off, happy holidays y’all! Turkey time is now and it’s fat man season soon (Unless you’re like me and then it’s been fat man season since Nov. 1)

Assuming an optimal off-season, does GT have the capacity to compete for the ACC next year?

Ben: With an optimal off-season, yeah, I would hope so. My biggest concern is folks from the coaching staff getting poached. Of course I talked about Chris Weinke in a post semi-recently, but there’s reports that Faulkner interviewed at Southern Miss. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone try to poach Geep Wade. He’s currently one of the lowest-paid OL coaches in the P4 and the work that he and Key have done with Tech’s OL is nothing short of incredible given how it performed under the last guy.

Chris: Perhaps a bit optimistic, but I think so yes. Our conference schedule next year is BC, Duke, Clemson, Pitt, Cuse, VT, NC State, and Wake. All of those are winnable games if we play to our potential and are healthy. I’d probably be disappointed with more than two conference losses, and even with two there’s a shot we’d still make the championship game.

Logan: We have the schedule to do so next year. We need to start winning the 50/50 games and the games we are expected to win more consistently. I would also note, its not like other teams don’t also get better (or worse in FSU’s situation) over their offseason, so this easy schedule might be more difficult than it looks. I do expect to see more improvement in the record next year, so around 8 wins in the regular season would be my way to early expectation.

Jack: I generally agree with everyone here. I think it comes down to Haynes King + the key coaching staff people sticking around, which is no guarantee. There are winnable games there, and we seemto win the ranked conference games all the time, so eventually this ship has to point towards the very top of the conference.

gtbadcarma: What have you found has been the biggest good/bad surprise this season in college football?

Ben: 10-WINDIANA BABY!!! Truly, I would love to see the Hoosiers win the CFP. It would just be a treat.

Chris: I’m with Ben, Indiana having the season of a lifetime is awesome. Also Army bullying everyone.

Logan: Army and Navy have been great. I kind of like the SMU run, especially with FSU falling on its face after claiming the Mustangs are weakening the conference. Honestly Indiana has been fun, but it’ll be more fun if they win this weekend. If Indiana wins against Ohio State, they’re legends. If they lose, they’re just another historic footnote in College Football History. What Jeanty and Hunter are doing as athletes is also very impressive. Generally, a very good year for football. On the bad end... uga losing 2 games in the regular season but still being ranked in the top 12 is kind of disappointing.