TE Kevin Roche commits to Georgia Tech on his OV
Darien (CT) tight end Kevin Roche made the most of his Georgia Tech official visit committing to head coach Brent Key in person during his trip to Atlanta. Roche spoke with JOL about how he ended up a Yellow Jacket and recapped his weekend on the Flats as well.
Roche committed to Coach Key during a meeting on Saturday.
"I committed yesterday," he said. "I was talking to Coach Key and we were going into our meeting and probably 45 minutes or an hour into the meeting, I talked to my parents about everything and he looked me in the eyes and said, 'I want you to come here' and I said alright I'm coming here. We got up and shook hands. It was awesome."
The strength of the official visit experience was big for Roche as well in his decision-making process.
"It was awesome and I've only really been down there a couple of times," Roche said. "I loved every minute of it and the guys treat me well. There is a great sense of camaraderie between the guys and I was only down there a little while and they are great friends already. They showed me the city and showed me a great time," he said.
Freshman offensive lineman Harrison Moore showed Roche around during his visit and the pair bonded.
"Harrison Moore was my host and he was good. He is a freshman offensive lineman and he isn't a tight end like I am, but we talked a lot about football and he is from Texas and I'm from Connecticut and we share a different background so it was funny to bond over that," he said.
Offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner showed Roche how Tech uses the tight end in his offense and that is something that stood out on his visit.
"Their tight ends are dynamic as hell," Roche said. "They have them do everything. They run a full route tree, they run block, they pass block and they think I would be a great fit for that because of my versatility and my ability to run different routes and participate in the run game. I'm excited because I think I can show off my versatility in this type of offense and I'll fit in real nice."
Tight ends coach Nathan Brock has been the point man in Roche's recruitment for Tech.
"Coach Brock is awesome and he is only a few years away from playing himself," Roche said. "We talked about (him playing at Ohio State) and he says the biggest thing for him is not having to scrape snow off his cars anymore. It is cool for the tight ends at Tech to have someone young, but also super knowledgable who can kind of guide them through things and knows what it is like and has been in their shoes very recently. We have been talking for a couple of months now and I came to camp a week and a half ago and built a pretty good relationship."
For Roche the commitment to Tech fulfills a lifelong dream of playing college football in the FBS something he thought was outreach as recently as a few years ago.
"I always wanted to play college football at a high level and it was my dream from first grade or kindergarten, but I didn't see the possibility of it going into high school. I still loved football, but I was playing lacrosse and football and lacrosse is a big deal up north and a lot of my friends are playing lacrosse in college and I thought that is where I was going to go, then we got a whole new football coaching staff and guys who cared for me more than any coach I had and they saw something in me. Coach (Kyle) Amann, my offensive coordinator told me that I could be a scholarship football player and I was like what? Then we worked from there. I stopped playing lacrosse this year so I could workout and I've been doing everything right and we've been getting there."