New Georgia Tech coach James Ramsey: ‘Winning a national title is attainable’

Ramsey has been with Tech since 2019, when Hall offered him a spot on his staff as an assistant. Since, Ramsey has been at the forefront of Tech’s offensive prowess and recruiting battles, which more often than not have been won.

Now the Yellow Jackets will call the Wesleyan School graduate and Atlanta native their skipper.

“The standard I have is to have this program be in Omaha and to win a national championship. People need to hear that,” Ramsey said. “It’s not something that we’re gonna shy away from. It has to be focused on the process, but Omaha can’t seem to be a place that seems too distant for us. Omaha is right here in front of us. Winning a national title is attainable, but it’s gonna take all of us.”

It was not that long ago, relatively, that Ramsey was a playing star in his own right, mashing the ball en route to All-American status at Florida State and becoming a first-round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals in 2012. His ability to recruit similarly high-caliber talent has been part of his calling card as a Tech assistant.

In fact, on Monday, Isaiah Galason, a rising senior at Houston County High School, who is considered one of the top prospects in the state by various recruiting analysts, announced on social media his intention to play for the Jackets in 2027.

The expectations are for Ramsey to continue that sort of success but also take the Jackets to heights not reached since 2006, when Tech last played at the College World Series.

“I gave him an opportunity,” Hall told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday. “I knew the person I was getting (when he hired Ramsey), and he took advantage of that opportunity in growing as a baseball coach.

“A lot of the success that we’ve enjoyed the last few years, he’s been instrumental. And he’s been instrumental in anything and everything, whether it’s recruiting, hitting, coaching, running the team. He’s been involved in all areas of it. That, in my opinion, has prepared him now for this opportunity. Thrilled for him, thrilled for his family and thrilled for Georgia Tech.”

Ramsey thanked his family, Hall, Tech’s president Angel Cabrera and Tech’s interim athletic director Jon Palumbo during his opening remarks. He became emotional when thanking late Florida State coach Mike Martin, for whom Ramsey played during his time with the Seminoles.

He also thanked his support staff, assistant coaches Josh Schulman, Matt Taylor and Jason Richman and director of operations Scott Stricklin, among others.

Palumbo, seated to Ramsey’s left, praised Tech’s new head coach for his analytical mind, relentless competitiveness and communication abilities.

“This was a thorough evaluation process, beginning with coach Hall’s announcement in March,” Palumbo said. “As the season and search progressed, we evaluated a number of candidates, certainly. This is a great job. This is a very desirable job. We needed to do our due diligence and make sure we identified the best candidate to take over this program.

“We’ve been very close to getting where we want this program to go. I think continuity was certainly part of the evaluation and the factors that we evaluated.”

Tech is coming off a 41-19 season in which it was crowned ACC regular-season champions. The Jackets, however, won just one game in the Oxford Regional and once again failed to advance to the second stage of the NCAA Tournament.

Ramsey’s first team will be expected to change that, especially with the return of Burress, catcher Vahn Lackey and reigning ACC freshman of the year Alex Hernandez back in the lineup in 2026.

“He is one of the most integral pieces of what we got going on here at Georgia Tech,” Burress said. “It means a lot to all of us. We were hoping for it.

“You never know with today’s portal age, you really don’t know what would have happened — you see teams now, head coaches leave and their whole team’s gone the next year. It’s awesome to see we haven’t really had any of our major pieces go in the portal, and we’re excited just to contend with what we got.”