{"id":212,"date":"2012-07-17T02:17:12","date_gmt":"2012-07-17T02:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/linetrackers.com\/?p=212"},"modified":"2012-07-17T02:17:12","modified_gmt":"2012-07-17T02:17:12","slug":"handicapping-college-football-georgia-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linetrackers.com\/?p=212","title":{"rendered":"Handicapping College Football: Georgia Tech"},"content":{"rendered":"

The No. 1 best selling sports betting eBook<\/a>, \u201cSports Betting Secrets, Handicapping Myths, Wagering Tips\u201d is a treasure chest of college football gambling intel and information. But handicapping teams on a year-by-year basis is also of importance and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve done with the 2012 GA Tech football preview.<\/p>\n

In order to become a highly recruited elite player you have to either be invited or figure out a way to show up at some\u00a0manufacturer\u2019s sponsored combine event\u00a0and display your talents to the recruiting site experts. \u00a0If not, then you are quickly relegated to the category associated for lesser talented players with a very limited upside potential.\u00a0 Coach Paul Johnson of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets could care less as he subscribes to the time tested old school way of finding football<\/a> recruits; looking at them play football and their character as a person.<\/p>\n

As the college football offseason slowly comes to an end along with the inordinate\u00a0amount of; \u201coff the field incidents\u201d and numerous player suspensions, perhaps it\u2019s an opportunity to take a deeper look into this problem in conjunction with the current manner of football recruiting and reassess the actual meaning of a\u00a0student\/athlete.\u00a0 While all of the football playing schools now have summer\u00a0recruiting events\u00a0to get players onto\u00a0campus and determine their potential for success, apparently this is no longer enough.<\/p>\n

Given that all of this occurs in the summer when players are on break from high school prior to entering their senior seasons of eligibility, isn\u2019t it ironic that these events take place simultaneously with State and local fairs around the country.\u00a0 You know, those places with their midway rides, Ferris wheel, and competitions where you can throw a baseball and knock down the metal milk jugs and just have a real good time.\u00a0 But the parallels with the fairs and football recruiting services is not only remarkably similar, it is identical.<\/p>\n

What I remember the most from the State fairs are\u00a0those events for the rural\u00a0kids enrolled\u00a0in the 4-H club who raised the biggest\u00a0pig or best cow\u00a0that they\u00a0entered in the contest to compete for the blue ribbon, or the mothers who baked their special pie or signature entree\u2019\u00a0for the taste contest with a panel of judges composed of the local rotary club members and other assorted chamber of commerce types.\u00a0 Is this stars rated football recruiting any different?\u00a0 Would a major sausage manufacturer really care what some local business owner thought was a prized sow or bovine?\u00a0 Was the Pillsbury Corporation going to buy Daisy Mae\u2019s recipe for corn bread because two out of three judges working at the local hardware and corner drug store voted it the best ever?<\/p>\n

This current atmosphere of stars recruiting is no different than these State fair events with their local \u201cexperts\u201d looking at a pig or devouring a slice of rhubarb pie then awarding the blue ribbon to the contestant of their choice.\u00a0 In fact this recruiting process is just as ridiculous.\u00a0 I was recently reading a \u201cscouting report\u201d of a player who has offers from several major schools that said; \u201che lacks the ability to get penetration into the backfield and therefore\u00a0will not make much of an impact at the next level.\u201d\u00a0 Naturally the person who wrote this critique did not attach his or her name to the report but they are no doubt an \u201cexpert.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Much like the individual who after hearing Elvis Presley audition said; \u201cdon\u2019t quit your day job.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past few seasons since Coach Paul Johnson arrived at Georgia Tech he has had numerous players graduate early with eligibility still remaining to play another year of college football.\u00a0 However, several of these players have elected to forgo their last season of football and take a job offer from Microsoft Corporation and immediately begin their career with a Fortune 50 Company.\u00a0 While none of these players were five stars recruits they did contribute and became members of a team that won an ACC Championship and\u00a0lots of games the past four seasons.\u00a0 The epitome of what a student athlete should strive to be in this era of college football.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the current trend of recruiting highly rated stars players has resulted in a disturbing reality that these kids are entitled to do what they want once they arrive on campus which has resulted in an alarming number of arrests, suspensions, and dismissals from these schools.\u00a0 This privileged evolution has just now\u00a0recently created the situation whereby a recruit in essence has said; I will come but only if you also bring several of my teammates.\u00a0 Although now both the school and player are\u00a0backpedaling and indicating; \u201cthat comment was taken out of context.\u201d\u00a0 Only time will tell if this is true or false\u00a0once signing day arrives in February, 2013.<\/p>\n

For the life of me I cannot ever remember reading about the owner of the biggest pig or best cow\u00a0in the State\u00a0ever getting arrested for engaging in a fist fight at a bar, or the winner of the best pie taken to jail for carrying a gun or being under the influence of narcotics.\u00a0 Nor do I know if the blue ribbon prize winning sow became pepper bacon at the local meat market, or if the recipe for the best cherry pie was sold to a nationwide franchised restaurant chain.\u00a0 But here is what I do know; the current media hype surrounding college football recruiting is quickly becoming out of control.<\/p>\n

As it stands now the proverbial tail is wagging the recruiting dog at most schools, thankfully not at Georgia Tech.\u00a0 It was very refreshing to read about a recent recruit who gave an oral commitment indicating that he selected the Institute because of their highly ranked computer program.\u00a0 Perhaps having players obtain employment with a major five stars Computer Corporation in that academic field was a helpful component that also went\u00a0into this player\u2019s decision making process.\u00a0 Although I will wait for the actual signing on the dotted line come next February given the last minute recruiting drama that too often occurs, this is the type of student\/athlete that I will enjoy watching compete for the Yellow Jackets.\u00a0 Perhaps Microsoft will too.<\/p>\n

I will also observe with great interest the player who was the brunt of that unflattering scouting report and see how he performs as a student\/athlete at the next level.\u00a0 I\u2019m actually keeping my fingers crossed and looking forward to him hopefully\u00a0electing to attend Georgia Tech and have numerous\u00a0games much like the non five stars\u00a0DT from Maryland had\u00a0last year who couldn\u2019t be blocked and made 22 tackles against the Yellow Jackets.<\/p>\n

BTW, the\u00a0player from Maryland was an All ACC first team DT\u00a0and potential All American heading into this season despite being a meager two (2) stars player coming out of high school according to the recruiting experts.\u00a0 Who knows, maybe his mother never won a blue ribbon for the best pie at the State fair but certainly raised one heck of a football player that the recruiting services didn\u2019t think merited much of a look.\u00a0 Go figure.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

Be sure to check out other great articles at isportsweb<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The No. 1 best selling sports betting eBook, \u201cSports Betting Secrets, Handicapping Myths, Wagering Tips\u201d is a treasure chest of college football gambling intel and information. But handicapping teams on a year-by-year basis is also of importance and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve done with the 2012 GA Tech football preview. In order to become a highly … Continue reading Handicapping College Football: Georgia Tech<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football-betting"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linetrackers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linetrackers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linetrackers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linetrackers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linetrackers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/linetrackers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214,"href":"https:\/\/linetrackers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions\/214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linetrackers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linetrackers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linetrackers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}