Johnson: ‘Sky’s the limit’ for Tech
Greetings-
Just returned from the kickoff luncheon at the Cobb Galleria. Coach Paul Johnson spoke last, after athletic director Dan Radakovich, former center Sean Bedford and A-back Roddy Jones. Johnson had a few noteworthy things to say:
1. He said he was “embarrassed” by the way the team finished the 2010 season, “and I hope our football team felt that way.” That the team wasn’t thrilled with the season isn’t news, but I don’t think I’ve heard him use that strong a word to describe it.
2. Johnson quote: “I really believe you’re going to come out and see a football team that’s going to be hungry, that’s going to fly around, that’s going to play extremely hard and just be kind of generally [hacked] off. We have a lot of reasons to be in that mode, and if we’re not, I’m going to be really disappointed and I’m going to make sure they get in that mode fairly quickly.”
3. He kicked coaches and players off the field with about five minutes left in Thursday’s scrimmage against the scout team because he didn’t think players were playing with necessary intensity. Johnson: “That’s the message we’re trying to send. It’s a message of urgency. Nobody respects you, nobody thinks you can do anything, so it’s up to you to prove them wrong.”
4. Johnson said he believes the “sky’s the limit for our football team” and that the team “might be as talented or more talented athletically and physically than we’ve been since I’ve been here.” Not a small claim, considering the 2009 team had six first-team All-ACC players, including the 2008 ACC player of the year and two NFL first-rounders, as well as a third-rounder and also a 2011 seventh-round pick.
He said he’ll probably play eight or nine true freshmen and seven or eight redshirt freshmen. The true freshmen I am sure will play: guard Trey Braun, defensive back Zach Laskey and wide receiver Jeff Greene. True freshmen I think could play: Guards Errin Joe and Shaq Mason, wide receiver Darren Waller, quarterback Vad Lee and long snapper Sean Tobin. I imagine a linebacker or two will play, but I confess I have no read on that.
Redshirt freshmen I’m confident will play: A-back Tony Zenon, quarterback Synjyn Days, A-back Deon Hill, B-back Charles Perkins, inside linebacker Quayshawn Nealy.
5. Johnson said he thought the defense will have two senior starters on defense, maybe three, and for certain one on offense and possibly two. I would think that would be defensive tackle Logan Walls and defensive end Jason Peters, with outside linebacker Steven Sylvester the “maybe.” Linebacker Brandon Watts has challenged Sylvester.
The sure thing on offense is A-back Roddy Jones and the maybe is wide receiver Tyler Melton, who is competing with Greene for the starting job. Melton missed time in camp with a calf strain.
6. He said he likes the schedule and is how he would draw it up if he could, with three non-conference games to start.
The Western Carolina season opener is a chance “to lay the foundation for something special.”
He said he thinks Middle Tennessee State on Sept. 10 “will be a Super Bowl-type game for them,” in that a BCS conference team is coming to its place.
The Blue Raiders lost to Minnesota at home by a touchdown last year, beat Maryland on the road in 2009 and Memphis at home and three years ago, beat Maryland at home and lost to Kentucky on the road 20-14.
“It’ll be wild,” he said.
(An aside: The school’s nickname is the Blue Raiders, but the school’s athletic logo includes a white winged horse on it. Perhaps the Raiders ride atop such magnificent steeds.)
As for the Kansas game Sept. 17, he said, “I’ve got a long memory of standing on that sideline a year ago in Lawrence, Kans. It was not a happy moment or a happy place. Hopefully our guys have the same kind of desire (to avenge the loss).”
North Carolina, Sept. 24: “I hear a lot of people writing off those teams (like Miami or North Carolina). Sometimes that can be a real rallying cry.”
That was about as far as he got on the schedule, though he noted the next game is North Carolina State, “who beat us at our place a year ago.”
He said the team shows consistent improvement as opposed to the 2010 season, which he termed a roller-coaster ride where “we were never really quite sure what we were going to get.”
7. The team will vote for captains after a few games after all of the seniors have a chance to be game captains. The game captains for the opener will be Jones, Walls and Sylvester, who were chosen by the coaching staff.
8. Bedford delivered an impressive speech. He spoke about his appreciation and indebtedness to the school, how he felt blessed that his playing career traveled the course it did and that how the story of his career – hard work, dedication, academic success – isn’t so different from that of his former teammates’. I imagine many of you on the blog would have had heart palpitations hearing it.
He also included a few jabs at the NCAA and Georgia. He appreciated the choice Tech fans make to follow the Jackets and for not falling in line with the trendiness of cheering for Georgia and the ease of being able to “go to a Walmart and buying a red cap with an ugly ‘G’ on it.”
The man knows his audience. I spoke with him briefly aftewards. He started law school at Florida Monday and flew up to give the speech at the luncheon. He said he has 300 pages to read over the weekend. Aiyee.
Thanks for reading. Please follow on Facebook and Twitter.
By Ken Sugiura, AJC
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367 comments Add your comment
GT Anchorage
August 26th, 2011
5:11 pm
Man headley, you can’t come up with anything original? You have been spewing the same crap for weeks. Troy must have taught you how to speak like a liberal…
We Own You
August 26th, 2011
5:13 pm
Let’s see….He’s certain his team will “fly around” and play with urgency, yet he kicked them out of practice becasue they weren’t. He may have the most talented group he’s ever been around and yet everyone knows his recruiting has sucked and he’s planning on playing 15 freshmen…good thing Tech plays one of the weakest schedules in college football…..10 of 11, coming right up.
GT Anchorage
August 26th, 2011
5:16 pm
Wow, school must have just let out. The Trolls are here!
headley lamar
August 26th, 2011
5:17 pm
If Tech wins 7 or 8 games will they have a parade down peachtree?
headley lamar
August 26th, 2011
5:18 pm
4 Hotdogs 4 Cokes 4 Programs 4 Tickets
4 Years on Probation
Cheaters
Second major probation in 10 years.
Tech is the cesspool of the south.
RambleOn84
August 26th, 2011
5:44 pm
Funny comments from Sean Bedford.
And I’m really excited to see what these young guys can do…
Go Jackets!
juvenal
August 26th, 2011
5:44 pm
headless in assins……
Ramblin Man
August 26th, 2011
5:49 pm
We Own You,
Not sure why I am responding since you obviously don’t follow college football. How many true freshman is Richt playing?
I am aware some of the praise is different I just want to see it on the field. I watched flashes last year and just want to see 60 minutes of hard faught football win or lose.
Stumpknockerear
August 26th, 2011
5:58 pm
Wow Headless, your infatuation with GT never ceases to amaze me……..Whats wrong son the big boys on the dawg blawg won’t let you in?
headley lamar
August 26th, 2011
6:41 pm
I’m just playing. I love tech!
Supersize that order, mutt
August 26th, 2011
6:53 pm
How ironic that the mutt trolls come on here slamming CPJ for playing freshmen, while they have been drooling over the “dream team” for 6 months and bragging how those FRESHMEN are going to immediately catapult the mutts into relevancy. Once again, the mutt trolls prove they are HYPOCRITES !!!!
BigTimeTECHFan
August 26th, 2011
7:01 pm
Sounds like Johnson is fired up for the season, Tech does have it’s best raw talent, only issue is most are young. If this team get fired up and play with passion to win “sky is the limit”.
players like Nealy, Watts, L Young, Zenon, Finch, Hill, Attaochu,I Johnson, C Perkins, Holton, Drummond all big time all conference players once they get more PT
Lee Purdy
August 26th, 2011
7:04 pm
Ken
Thanks for the information.
Have they told you anything about the long snapper position. You mentioned Sean Tobin above.
Will there be a short snapper and a long snapper? Who is the coach of this position? Has there been a battle? I thought they liked Tyler Morgan a year ago. The last really good one was #50 in 1998 – I think he is playing on Sunday somewhere.
Please let us know what you know.
Lee Purdy
rogeriter
August 26th, 2011
7:06 pm
A dawgs fan here–but who cares if it was close…or flukes…or whatever. A win is based solely on the scoreboard. Tech beat us three years ago–it doesn’t matter who did what! And we’ve won the last two. Thats like saying, ‘if we had some ham, we could have ham and eggs–if we had some eggs!’
‘If” is the most useless word in the English language. If i was rich and goodlooking I could marry Angela Jolie! But I’m neither!
KB
August 26th, 2011
7:09 pm
Supersize, It is easier to get fired up of 4 and 5 star recruits that could’ve chosen to go anywhere as opposed to 3 star recruits who’s offers were limited.Not to say that the stars and the hype are correct but seriously PJ offered 12 members of the dream team , do you think if they would’ve signed with Tech you wouldn’t be excited.
dawgfan
August 26th, 2011
7:10 pm
The sky is always the limit for Georgia Tech…..in August. Then they lose and calculus, bad refs, completely unfortunate fumbles, or all of the above prevent them from reaching the sky. And of course when there are no excuses left there are always bigger fish to fry!!!
Georgia Tech=JOKE.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 26th, 2011
7:16 pm
dawgfan, sounds like you are talking about the mutts and their perennial August expectations and claims, with the same excuses except for calculus, or anything whatsoever to do with the classroom or the curriculum, since that doesn’t mean anything in Athens. Don’t try to pretend that you mutts don’t whine or make excuses after every single game you lose. And if you can find a way not to even count the game, you will do that too.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 26th, 2011
7:19 pm
KB, sorry, but a freshman is a freshman no matter how many stars he has been arbitrarily given by some rating service that has probably never even seen him play. I am just as fired up by whatever freshmen CPJ decides to play as I would be if any or all of them had 4 or 5 stars. It means that they have hit the ground running and are worthy of playing ASAP. My point was why brag about yours and slam us for playing ours, when NOBODY knows how good any of them will be until they see some game action.
dawgfan
August 26th, 2011
7:23 pm
Supersize, please use that big fat Techie mouth of yours and list all the excuses we make after all those losses to Georgia Tech.
*crickets chirpin*
A.Bishop
August 26th, 2011
7:31 pm
How is GT’s strength and conditioning? I haven’t heard anything one way or the other about it and I know that S&C was a big issue for us over the spring and summer.
I would love to see both UGA and GT have wonderful years leading up to November 26th. We need to get the state of Georgia back to a respectable level for college football.
Hope everyone is well.
dawgfan
August 26th, 2011
7:33 pm
Funny how recruiting means absolutely nothing to Techies in August but the second they lose to UGA its the only reason that we won. Remember last year’s moral victory and how Paul Johnson really schooled Mark Richt in Georgia Tech’s 9th loss in 10 years to the Dawgs? LMAO.
Georgia Tech=JOKE, but their fans are an even bigger effing joke. They’ll say whatever is convenient for the moment.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 26th, 2011
7:36 pm
Hmmm, let’s see…….first, let’s go back to 1943 and 1944, when you refused to accept the losses because Tech had Navy V12 players on the team….nevermind the fact that no other school Tech beat complained, and nevermind the fact that 29 other colleges in the country had similar athletes with no complaints from any of their opponents. You guys are still whining about some supposed fumble by Joe Hamilton during the 1998 game in Athens, the infamous Jasper Sanks fumble in 1999 (SEC officials, I might remind you), some kind of gripe about officials in the 2000 game, and a big what-if in the 2008. EVERY time Tech wins, y’all have excuses or gripes.
Rodney Dangerfield
August 26th, 2011
7:39 pm
I like the walmart comment about the dawg fans. So true.
gojackets
August 26th, 2011
7:39 pm
When Sean Bedford gets done at Florida, he’s got a job as a first year at my firm. I’d hire him in a heartbeat.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 26th, 2011
7:41 pm
gojackets, I hope your firm has a lot of money, because I bet he will cost somebody a bundle.
superDawg
August 26th, 2011
7:45 pm
We don’t need excuses just look at the score board.Yea we are the ones that can smoke your ass!
Supersize that order, mutt
August 26th, 2011
7:46 pm
you “don’t need excuses” but no matter who beats you, you whine and gripe and make excuses all the time.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 26th, 2011
7:47 pm
superDawg, you even make some of the other trolls on here look half-way intelligent. A mind is such a terrible thing to waste.
A.Bishop
August 26th, 2011
7:50 pm
Supersize,
I wouldn’t advise you wasting your time with superDawg. It’s not worth it.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 26th, 2011
7:50 pm
Speaking of WalMart, check this link out —-
http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/16029
Supersize that order, mutt
August 26th, 2011
7:51 pm
A.Bishop, I know, but being around people who are just obviously stupid brings out the worst in me.
A.Bishop
August 26th, 2011
7:55 pm
I know, I feel the same about Tech trolls on the UGA blog. Why can’t two rival fans talk like adults and not resort to playground name calling? Oh well, guess we will have to continue to ignore them.
A.Bishop
August 26th, 2011
7:56 pm
btw Supersize could you scroll up and shed some light on my question. It got passed over in the trollism going on here lol.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 26th, 2011
7:56 pm
Somebody check out that pic I posted and tell me if that mutt fan is not wearing a bra or if her head and feet are on backwards and that’s really her butt…….LOL
Supersize that order, mutt
August 26th, 2011
8:00 pm
A.Bishop, if you mean your question about strength and conditioning, I can’t help you. I live in Augusta, and the only thing I know about what’s going on on the Flats is what I read on here and what I see on game-days.
superDawg
August 26th, 2011
8:04 pm
supersize you are with out a doubt the biggest idiot I have ever seen.If you can’t except defeat after the fact then you are retarded.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 26th, 2011
8:08 pm
superDUMB, I’m not the one who can’t accept defeat. Have you heard (or read) me making any excuses here? It’s you mutts who constantly complain about the refs and the calls and the athletes YOU don’t think should be playing, regardless of what anybody else on God’s earth thinks. The mutts have excuses for everything. I guess that’s why nobody else in the SEC takes them seriously.
George Stein
August 26th, 2011
8:13 pm
I’m gonna be up all night now, Supersize. That was one of the five nastiest pictures I’ve ever seen.
Probably dawgfan’s wife.
Cmon man
August 26th, 2011
8:16 pm
former tech athlete charged with “MURDER”! Wow I thought the thugs were in athens. First there was a drug kingpin now a murderer!
Supersize that order, mutt
August 26th, 2011
8:16 pm
LOL @ George. You mean dawgfan stole her from superDawg??? OMG, the horror of it.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 26th, 2011
8:20 pm
Cmon man, that is hardly something to be making light of. Where he went to school has nothing to do with it at all, since he hasn’t even been in school for 5 years. Are you going to blame Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy too, since that’s where he went to HS? If he’s guilty then he needs to face punishment; if he’s not, then hopefully justice will prevail. But regardless, it is NOT something to use in the back-and-forth banter about the mutts and the Jackets.
Worm
August 26th, 2011
8:23 pm
Sad day for GT folks..Hate to see a life wasted..
Worm
August 26th, 2011
8:28 pm
Supersize, I’m sure the Jackets wouldn’t be bashing a Dawg charged with Murder..Doesn’t matter..There was the gun incident with Arenas, but this is SAD..God Bless the family of the “Unintended” victim…
Sounds like he was packing and “misfired”-Tragic.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 26th, 2011
8:30 pm
VERY tragic, and that’s why it should not be made light of. Let’s try to stick to more-or-less classy bantering between us.
Cmon man
August 26th, 2011
8:31 pm
Why did I know supersize would be the first person to chime in? You talk about any and everything when it comes to uga but get all pissy when it comes to tech. I have no compassion for anybody who will take another persons life especially an innocent persons life. He deserves everything he has coming hopefully he hires the lawyer that worked with tech during the ncaa investigation that way I know he wont see daylight anytime soon!
Juice
August 26th, 2011
8:32 pm
Karma is a wonderful thing….. Bedford say something “funny” about another school… and now look at HIS school….. Love karma…..Who laughing now? ME….
final score > total rushing yards
August 26th, 2011
8:38 pm
MURDER > traffic violations and not having middle names.
ole yeller
August 26th, 2011
8:39 pm
Hate to jump into this but you call supersize an idiot and cannot spell “accept” correctly. Superdawg go hug your mama you need help.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 26th, 2011
8:46 pm
I agree that it is a terrible incident and if guilty, he should face the stiffest penalty possible. But for any of you idiots to blame Tech for what happened just shows how classless you are, as you have proven over and over with the crap you spewed about the Tech terrorist, the Tech prof recently indicted (TURNED IN BY TECH, I MIGHT ADD) for kiddie porn, and other incidents that you dredge up to slam Tech. Of course, we come back at you with similar charges against UGA; that SHOULD prove to you that the school really has nothing to do with the actions of a few nuts who go, went, or work there. And yet every time something new happens, you trolls try to stir up things all over again.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 26th, 2011
8:50 pm
Cmon man, another thing, when I say something about your school or team, I only say it to you trolls who come on here trying to stir things up…..usually with lies and distortions. I don’t even go to the mutt blogs and say things, whether bad or good. I have no interest in reading your blogs or posting things on them. Why are you on here? Is your obsession with all things Tech so great that you don’t have a life? You definitely need to get one.