Johnson’s most frustrating issue this season
Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson said the most frustrating thing about this 6-5 season is his inability “to find the hot button on this team.”
He said finding ways to motivate his players has been consistently difficult.
“People can cry about schemes and play-calling, but the chemistry and just being able to do that [motivate] are just as important,” Johnson said.
This week shouldn’t be an issue.
“It’s for the state championship and bragging rights,” he said. “Pick one game off our schedule for alumni, fans and everyone involved, this is the game they would pick.”
He said that he and his staff have tried many different things this season, from the obvious and popular what’s at stake for Tech to what’s at stake for the other team.
“Try everything until you find something that works,” he said.
When asked what motivated last year’s ACC championship team, he said, “If I knew I would use it this year. I don’t know. It just happens.
“I’m more frustrated about that than anything else.”
Motivating teams hasn’t been difficult for Johnson at previous stops at Navy at Georgia Southern.
Discussing this topic last week, Johnson said at Navy the players knew that they weren’t highly recruited. Therefore, “if they didn’t play like their hair was on fire,” they could be embarrassed.
At Georgia Southern, the players didn’t want to be the class that didn’t get a chance to make it to the national championship game. They won two consecutive while Johnson was the head coach.
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206 comments Add your comment
ga tech 92
November 24th, 2010
11:04 am
Reckx-nEffect – Yeah, those three schools have been good LATELY, no doubt. GT was good in the what 20’s. Landscapes change. Politics change. There are a LOT of dynamics other than the coach. My point is “cpj is not the problem”. Logically if he were the problem, then other coaches would have out recruited the other major in state football team…at least a few times in the history of the Earth right? Twice?…Once?….oh wait….no one has EVER done it?…wow…umm…so your points seem valid…however history indicates there is more of a problem than CPJ at work, since NO ONE has EVER been able to do what your understating. (1) CPJ has won more his first two years than anyone ever at GT, yet that’s not good enough for you…and (2) NO ONE has EVER out recruited UGA…ever…yet you think CPJ should recruit ‘better’…(3) the kind of coach who could get SLIGHTLY higher regarded recruits (yet still inferior to UGA) is the kind of coach who would be running something more conventional (which appeals to more recruits). We can’t win on recruiting. We never have and never will. We have to win with smoke and mirrors and a no-nonsense coach who offends people by telling it like it is. Do you think maybe some of the recruits your talking about end up at other SEC schools? Do you think maybe the SEC is VASTLY more attractive to the average stud jock? It would be to me and I’m GT fan to the bone. You gotta see the forest for the trees sometimes…again..CPJ won more games than anyone ever has at GT in his first two years…he beat UGA, beat FSU for the first time in the ACC ever, did a lot of firsts and now you wanna see him in a negative light for being the same guy. I admit it’s frustrating to be a GT fan, if you like winning all the time. I feel the same way dude! GT is not setup to be a football powerhouse, because a lot of important things have changed in the landscape of politics, ATL, the South, education, TV, and a lot of other things….none of which a GT football coach can control. All I would ask is, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water…don’t miss the forest for the trees…and let’s at the very least let CPJ’s contract play out. We’ll know a lot more by the time his contract ends. If you want to FIRE someone, then FIRE Hewitt, because his f’ing contract won’t ever end otherwise. He’s the fish we should be focused on firing.
Junior's Grill
November 24th, 2010
11:04 am
Johnson’s true recruits are either Freshmen, red-shirt Freshmen, or Sophmores. Al Groh has yet to complete a recruiting cycle for the defense. Recruiting and development of players for a system of offense or defense takes more than two recruiting cycles and off-seasons. Football is not fast-food, where most of the UGAg trash works. These are the same folks on the Georgia blogs calling for Richt’s head. Should be an interesting night in Athens Saturday, between two sub-par squads. I’ll wager we won’t be flipping to another channel.
dumb dawg fan
November 24th, 2010
11:04 am
Apparently, “r*ed p*anties” is a blocked term on the blog. Really sleazy way of showing dawg bias AJC.
HenryCountyGT
November 24th, 2010
11:08 am
The same problem that Paul Johnson faces is faced my Mark Richt and every other college football coach.
Today’s players don’t have the work ethic that, at one time, was considered standard. They are spoon-fed pu$$ies.
My wife and I went to a dinner party. I got a chance to chat with a former Tech player.
He played for Chan Gailey and Paul Johnson. I asked him to compare the two coaches.
This is what he said:
Chan Gailey is a really nice guy. I liked him.
Paul Johnson is mean. He made us practice harder and do a bunch of extra things.
Folks, this is straight from one of the horses mouths.
Any kid would say he’d love an National Championship ring and to excel in the NFL. However, fewer and fewer are willing to do what it takes to get there.
These clowns go to school free of charge.
go now
November 24th, 2010
11:09 am
Bring back Chan, please move ot Buffalo and take the rest of the UGA morons with you including Paddy, Delbert and the rest of these people who think they are the authority of GT
HenryCountyGT
November 24th, 2010
11:11 am
Test. Maybe this won’t get blocked.
ga tech 92
November 24th, 2010
11:13 am
side note: With the state giving the already over-rich UGA funding to do Engineering…with GA State having an ATL college team (which doesn’t have to take GT calculus)…with so many pro sports to take the limited casual fan dollars…I personally see GT as gradually continuing to degrade in football to something more like a service academy over time. I just don’t see how we can ever be much more than a flash in the pan. If you were a stud jock, would you rather take really hard classes and live downtown, or would you rather take easier (Ga State) classes and live down town? If you were a stud jock and you want to be at a football factory, then you’ll pick UGA. In either case, none of this stuff HELPS GT get better over time, they only serve to create more challenges. Maybe we should just fold up the tents and build a parking lot? Could you imagine if you graduated from Duke and you LOVED college football. You would constantly be trying to figure out a way to get your football team to somehow be ‘better’, yet you wouldn’t succeed over the long haul. Football isn’t THE priority at either GT or Duke (at least Duke gets the relief of being a consistent basketball team) and no amount of blogging is going to change it for either school. (No, I’m not saying GT is as hard as Duke, but there are more similiarities than there are between GT and UGA…in terms of what that make one a football factory and what doesn’t.)
HenryCountyGT
November 24th, 2010
11:16 am
Paul Johnson, Mark Richt, and every other coach face the same issue:
Today’s players have *zero* work ethic.
I chatted with a player who played under Chan Gailey and Paul Johnson. This is how he compared the coaches.
“Chan Gailey is a nice guy. I liked him.”
“Paul Johnson is mean. He made us practice harder and do a bunch of extra stuff.”
GTSteve
November 24th, 2010
11:17 am
I know others have posted this already, but why is Tech talking about the bowl game already, when you are 6-5 or 5-6 or anything close to a crap season, your most important game is the rivalry game…..If Tech can find a way to win Saturday, I will consider this a successful season…If CPJ doesn’t think this is a “BIG” game, he needs to come with me to lunch Sunday at my Mom’s house, with all those UGA fans, he will understand then.
GO JACKETS
November 24th, 2010
11:18 am
This may not be the season to remember but so glad CPJ is our coach..Nothing better to watch than the A or B back breaking out and heading for the end zone, love the triple option.. There are so many coaches in football that do not have the character, many of them in the south eastern cheaters and those like Pelini showing his @__, Kelly who ups and leaves an undefeated team for Notre Shame before their bowl game..
Having said that I will say this and do not expect anyone to agree with me from the GT family, but disappointed that the juniors, Morgan,Thomas, Dwyer and Burnett left. Why? Because Nesbitt, Allen, Jefferson, Reese, Roddy Jones and the rest of the starters deserved them to stay. They were players also with character. You could have waited another year, all of you. And do not want to hear about the lockout NFL argument. Nobody is going to keep the NFL out too long in this country.
GTSteve
November 24th, 2010
11:19 am
I hope the GT line blocks this weekend as well as the AJC is blocking posts
GTSteve
November 24th, 2010
11:19 am
AHH, got one through
Okeefe/Bob
November 24th, 2010
11:19 am
My My such ignorance do I read on this blog.Everyone was happy with CPJ the last two years–oh but I forget,we aren’t going to win 10 games this year so the rats jump ship with the first sign of a storm.I’ve watched GT football for more years than most of you and I can tell you he is the tonic we need.He is going to win and win big.Just quit the b—-ing and keep a little faith.
ga tech 92
November 24th, 2010
11:25 am
Okeefe/Bob – you’re the man dude…well said
Doug Roberson
November 24th, 2010
11:26 am
That was blocked because it was being used in ways that were pornographic
HenryCountyGT
November 24th, 2010
11:27 am
@ GTSteve
The AJC is running a 3-4 defense. 3 or 4 of our posts get through.
@ GO JACKETS
I miss those guys too but they have their own lives to consider. If they stayed the extra year and got hurt. No NFL.
Spike
November 24th, 2010
11:29 am
Doug Roberson.. GATA!!
hey Are You Serious
November 24th, 2010
11:32 am
Enter your comments here
doug is painfully obvious
November 24th, 2010
11:34 am
that you block more trash talking gt fans than you do mutts.
GTSteve
November 24th, 2010
11:35 am
@Doug ???????
Doug Roberson
November 24th, 2010
11:36 am
the filters cut out certain things, as I’ve said. Don’t say those things, and you won’t get blocked.
4th and Long Gone
November 24th, 2010
11:37 am
CPJ isn’t blaming the players and isn’t throwing his players under the bus. He is saying that it is his job to motivate them, but at times that can be the hardest part of the job. Each team is different and what motivates one team doesn’t necessarily motivate another.
Yes, recruiting is important, but not the most important thing. When UGA promoted Ray Goff instead of Erk Russell, they did so because Ray Goff was the superstar recruiter. I think they probably would have been better off hiring the better coach instead of the better recruiter.
CPJ just tells it like he sees it. He doesn’t sugar coat anything for the media or make his statements more politically correct.
GT is in good hands with CPJ, so everyone just needs to lay off. It is probably just the UGA fans posing as Tech fans writing all the negative stuff. CPJ cares about winning, so he will not settle for less. That doesn’t mean he will go undefeated every year, but it does mean he won’t stop trying. There is not a better coach for GT than CPJ.
GTSteve
November 24th, 2010
11:38 am
Okay, I didn’t think I said anything too bad…sorry
Rex---Nfx
November 24th, 2010
11:43 am
re: HenryCountyGT
If CPJ makes em do all that extra stuff, then WHY isn’t his Team more precise and error-free on Saturday afternoons when it really counts.
If they’re doing all that “extra stuff” and they still fail on Saturdays against “real teams”, then the Players must not be very good OR CPJ’s Schemes must not be very good OR a combination of both.
You can’t do all that extra stuff and still play sloppy come game-time.
Thanks for that info, now that we know the Players are working extra hard, that helps us narrow down where the Problems with GT’s FB Program really lie (hint, hint the HC).
GT
November 24th, 2010
11:45 am
The Georgia high school student is not motivated. Strange ,but these players show up to college not motivated to study, not motivated to behave and in Johnson’s case not motivated to play football. Exceptions academically are being made for almost the entire team at Tech and Georgia. The state can barely field a student smart enough to get in the front door of these universities, so it shouldn’t be a surprise this walking brain dead we are letting in the back can’t produce. University of Georgia suffers the same as we do, it is about to lose Richt his job, the school its reputation. I think we may start looking at better students at Tech results be damned, because it is being damn anyway. I truly do not understand why the papers don’t call these players out more before the big problems occur. They didn’t turn thugs over night, it has been and will be there for any working class press member to see. Even at the high school level stand on a side line of a game and listen to what is said and done, by players and coaches. When I was in high school back in the 70s I got thrown out of a game for cussing in the huddle, by a ref, now the priest on the sideline is leveling everybody with the F bomb. Ealey had a reputation as this kind of personality coming into Georgia, spitting on people, junk like that, then Spikes pokes his eyeballs which I imagine he deserved and Barnhart acts like we talking about angels. Our state is raising thugs. We need to fix it, or it will fix itself and these kids won’t get a chance at a college education, and maybe that is only right the way they treat it. We are the dumbest state education wise in the country. We all share a little guilt here, but stop letting these punks in our colleges, they are compromises what little we have to work with now.
Ramblin Man
November 24th, 2010
11:46 am
Rex,
As I stated I was not making excuses in the first place. Now I will say that there are a few players that are making a difference. Finch is looking pretty good on the line. Orwin Smith makes an impact in almost every game. Defense has some playmakers, but they are learning a new system and that is tough for freshman or senior. It is dumb to mention players like Dwyer, Thomas, Burnett, and Morgan because special players are hard to come by.
Student Athlete
November 24th, 2010
11:48 am
This team is a direct reflection of CPJ; he could careless about throwing a player under the bus and making smart allelic public comments about players; CPJ always speaks in a “US” “THEM” fashion to separate himself from the team after a loss, he is a “power junkie” that cares about nothing but himself; it is clear to me that the players have adopted the same attitude as their coach.
Rex.eN.fx
November 24th, 2010
11:50 am
It seems those filters are blocking certain E-mail addresses so that they can censor certain “honest posters” that won’t parrot the Company Line that CPJ is feeding to the GT Fanbase.
They are also blocking certain screen names also, for the same reason.
Posting are being blocked and it has nothing to do with banned words.
WHITE and GOLD
November 24th, 2010
11:53 am
Why don’t all you guys who are claiming that Saturday is going to be a blowout call up CPJ and the players and tell them to not even show up… Why bother right? You fairweather fans make me sick… Yeah I remembr an ACC championship team that was supposed to blow UGAg out last year… and look what happened. True fans don’t write off their team before they have even stepped on the field… Go cheer for boise state if your looking for a bandwagon to hop on to. THWG.
Rex.iN.effx
November 24th, 2010
11:54 am
re: Ramblin Man
Isn’t that why CPJ gets paid the big bucks?
Experience is not the true reason as you have outlined above, the true reason is finding Elite levels of talent, not waiting until we have RS-Srs. on the O-line which is what he has been telling his fanbase. (we didn’t have RS-Srs. on the O-line in 08 & 09)
When HCs are deceptive on issues like that, it raises a red flag for me.
Doug, is there a list
November 24th, 2010
11:54 am
of the seven (probably more) things that will trip the blocker.
I’m real sure a post of mine was blockrd that had no resemblance of porn…
FURMAN PALADIN DEATH DEALER
November 24th, 2010
11:55 am
VRTECHFAN:
THANKS FOR STAYING WITH YOUR TEAM THROUGH THICK AND THIN….GEORGIA AND TECH HAVE WAY TOO MANY BANDWAGONEERS, THEY ONLY SUPPORT WHEN THINGS ARE GOING GREAT AND CRY LIKE A BUNCH OF LITTLE BABIES WHEN THINGS AREN’T…..THEIR CHARACTER IS SHOWN IN SOME OF THESE BLOGS, AND I WOULD HATE TO BE IN A FOX HOLE WITH THEM PROTECTING MY BACK…..
GT
November 24th, 2010
11:56 am
The state of Georgia cannot educate it’s kids. This is what is showing up in our colleges. These kids that don’t deserve to go to college in the first place are a case example of what failure is. Both schools in this state are suffering from it. Motivation, not lack of IQ is the cancer of this state, has been since I can remember and will be. No body is holding the school systems accountable. No one is holding parents accountable. It use to just reach the city kids now it is in the country. When you try to understand what has cause this economic turn down put that in your formula.
roughrider
November 24th, 2010
12:05 pm
As a UGA grad, I always pull for Tech when they are not playing UGA. I pull for Georgia Southern also.With that said, I’m surprised at Coach Johnson placing the blame on his players all the time. When he was a Southern and Navy, we never saw these types of comments in the media.
astute observer
November 24th, 2010
12:14 pm
GT, you’re blaming the economic downturn on college kids? This economic collapse had been brewing for years and is hardly the fault of anyone under the age of 40.
juvenal
November 24th, 2010
12:26 pm
so what do Stanford s-a’s major in?
Rex---Nfx = mutt fan
November 24th, 2010
12:34 pm
Enter your comments here
GT
November 24th, 2010
12:37 pm
I was around 40 years ago. A kid that couldn’t read or write couldn’t get into college, a lot that could didn’t go either. There were that many colleges so the deploma met something. Now days, in this state, and the record shows it, we are walking illiterate, yet we call ourselves college students, even graduates, a lie. In a economy same as a football team someone has to produce. If you are putting a overweight, another problem we didn’t have so much of 40 years ago, idiot in a man’s job, next thing you know judges are getting shot while the idiot is out getting his idiot boss breakfast, planes are flying into building while low level unmotivated security at airports fraternize and economies waiting for the next man to carry their load while we all make big paycheck collapse. Johnson did have these problems at Navy or Georgia Southern, they didn’t care about football enough to compromise what little education they had ot offer. On this stage we compromise, and it will be the end of a lot more than football before it is over.
GT, here is a suggestion
November 24th, 2010
12:52 pm
Change your name!
the real Old Gold
November 24th, 2010
12:56 pm
Wrex-N-Fx is the best thing wriiten ever on this post and completely true!
astute observer
November 24th, 2010
12:56 pm
GT, I don’t disagree about colleges today being diploma factories and degree’s being less relevant. But our economic situation is at the feet of a much older crowd. I don’t see any college age kids in congress.
4 Jacks
November 24th, 2010
1:14 pm
Garcia, you are an idiot and a troll…enough said…CPJ will be just fine and in two years this will not even be a blimp on the radar.
GT
November 24th, 2010
1:17 pm
Here is a suggestion. We lack character. No one wants to call anyone out for it so it just keeps on getting worse. We need a lot more Johnson types, and a lot more people trying to reach a bar of accomplishment, instead of motivation problems. A man that has character or a team will be a valued commodity in this day and time.
Ramblin Man
November 24th, 2010
1:19 pm
Rex,
We are just going to have to agree to disagree. I do not blame CPJ for the defensive problems, that is Groh’s problem to fix. Now if Groh cannot fix them then I frimly believe he will go the way of Wommack. I do agree with you that there is no excuse for not being able to get these kids more fired up. I don’t believe that Gailey was a better recruiter he got lucky with some, but he never recruited a full good team he had good players from time to time that were rarely in the same class. The main problem CPJ is going to have when recruiting is it GT. I love GT but we are never going to be able to recruit 4 or 5 top players in any partucular position and look for atleast two of them to pan out. Most other schools can recruit say 3 what look to be really good LT in a particular recruiting year and only one of them will really work out. GT on the other hand may get one and then a nobody and pray one of them can play.
Tech’s Johnson Admits Motivating Team Has Been Difficult | ChuckOliver.Net
November 24th, 2010
1:25 pm
[...] http://blogs.ajc.com/georgia-tech-sports/2010/11/24/johnsons-most-frustrating-issue-this-season/?cxn... [...]
10-0 PAC10 > 11-0 SEC
November 24th, 2010
1:44 pm
Ramblin Man
How do you explain Stanford’s success?
done for me lately?
November 24th, 2010
1:56 pm
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME LATELY SOCIETY! I”M VERY CONCERNED THAT WE HUMANS ARE GOING DOWN THE SH_TTER! GIVE THE MAN A CHANCE. YES, I ONLY TYPE IN CAPITAL LETTERS.
MiamiJacket
November 24th, 2010
1:57 pm
The problem with Tech this year and the reason that we are not having success is that we have become completely one dimensional on offense. I said it last year and I stand by my statement that the loss of Demaryius Thomas has hurt the team more than any other player. Any one dimensional offense can be beaten which is what we are currently seeing. We’d don’t need to put up big passing stats, but we at least need to have the threat of being able to pass. Nesbitt has regressed as a passer and Washington as we all know is a redshirt freshman. Defenses have zero respect for our ability to complete passes and have been pulling safeties up in run support and have corners typically crashing the line after the snap. Until, we regain at least a passing threat, we will continue to struggle offensively.
Defensively, we’ve just got to get bigger up front, faster and more athletic at the linebacker positions. You can play defense all right being either small or slow but not both. And what I’ve seen the last couple of years, our defense has looked small and probably as slow as any defense I can remember at Tech. Our LBs block themselves out of the play half of the time. I am starting to wonder if not practicing against effective power I and passing teams is keeping our D from getting any better. Maybe we should recruit a 3 star drop back passer qb just to run scout team for our D during the week because they look completely lost come game time.
gt84
November 24th, 2010
2:02 pm
as coach pj said before ” its never as good as it seems when you win and its never as bad as it seems when you lose” of cousre we are having a down year but coach pj earned for us to cut him some slack for what he did the 1st 2 years if in 2-3 years we are still average then then we should be concerned!! and for the people that think we will get blown out by ga yall are idiots, ga is 5-6 we are 6-5 both playing a easy schedule, this will be a shootout ,on paper ga should win with their talent but who knows stranger things have happened, the last 2 years the team soppose to win did not.
i like my team-tech to play its best game of the year tech wins 38-35
astute observer
November 24th, 2010
2:13 pm
Sure, a three star drop back passer is going to come to Tech and give up his dream of playing college quarterback to run our scout team. If we are going to run an effective 3-4 then it all starts up front. We have got to have bigger and stronger bodies on the DL or it will never work. Period. I did not like this move to a 3-4 defense because it would have been much easier personnel wise to build an effective defense at TECH employing a 4-3.