TAMPA, Fla. - Georgia Tech coach Brent Key and his staff are pushing to sign a strong class Wednesday, the first day of college football’s early signing period.
There are currently 22 players publicly committed to Tech as part of the program’s 2024 signing class. That group ranks 37th nationally, according to the 247Sports Composite, and seventh among ACC teams (which includes 2024 league newcomers California, Southern Methodist and Stanford).
Key will try to hold on to those 22 commitments, and maybe add a few more, over the three-day signing period which ends Friday.
“There’s still a lot that can happen here in the next 48 hours,” Key said Monday. “That will be a big part of our time down here (in Tampa) when we’re not preparing for the (bowl) game. When we’re not at practice it’ll be a lot of time spent on the phones and back and forth making sure we get the right things done.”
The week for Key and Co. is a bit of a Catch-22 given that the Yellow Jackets are on the road preparing for Friday’s Gasparilla Bowl against Central Florida, while also trying to strengthen the 2024 roster and the future of the program. The Jackets are scheduled to practice Wednesday morning just hours after the first official signed letters of intent begin to roll into the school’s compliance office.
Key and Tech coaches are also tracking available college players. Key told 680 The Fan on Monday that he estimates he has watched film on approximately 600 players who are in the NCAA’s transfer portal - and he has been doing all that while trying to make sure the Jackets put their best foot forward in their first bowl game since 2018.
“This is the so-called new-age of college football,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday. “It’s a lot. It’s a lot for the coaches. Between signing day, transfer portal, the current team, all those things – it’s a lot going on. And it’s a lot to manage.
“But really the most important thing is our team and making sure that our team is in a good place, our team has what they need and our team is preparing to have a good game, preparing to win a game and send these seniors out the right way.”
Tech’s highest-rated commit is currently Luke Harpring, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound tight end and defensive end who starred at Marist. Harpring is also the son of former Tech basketball legend Matt Harpring. The younger Harpring and cornerback Troy Stevenson (6-foot, 165), from Charleston, S.C., are both considered four-star recruits by the 247Sports Composite.
Wednesday’s class will also include quarterback Aaron Philo (6-2, 200), the state’s all-time leader in career passing yards and a first-team all-state selection.
In recent weeks, Tech has seen a handful of prospects back off their pledge to join the Jackets, most notably of which was cornerback Trajen Greco from Mill Creek and linebacker CJ Jackson from Tucker. Tucker has since committed to LSU and Greco will announce his college choice Jan. 6.
To combat some of those losses, Tech has recruited six players out of the transfer portal to become Jackets in 2024: tight end Ryland Goede (Mississippi State), offensive lineman Keylan Rutledge (Middle Tennessee), tight end Jackson Hawes (Yale), linebacker Jackson Hamilton (Louisville) and cornerbacks Warren Burrell (Tennessee) and Syeed Gibbs (Rhode Island).
Should Tech’s signing class remain intact the 2024 group would be the highest-ranked signing class for the program since 2020 (27).
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