Don’t expect ‘movie, TV crap’ from Johnson
Don’t expect Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson to do anything special to try to get his players motivated for Saturday’s game at North Carolina. The players admit that they have played flat the past two weeks in a win against S.C. State and a loss at Kansas.
“From the looks of the game, I can certainly motivate better,” Johnson said. “But you know what my experience has been in 31 years? That’s movie, TV crap. You’d better be able to motivate yourself. I’m not going to motivate you 12 Saturdays a year. Anybody that thinks you’re going to go into the locker room and somebody’s going to punch the locker, or cave in the blackboard or head butt somebody and everybody’s going to go ‘AAAAAAAAHHHH!’ It’s make believe. It doesn’t happen.”
Saturday’s game is important for a variety of reasons, starting with it’s the Yellow Jackets’ first conference game since winning the ACC championship last season. Also, the team hasn’t lost back-to-back games since Johnson took over for the 2008 season. Johnson has said good teams rarely lose consecutive games.
“It’s a challenge for us,” he said. “We’ve got to play better. If we don’t play better than we did in the first two games we aren’t going to win on Saturday, I can tell you that. This is the best team we’ve played.”
Johnson said he hasn’t seen any of the players step up to try to help focus the team, nor does he want to. He said the entire operation, from the coaches on down, needs to improve.
“Show me, don’t tell me,” Johnsonn said. “We’ll see what they can do on Saturday. You do it by playing and doing your job, and doing what’s right. Anybody can stand up on the plane and say ‘Guys, we’re coming this week,’ until you get hit in the mouth the first time. Let’s see what happens on Saturday.
“We’ll find out starting today how serious we are.”
The players said as much after the game on Saturday, saying it’s time to start doing and stop talking.
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175 comments Add your comment
GT4Ever
September 15th, 2010
6:05 am
Doug is right!!! Call it over confidence or what ever. The team has played very flat and with no urgency the first two games. The talent is there. The team just needs to play like they’re capable. It’s only the first two games. There are at least ten more to work this out. Every year the offense starts out slow and then kicks it into high gear and I don’t feel this year will be any different. The tackling on defense has been horrible. CAG and the defense knows this. It’s up to them if they want to stand up and start playing with some intensity and passsion. I believe CAG will fix this and the defense will start playing better. Can it get any worse?
GT4Ever
September 15th, 2010
6:07 am
Hill did drop a sure TD.
DC
September 15th, 2010
6:44 am
Like he fixed Virginia huh GT4ever?
Somebody doesn’t have time for that movie, TV crap. « Get The Picture
September 15th, 2010
7:07 am
[...] on the Flats after last weekend’s embarrassing loss? Well, if you do, don’t expect Paul Johnson to do much about it. “From the looks of the game, I can certainly motivate better,” Johnson [...]
Southside Drug Rep
September 15th, 2010
7:15 am
No Back to Back Losses?
Georgia wrecked Tech last November
and then they wet the bed in the Orange Bowl.
It was a great way to start 2010.
Jean Shorts Torture
September 15th, 2010
7:36 am
[...] coach, we need a montage! Paul Johnson says the Jackets won’t be using any “movie, TV crap” to bounce back from a terrible weekend in Kansas and get ready for what’s left of [...]
SCJacket
September 15th, 2010
8:20 am
Where is the senior leadership? Joshua for Heisman? Seniors make sure that players stay focused. Coaches teach X’s and O’s. If the seniors don’t seize the moment now and play well this weekend this season will spiral out of control. Hard to believe we are in this position after 2 years of watching our boys play hard every down of every game but this team is lacking something…oh yea LEADERSHIP!
Wreckbone
September 15th, 2010
8:41 am
I agree recruiting is on par for what we can expect. If we win continuously then we will get better there. We had a couple 5 star running backs looking at us. We’ll land one one day. We’ve NEVER had a 5 star recruit EVER. Look it up. the one we were gonna have was that QB who ended up at his 3rd school. Nesbitt’s passing is not up to pr but relax. the younger guys look like they can sling it a bit. CPJ will play to his players strengths and passing game is not one of ours right now. After we get a QB who can pass balls that are caught more often then we will look more balanced. I really dont understand it though. He does have plenty of drops each week that looked quite catchable. So its not all Nesbitt. We are not going to turn into a Bama winning all the time every year and remember even their first year winning 10 games they barely scraped by Duke at home. Of coarse I wanted to beat Kansas. But hey these guys are in the Big 12. they play some pretty good teams each year like Nebraska, Texas, Oklahoma. They were winning up till last year palying those types of teams so I dont think they are as bad as everyone thinks. May be on par with South Carolina….who knows? They played a complete game and we had many sloppy things. We were not blown out. We had a chance to win even playing so poorly. Those Special Teams blunders were like the turnovers they suffrered the week before. Kind of like the UNC game in 1990 (I was there – broke my neck playing Rugby the night before) we turned it over 3 times inside our own 30 and tied 13-13. We were MUCH better than that team and only tied. Its only one game and remember no bearing on conference standing and what CPJ says, good teams don’t lose 2 in a row.
Agree with Doug on the R-word. On the other board we have been top 40 past few years coming in at top 25-ish for CPJ first year. And other schools have recruited well but not gotten it done.
That’s movie crap, alright « Next Crazy Venture…
September 15th, 2010
8:52 am
[...] things affect the message that Coach Paul Johnson (aka – CPJ) is trying to get across…Movies are not real!!!! Apparently sports movies are more made up than most. That ruins The Replacements for me. [...]
juvenal
September 15th, 2010
9:03 am
SDS, won CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP between uga & iowa….Kent Hill came in at 195, 1st. rounder 5 years later…
Hayseed Dixie
September 15th, 2010
9:22 am
Wreckbone, “NEVER” had a 5 star, huh?
Then who was that Calvin Johnson guy? Three star?
Some of you Tech “fans” are pathetic. I mean, really.
While the Date Rapists like to point out that our stadium isn’t sold out regularly, I’d say there are far more people actually watching the game at Tech. Far less bandwagon fans, too. I suppose I’ve gotten used to no bandwagon Tech fans over the past 35 years, so when I see them all over this blog I get a little ill.
Tech and CPJ will be fine. CPJ can’t stand losing or lowered expectations, that much is obvious.
In parenting you have to let your kids find out the hard way sometimes, I don’t think that it’s much different in coaching. You guys want to play nonchalant, fine. Lets see how one in the L column feels. Don’t like it? Get to work. That’s what I see here.
juvenal
September 15th, 2010
9:43 am
Kent Hill came in at 195, 1st. round pick 5 years later…
Jonathan
September 15th, 2010
10:52 am
This comment is for anyone who says PJ can not recruit. At the Bama game this past weekend they interivewed Bobby Bowden and one of the primary things he alluded to for FSU struggling so much over the past decaded….. is that ALL HIS 5 & 4 STAR RECRUITS did not pan out and that the coaching staff did a poor job of recognizing who really was the real deal… Its absolutely correct to say he will never sign a Stafford or McCoy, etc…. but watch out when he gets a Pat White or Denard Robinson… So there you have it a coaching legend… saying the 4 & 5 star recruits dont mean anything… look at all the QB flops over the years in college football… Name some major college football QBs that are good in the NFL… why did Brady, Rothlesburger, Flaco, Warner, Farve??? (SoMiss are you kidding me!!!)…. Why didnt there doors get beaten down by Ohio State, UF, FSU. USC, etc… so much for recruiting!!!
Logical Tech Fan
September 15th, 2010
12:03 pm
Johnathan, You are naming OFFENSIVE PLAYERS. name some on defense that were 2 star recruits. You wont find many outstanding 2 start defensive recruits in the NFL. Defensive players have to be Athletically GIFTED, point blank. Offensive players can out-scheme and outwit, but not defense. its man on man in the open field and its man on man often before the ball is even thrown. You have to have good players at these positions.
We constantly get beat because our DBs are slow and LBs cant shed blocks fast enough.
Doug Roberson
September 15th, 2010
12:04 pm
I don’t think Mario Butler would have started for the past three seasons if he were slow.
Logical Tech Fan
September 15th, 2010
12:16 pm
Doug, Mario Butler gets burned REPEATEDLY, and he only starts because the other DBs are slower. Morgan Burnett was a good safety, but wasn’t fast enough to make up for some of his cover mistakes, i.e. the bad angles he often took.
Im not dissing the entire core, im saying that you CANNOT have DBs who run 40 times above 4.5.when the receivers they are playing run sub 4.5’s. thats LB speed for 5 start recruits.
Also, I think Isiah Johnson is going to be pretty good in a few years.
Doug Roberson
September 15th, 2010
12:45 pm
do you know the difference between a 4.3 (since below a 4.3 is almost physically impossible) and a 4.5 is negligible over 30-40 yards? To the point of being almost a pointless reference. Not being argumentative, but it is.
GT Sambo
September 15th, 2010
1:35 pm
Wow Doug! Very Nice! I would also point to the CB from Florida Joe Haden who ran a 4.6 40 at the NFL combine and still got drafted in 1st round (7th pick actually). Speed isn’t everything.
GT Sambo
September 15th, 2010
1:38 pm
Plus 40 times are so misleading based on the surface you are running on. I read a story about a guy who ran a 4.4 40 on a track and a 4.7 40 on grass. Clearly if you just read that his 40 tme was 4.4 you’d say he’s fast and if you read that his 40 time was 4.7 you would say he was slow.
RazzMaTazz
September 15th, 2010
2:34 pm
PJ’s GT teams have tended to lose when opponents have had more than one consecutive week to prepare for GT’s rarely-seen option offense. Kansas newspapers reported that KU spent much of the summer practicing for GT’s option offense which may explain why Kansas lost to North Dakota State in week 1 and beat GT in week 2. So it’ll be interesting to see if UNC’s depleted defense can thwart GT’s offense with 2 weeks to prepare.
Logical Tech Fan
September 15th, 2010
2:41 pm
Explain to me why we constantly get burned by the pass Doug and GT Sambo? its seems like alot of excuses, which don’t get you a REAL ring. I’m tired of seeing our DBs 2-3 steps behind everyone else.It was OBVIOUS in the Miami game last year. And 40 times are not misleading, they judge your acceleration more than anything else, which is what most DB’s depend on when coming in and out of breaks. some backs just cover well, i.e. Joe Haden. But the greatest of all time are the fastest, i.e. Deion Sanders. In the 90’s Florida State didnt even have to blitz because they had shut down corners everywhere.
Put it like this, our defense is 80% of the reason we lost to UGA and Miami last year. and 70% of th reason we lost to Iowa. If we dont recruit better athletes, im sorry fellas – we wont win a National Championship. We struggle against teams who have good passing attacks because of our slower and less skilled DBs and LBs. THANKFULLY Derrick Morgan disrupted the QB enough to where it nullified our lack of speed in the defensive backfield, so please don’t bring up the ACC championship.
Hayseed Dixie
September 15th, 2010
2:53 pm
Doug, I wouldn’t even respond to some of these dickheads.
RazzMaTazz
September 15th, 2010
3:20 pm
Logical Tech Fan: Interestingly, last season, GT’s two lowest yardage games came against the only two teams that had more than one straight week to prepare for GT’s rarely seen option offense; Miami and Iowa. So I don’t think it’s fair to place most of the blame for those losses on the defense. So as long bowl games are scheduled a month after the season, it looks like GT will have a tough time winning a bowl game (let alone a national title) as long as GT runs the option.
True Jacket
September 15th, 2010
8:23 pm
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Fillin' up @ Juniors
September 16th, 2010
9:18 am
I seem to remember coming out flat two years ago, and a little last year too.