Yellow Jackets,
It is hard to believe that it is already March and that we’re in the middle of our spring sports seasons and spring football is in the thick of it here on The Flats.
Perhaps the most notable thing that you’ll see when you come to campus for a baseball or softball game, tennis match, track & field meet, or football’s White & Gold Game this spring, is that construction is underway on the northeast corner of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field, where the Edge/Rice Center is in the process of being demolished to make way for the Thomas A. Fanning Student-Athlete Performance Center. Despite the temporary inconveniences, the sight of construction equipment and sound of jackhammers are exciting, because they mean that we’re getting closer to having a first-class, state-of-the-art facility for our student-athletes to reach their full potential. The Fanning Center will include areas dedicated to strength and conditioning, sports medicine, mental health services, sports science and data analytics, as well as expanded and enhanced meeting and office spaces for our football program. It is scheduled to open in the spring of 2026 and we cannot wait to see the impacts on our student-athletes!
Other exciting things happening in Georgia Tech Athletics include:
- The return of football! Coach Key’s team is hungry to build on last year’s bowl win and poised to do so with 17 starters returning, 23 talented newcomers already with the team for the spring semester, as well as several outstanding new coaches. Our new defensive coordinator, Tyler Santucci, oversaw one of college football’s best defenses the past two seasons at Duke. If you haven’t already done so, please be sure to mark down Saturday, April 13 on your calendar, when the annual White & Gold Spring Game will kick off at 1 p.m. at Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field.
- We have four teams currently ranked among the nation’s Top 25 – No. 11 golf, No. 23 women’s tennis, No. 24 men’s swimming and diving and No. 25 softball. Additionally, two other teams – men’s tennis and baseball – are just outside of the Top 25.
- Softball’s move into the Top 25 is on the strength of a recent 15-game winning streak, the program’s longest winning streak since 2007 and its 6-0 start in ACC play is its best since 2002!
- Individually, golf’s Christo Lamprecht is the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world, and is also ranked No. 2 in the PGA Tour’s University rankings. He’ll represent Georgia Tech in Augusta at the Masters next month.
- Finally, in the classroom, our student-athletes are coming off one of the most successful semesters in Georgia Tech history! Most notably, they compiled a 3.14 grade point average during the fall semester, which is the second-highest mean GPA on record for Tech student-athletes. A huge congratulations to student-athletes, as well our coaches and staff – including our academic support team – for all that they do to help them reach their academic goals.
As you know, our basketball seasons have now come to a close. While both our men’s and women’s teams fell short of our goal of winning ACC Championships and competing in the NCAA Tournament this year, the future is very bright for both programs.
On the women’s side, we will likely qualify for the postseason for the fourth time in five seasons under Head Coach Nell Fortner. Multiple young players earned all-ACC honors this season and the roster will be bolstered further by the addition of a Top 20 recruiting class in the fall.
First-year men’s basketball Head Coach Damon Stoudamire and his team posted one of the nation’s most impressive lists of victories this season – including wins over North Carolina, Duke, Clemson, Wake Forest and Mississippi State – winning a total of eight “Quad 1” and Quad 2” games, according to the NCAA’s NET rankings. That’s four times as many Quad 1 and 2 wins as we compiled in the last two seasons combined! While there were obvious bumps in the road along the way, too, we are extremely excited about the direction of our program. Much like the women’s team, talented youngsters will be joined by a Top 25 recruiting class on the roster in the fall.
Our nationally prominent recruiting classes in basketball and football are indicative of the tremendous work that Coach Key, Coach Fortner and Coach Stoudamire and their staffs are putting in to attract top-notch student-athletes to The Flats. In the ever-changing landscape of college athletics, Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) opportunities are becoming increasingly important to be able to attract and retain the student-athletes that can best help our programs win championships. While we are competitive in the NIL space, thanks to those who have contributed to The Tech Way, the bar is always rising, and we need to expand our student-athletes’ NIL opportunities to keep the momentum that we’ve established. I urge all fans to consider contributing to The Tech Way, as it is vitally important to the short and long-term successes of our programs.
As always, thank you for your support of the Yellow Jackets. I look forward to seeing you at a game this spring!
Sting ‘Em!
J Batt
Director of Athletics
