Nothing petty about Georgia Tech’s heralded football recruit Josh Petty

Petty is a 6-foot-5, 255-pound offensive lineman. He’s a senior at Fellowship Christian School in Roswell and has spent this week preparing to face Wesleyan in the quarterfinals of the GHSA Class A-3A private state playoffs. He’s 17, and he’s about to become one of the more heralded recruits in the long history of Tech football.

And he’s the antithesis of bravado and ego, maybe somewhat of an anomaly in a new era of college athletics. But there’s no shortage of confidence emitting from one of the nation’s top players in the recruiting class of 2025.

“I have high expectations, and a lot is put on me. I know I can live up to that,” he said. “I know I have the talent and ability that they see in me. I just gotta get in there and work, as simple as that. I know Tech’s in good hands and I’m gonna be good there. It’s one me to go there and work and it’s on me to live up to what people expect me to be.”

From flag to Fellowship

James Petty knew, having played college football himself, how much of a time commitment being a football player — a good football player — would take. So his youngest son, Josh, didn’t play the sport for much of his youth.

Instead, academics were the focus. Josh, growing up in the small north Fulton County nook of Birmingham near Alpharetta, could go play with his friends in the neighborhood only after homework was completed. Once armed with a strong academic foundation, James Petty sent his son out to play youth flag football in the fourth grade. There was an immediate eye-opening moment.

“I knew there was a difference because several of the coaches would say, ‘Hey, that kid is too aggressive.’ Josh was never intentionally trying to hurt anybody, he was never intentionally trying to be aggressive, he just played with a very intense edge,” Petty said. “If he saw the flag he was going to get the flag. Whatever got in the way in between that time frame was not something that he would let distract him.”

Josh was playing tackle football soon thereafter.

“Just to start to see him develop, I could see then his talent was kind of edging above a lot of guys on the team,” James Petty said.

Credit McFarlin

Tim McFarlin is in his second season as Tech football’s director of high school relations. But in 2021 he was the head coach at Fellowship Christian.

It was there that he was handed the reins to Josh Petty. And McFarlin had an idea.

“I coached Josh when we started feeder and I always coached Josh as a defensive lineman,” said Petety’s dad, a former defensive lineman at the University of Redlands in California. “We get to Fellowship Christian, and Tim McFarlin pulls me aside and says, ‘Mr. Petty, I know you kind of had a path for Josh that you kind of wanted to see, but the kid’s very talented as an offensive lineman.’ I said, ‘OK, coach McFarlin, you’ve got three state championships, seen a lot of kids develop, let me step aside.’

“Probably midseason, (Josh) came home and he said, ‘Dad, I love being an offensive lineman. I love pancaking guys and protecting the quarterback.’ So his whole focus just immediately shifted, and he wanted to do all the things to be the best offensive lineman that he could.”

Josh Petty’s focus on O-line play went into hyperdrive.

He joined the FCS wrestling team to improve his hand and footwork, a move that came with a price when he fractured his hip as a junior. Josh also will gladly show off the pinkie on his left hand, a finger not exactly bending the way it should anymore.

Another step in the process was Josh hooking up with California Power Athletes, a 7-on-7 and 5-on-5 football program based in California and coached by Ray McNeill.

“He’s just a no-nonsense kid. Very focused, very cerebral. Knows what he wants, and he’s not afraid to work for it,” McNeill said. “I think that stems from home. Mom and dad have done a great job teaching him work ethic and hard work, things of that nature. It just comes natural for the kid.”

Credit: Chad Bishop

Credit: Chad Bishop

Petty becomes popular

Petty’s mother, Magdalena Babiarz, is a native of Poland. Petty said he doesn’t speak Polish, but he has been to his mother’s land and visited Warsaw, Kotowice and Krakow, among other cities.

Petty’s brother, Julian, is serving in the U.S. Army. His sister, Olivia, is a freshman at Florida State.

They all have had a front-row seat to Petty’s rise to fame in the college football recruiting world. His list of scholarship offers eclipses 40 and includes a who’s who of Georgia, Ohio State, Alabama, Tennessee, Clemson, LSU, Notre Dame, Oregon and Penn State, to name a few.

In January 2023, a little more than a month after Brent Key was named Tech’s head coach after serving as the interim, Petty received a scholarship offer from Tech. It was his first.

“It was shocking,” Petty recalled of that day. “I was late to the recruiting process, and I had always seen all the other guys and everyone was like, ‘Trust the process, it’ll come, it’ll come.’ I started to get on (social media) and started to get scared and all that stuff. But Tech came in, it was the first one, it was an academic school, it was great option, and I always kind of knew that they were gonna be one of the big ones for me.”

Over the next calendar year, Petty’s stock skyrocketed as he was labeled a five-star prospect by 247Sports and four-star prospect by Rivals, On3 and ESPN. He has continued to play offensive and defensive line for the Fellowship Christian Paladins and has continued to try to add weight (he wants to be in the 275-285 range when he begins his Tech career), a losing battle during the rigors of his senior season, he said.

Petty also has continued to keep his head above water during a recruiting period he called, “hectic.” Even this month, long after he had publicly committed to a future at Tech, he said is still being pursued by other schools.

“I get a couple texts now and then, but I’m not replying to ‘em,” he said. “There was a lot going on (in the beginning of the process). A lot of stress with it with coaches and having to get back to them and feeling like you’re obligated to get back to them and just trying to find a mix between that and being a teenage kid, that was difficult. But most of it was enjoyable. It was stressful, but it was still great to go around and see colleges and meet head coaches and meet a lot of people around that.”

Said McNeill: “Some kids let it go to their head. Some kids actually work. Josh is one of those kids that worked. Had a personal trainer, had an offensive line trainer, a nutritionist. He just constantly put in work and wanted to work on his craft. Kudos to him and his family for realizing that’s the way to go about it. His athleticism is what stands out most to people. When he gets the size to go with it, the sky’s the limit.”

A Tech man

Petty’s decision to play for Tech raised eyebrows for many. Tech hasn’t won more than eight games in a season since 2016, hasn’t been to an ACC title game since 2014 and hasn’t won a conference championship since 2009. There have been highly regarded recruits along the way since then and even a handful who have gone to become legitimate NFL players.

But none have come with the fanfare of Petty.

Of course, name, image and likeness wasn’t around for much of that time. And the rules that now allow college athletes to profit off their individual successes were a part of Petty’s choice to wear white and gold. He told the AJC in August, “(NIL) played a factor, and I needed that number to be fair. Tech went beyond and above and really have taken care of me.”

Petty reportedly will be given $800,000 annually from Tech once he enrolls in January. That figure hasn’t been confirmed, nor has it been refuted by anyone in the Petty inner circle. Brian Davis of Power Up Sports represents Petty and in September, he declined to comment to the AJC on the specificities of Petty’s NIL agreement with Tech.

But given the amount of suitors Petty had throughout his prep career, it has to be considered that money wasn’t the sole factor in Petty’s decision. The aforementioned list of program’s recruiting Petty likely could have matched Tech’s NIL offer and maybe even surpassed it.

“It was confusing in the beginning. I was just like a 16-, 17-year-old kid talking money and trying to understand what I’m worth and all that stuff,” Petty said. “The Power Up Sports Agency really helped me and took over and kind of guided me through that. I was first looking at it, I was stressed, I didn’t really know what was going on. They just kind of walked me through it, helped me go and made sure I was making the right decision.”

Said James Petty: “We had a really good, long conversation with Tim McFarlin. I said, ‘Tim, I trusted you when you converted my son to an offensive lineman after I spent all these years teaching him defensive line. So I really gotta trust you.’ Tim said, ‘James, pray about it. At this point in time, I’ve never given you anything that would indicate that we don’t want anything but the best for your family.’ That kind of helped.”

The plan

Whether Tech beats Georgia on Friday, Petty will join a Tech program in the early stages sculpting its foundation. Key’s current team has clinched a winning season and a bowl trip for the second season in a row, but still is a distance from being considered a College Football Playoff or ACC championships contender.

The addition of Petty to the program, however, is a metaphorical step for Key and his staff that brighter days are ahead. James Petty lauded the efforts of Key, offensive line coach Geep Wade and McFarlin for their work to confront Josh Petty with a plan that won’t coddle him, but challenge him.

“I think what was different for us, they built a relationship on, ‘Here’s how we want to integrate, here’s how we want to help this young man mature, here’s how we want to develop him and here’s what all of those results should end up meaning for him.’ I think that was easier for him to understand he has to come in and work hard and really listen and follow the plan that they’ve got in place,” James Petty said. “Those relationships have helped him understand that really all he has to do is show up and give it 110% every day, be committed, be a team player and execute. I think that’s made it a little easier for him amidst all of the other pieces that happen. The expectation that coach Key has is that you come in and you bring your talents, and you let us develop you and you let us give you a plan and you contribute.

“That’s where it became very evident for Josh that it was Georgia Tech and their culture and what they believed in.”

Josh Petty, who also has logged snaps at defensive end and tight end during his prep career, plans to study finance at Tech. It’s a vocation that both his parents have a career in, and he already completed an internship at Morgan Stanley.

But professional football is his next short-term goal. He studies Tyron Smith of the Dallas Cowboys, Penei Sewell of the Detroit Lions and Trey Smith of the Kansas City Chiefs when contemplating how to get to the next level. And if he lives up to the expectations placed upon him, he’ll join the likes of those professionals a few years from now.

“You gotta put in the work, and then you gotta put in the extra work,” Petty said. “Every guy goes in there and they’re working and they’re sweating and there’s blood, sweat and tears. But there’s guys that go back and really learn their stuff and really go back and get their kick perfect and go back and make sure they’re stronger than everybody else. Those are the guys that go to the NFL.”