Roswell native stays home to join increasingly loaded recruiting class
Truly, we are as stunned as we’ve ever been when it comes to recruiting news. Today, Brent Key, Geep Wade, and Georgia Tech Football landed the highest rated recruit in program history. Josh Petty (6’5’’, 265lbs, OL) from Fellowship Christian School in Roswell, GA committed to the Jackets over Florida State, Stanford, Tennessee, and Ohio State in a ceremony at Fellowship Christian attended by family, friends, and media. He’s the first five-star recruit ever for Tech, sitting 14th nationally and second amongst all offensive lineman according to 247Sports for the 2025 class.
In an interview with Kelly Quinlan after his decision, Petty noted that his official visit was a difference maker. “They’ve been consistent in my recruting and through the whole process. Coach Key has been amazing through all of this.”
“Being able to bring back the old GT, the GT that I watched growing up, the competitive guys like Calvin Johnson catching bombs, it’s impressive to see, and [Key] wanting to do that with in-state players and guys just like me and guys all around me, guys that I’ve grown up with and played against since I was young, I bought in on that and I believe it…he really wants to get this done with Georgia guys,” said Petty.
Tech now sits at six offensive line recruits for 2025, and the overall recruiting class is ranked 23rd after falling back in recent weeks (as was expected with how front loaded their initial annoucements were).
Without a doubt, we’re seeing a real, believable message coming from the recruiting machine over at Georgia Tech Football. After years of criticism and wondering why Georgia Tech couldn’t recruit their own backyard well compared to other southern schools, we might just be seeing that narrative flip. They’ve received commitments from guy after guy who in recent years would’ve been the best recruits we’d have in a cycle. Now, we have multiple of those guys and our ceiling finally found the 5-star atmosphere.
Right now what’s impressing me is that Brent Key, Geep Wade, everyone on that staff understands the Georgia Tech they are selling. No to bring it back to the old guy again, but in hindsight it’s clear Geoff Collins did not sell a version of Georgia Tech that was real, and no one really bothered to check him on it to an extent that made things better. Key knows Tech. He’s lived Tech, he’s seen Tech at it’s worst and fundamentally knows what kind of special place it can be.
“The staff is great there, surrounded by those O-line guys. They’ve shown that they build those freshmen up and that they get guys starting. And if you’re ready, you’ll play. That’s a big message to me. I like to hear it. They’ve had an offense that is successful in the outside zone, which is something I should be proficient in in college. And that’s been very helpful for me,” Petty said in an interview about Tech’s staff.
As a fanbase, I think we started to believe by the end of last year that this team was back and ready to be relevant. Now, it seems the recruits to take us into the future are starting to see and believe the same thing. We may have a wicked hard schedule this year, but if we show our way of football we came to know last year, regardless of the score, we’re going to keep attracting guys like Petty.
And for those wondering why Calvin Johnson isn’t mentioned as the first five-star Tech recruited, it’s because he got reclassified after we got him as a 4-star. A technicality, sure, but at least now we know a five-star came after.