Paul Johnson Q&A (mostly A)
Following Wednesday’s morning practice, Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson spoke at longer length than the standard post-practice media session, mixing news and opinion. A recap:
1. Scout-team work for Virginia Tech could start Thursday.
2. Punter Sean Poole and kicker David Scully continue to lead at their respective positions. (I first phrased the question, “Are the punters and kickers still the same?” to which Johnson replied, “Yeah. They’re still kickers and punters.”)
3. He had no update on offensive tackle Morgan Bailey’s condition. Bailey suffered a concussion late last week. “It’s strictly medical,” Johnson said. “He’ll come back when the medical staff tells us he’s ready.”
One development from Bailey and tackle Ray Beno being out is that players like Bryan Chamberlain are receiving extra repetitions at tackle. Nick McRae, Chase Roberts and Trey Braun have also been out there, offensive line coach Mike Sewak said in a previous post.
Said Johnson of Chamberlain, “I think he’s going to be good.”
4. Johnson didn’t have a preference for freshman punter Ryan Rodwell to redshirt this season, which would create another year’s separation between he and Poole, who is a junior.
“If he’s better, he’ll punt,” he said. “If he’s not, he won’t.”
5. A question about defensive end Francis Kallon touched a favorite topic of Johnson’s – the interest of fans (and media) in how soon freshmen will play.
“He’s got a great attitude. He works hard. This is his second year of football. Everybody wants to see these guys play right away. I get a kick out of it. It’s like somebody asking me about Vad Lee. Vad Lee’s a freshman, so let’s give up on him and move onto the next guy because he isn’t playing. Does anybody remember a guy named Joe Hamilton? I do, because I came down here in ’96 (as a first-year offensive coordinator at Navy) when Joe Hamilton was a sophomore (actually, a freshman) and we beat their pants off at Navy (a 36-26 win). He threw an interception for touchdowns and he went on to become a pretty good quarterback when he was a junior and senior, didn’t he? Maybe the best one ever here?”
(Hamilton was 11-for-23 for 211 yards and threw two fourth-quarter interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown.)
6. More on Kallon:
“He’s green. He’s learning how to play the game, but he’s every bit as ahteltic as we thought. He’s big, can run but he’s also playing against bigger, stronger, faster guys than in high school, so you can’t get by on just being able to be big and run.”
7. Synjyn Days played the whole Wednesday morning practice at A-back. At this point, gaining comfort at that position is more important than getting reps at quarterback, he said, since Days already knows that position. But Days’ performance at A-back has left him encouraged.
“It’s just knowing steps and angles, and stuff like that, you only gain by playing,” Johnson said.
8. Backup nose tackle Shawn Green has “had a really good camp. I’ve been really pleased with Shawn. He’s done some good things.”
9. After another question about Days, Johnson was asked if B-back Charles Perkins, who was dropped behind Zach Laskey to No. 3 on the depth chart this week, was a consideration to move to A-back:
“We’ve talked about it at times but there again, (he’s) a sophomore and he’s hurt right now. He’s not out there. It’s like I said: When you do the depth (chart), just because you set it, doesn’t mean it’s set in stone. He may come out and have a better week than the other guy and move back in front of him. So I know everybody’s anxious to play and ready to get started and ready to get news, but every little thing’s not end-all, be-all. A lot’s going to happen between now and the time we play on Monday night.”
10. Johnson said it doesn’t matter to him if, among the receivers, the heavy majority of passes go to one player (like Stephen Hill or Demaryius Thomas) or if it’s a more even split. Story about receivers here.
“If you have a guy that’s a big-play guy, you’re going to try to get them the ball more,” he said. “It could be more (even) distribution. The A-backs could be more involved. It just depends.”
11. On nose tackle T.J. Barnes: “I think he’s done O.K. His stamina seems to be better. Again, we’ll see once we start playing. You’ve got to play yourself into shape. That’s what camp’s about. You can bust your tail in the summer, and you have to, but it’s a different kind of shape when you start playing.”
Thanks for reading.
Ken Sugiura, Georgia Tech blog
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382 comments Add your comment
GT Lee
August 17th, 2012
10:58 am
39 Vols lost Rose Bowl in 40
Supersize that order, mutt
August 17th, 2012
10:59 am
I just found what Lee found
1 4 GT
August 17th, 2012
10:59 am
Duke is right. I shoulda said regular season. Coach Wallace Wade. They used to be really good.
GT Lee
August 17th, 2012
10:59 am
1933 DePauw Tigers?
GT Lee
August 17th, 2012
11:00 am
1 4 GT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_Tennessee_Volunteers_football_team
GTVegas
August 17th, 2012
11:01 am
Hey, my wife went to UGA and it pays to be a bit more diplomatic, not that a winless UGA would make me depressed at all.
I’m just saying that beating an undefeated UGA team would be that much more satisfying and losing to one might not mean as much. I guess the same thing can be said of any opponent.
Where is 1990? Wonder if Ken got to him…..
Supersize that order, mutt
August 17th, 2012
11:01 am
UT in ‘39 looks like the one
1 4 GT
August 17th, 2012
11:06 am
I was wrong. I read about Duke some years back, but the author of the article I read misinformed his readers. My bad. I did not know about Tn.
GT Lee
August 17th, 2012
11:07 am
Funny that they BOTH lost their bowl game!
Supersize that order, mutt
August 17th, 2012
11:08 am
I didn’t know any team had ever gone unscored on throughout the season. That’s quite an accomplishment. And imagine, Duke of all teams was one of them.
GT Lee
August 17th, 2012
11:08 am
“Where is 1990?”
Probably crashing hard after coming down from his crack high
1 4 GT
August 17th, 2012
11:11 am
I just made myself look bad. Oh well. Not the 1st time–won’t be the last either. I Googled it just now. Only been a few. Yale did it 4 times. WAAAAAYYYYYYYY back when. Can you imagine doing it now. A shut out now is really rare.
1 4 GT
August 17th, 2012
11:12 am
GT Lee. When is a good time to call you?
GT Lee
August 17th, 2012
11:14 am
any time you want to
Supersize that order, mutt
August 17th, 2012
11:14 am
Colgate did it in ‘32
1 4 GT
August 17th, 2012
11:16 am
The internet didn’t exist, I guess, when I read an article about Duke’s glory days in football. Can understand the author missing Tn. Research is much easier today.
GT Lee
August 17th, 2012
11:17 am
Kentucky in 1898!
GT Lee
August 17th, 2012
11:17 am
1 4 GT you sure the article you read wasn’t written in 1938? LOL
GT Lee
August 17th, 2012
11:31 am
Sorry 1 4 GT my phone just died…..
FL Jacket
August 17th, 2012
11:58 am
Hey guys, how are y’all doing?
I just wrote an article on From The Rumble Seat you might be interested in reading…
http://www.fromtherumbleseat.com/2012/8/17/3215774/dispelling-again-the-extra-time-to-prepare-for-the-triple-option
Supersize that order, mutt
August 17th, 2012
12:27 pm
WOW, FLJ…….that was incredibly impressive. Did you really write that? AWESOME!!! It should be required reading by all football “experts”. You should send a copy to Ken and also to Wes Durham
Supersize that order, mutt
August 17th, 2012
12:27 pm
Got to get some lunch now, but hope to chat some about it later.
GT Lee
August 17th, 2012
12:34 pm
Nice article FLJ!!!
HighTech
August 17th, 2012
12:44 pm
Good article, FL Jacket. We will need to repost that link often.
George Stein
August 17th, 2012
12:52 pm
Nicely done, FLJ.
The thing that makes me chuckle is when people say playing assignment defense will stop an option offense. Forgive me, but I’m unaware of defenses that don’t require players to hold their assignment. The real way to stop an option offense is to give one player two assignments. Iowa did that with Adrian Clayborne, but that kind of player is, thankfully, rare.
GT fan
August 17th, 2012
12:53 pm
Tech Guy
August 16th, 2012
3:23 pm
Tech needs to complete 65% of the passes to keep the defenses honest. If that can be accomplished, the option will be unstopable.
————————————-
Tech guy, don’t be so pessimistic.
Considering that none of PJ’s 4 season’s has seen them complete even 50% of their passes, I’ll guaruntee completing 65% would make the offense unstopable.
FL Jacket
August 17th, 2012
1:00 pm
SS…Yes I did research and write that. I invite you guys to sign up there and join our discussion every now and then. Like I mentioned before, it’s troll-free (since it requires registering) and moderated.
GS…Adrian Clayborn made Nick Claytor and the rest of the 2009 line look silly. The beauty of the way CPJ runs the offense is that you can adjust out of any assignment scheme the defense might be running at you…which is why many people call the offense “indefensible” if ran correctly.
GTfan 2012
August 17th, 2012
1:12 pm
Great piece FL Jacket. Also, I remember seeing somewhere that VT was only going to spend an extra day or two max (beyond normal in-season prep) of practice time preparing for GT’s offense.
They must be overlooking us, because we all know that conventional wisdom says that extra practice time against the TO is priceless
GT fan
August 17th, 2012
1:19 pm
channeling the famous Harvard economist Galbraith, describes the process of how certain ideas, whether accurate or not, eventually become “conventional wisdom” in our society because of general ignorance or laziness to validate their veracity.
————————–
Kinda like the “it’s the SEC” myth.
GTfan 2012
August 17th, 2012
1:32 pm
Is it really a myth when you’ve won the last 7 national championships? At least there is some empirical evidence to it back up… just sayin
FL Jacket
August 17th, 2012
1:37 pm
GTfan2012…does it explain why UNC had the most players drafted of any college in 2011?
GTfan 2012
August 17th, 2012
1:41 pm
FLJacket,
You would have gone to the NFL too if you thought that the NCAA was about to blow up your entire sham of an academic career through its “investigation”. Turns out we had to wait for some NC State bloggers to do that.
FL Jacket
August 17th, 2012
1:47 pm
GTfan2012…not disputing UNCheat. The fact is that they had a ton of guys with the caliber of getting to the NFL…and those guys didn’t have to choose the SEC to get there.
George Stein
August 17th, 2012
1:54 pm
The SEC has not won a damn thing; individual schools in that conference have. Until Vanderbilt gets to have a piece of the crystal football, I’ll tune out when someone says conference X won something.
Ghost
August 17th, 2012
2:06 pm
UNC would’ve had a much better record in 2010 if Austin, Little and Quinn (1 first round 2 2nd round Picks) would’ve played in 2010. Searcy a 4th round pick missed the 1st 3 games.
WnE
August 17th, 2012
2:12 pm
re:
George Stein
August 17th, 2012
1:54 pm
The SEC has not won a damn thing; individual schools in that conference have. Until Vanderbilt gets to have a piece of the crystal football, I’ll tune out when someone says conference X won something.
___________
That sounds good until you consider that the ACC has something like a 2-14 (or worse) record in BCS bowl Games, a stat that has been helped by a wide cross section of ACC teams.
George Stein
August 17th, 2012
2:15 pm
Nice to see WnE showed up just in time to miss the point.
WnE
August 17th, 2012
2:17 pm
re:
Ghost
August 17th, 2012
2:06 pm
UNC would’ve had a much better record in 2010 if Austin, Little and Quinn (1 first round 2 2nd round Picks) would’ve played in 2010. Searcy a 4th round pick missed the 1st 3 games.
__________
You’re wasting your keystrokes!
CPJ has already “infected” the GT fanbase.
Despite the fact that we had good success with pretty good talent in CPJ’s 1st 2 season, the majority of the GT fanbase thinks that a “magical system” will over ride TALENT.
CPJ’s offensive system is 1-11 vs. Top-50 defenses over the last 2 seasons.
We are 14-12 the last 2 seasons vs. the 76th & 69th toughest schedules in 2011 & 2010.
The GT fanbase is so infected by CPJ that they don’t want to see that we have been getting fat on a weak OOC schedule and having the good fortune of the ACC being very weak during CPJ’s first 4 seasons.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 17th, 2012
2:21 pm
I’ve said it before, and I will say it again, and again…….AND AGAIN !!!
U O A D !!!
George Stein
August 17th, 2012
2:22 pm
You’re wasting your keystrokes, too, WnE. No one is paying attention to you.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 17th, 2012
2:30 pm
I bet WnE disputes the stats and FACTS that FLJ researched and posted in his article. That’s typical of pompous, opinionated trolls. Personally I will take facts over opinions any day. But since I no longer even read what gollum posts, I guess I will never know for sure.
WnE
August 17th, 2012
2:33 pm
re:
Supersize that order, mutt
August 17th, 2012
2:21 pm
I’ve said it before, and I will say it again, and again…….AND AGAIN !!!
U O A D !!!
____________
Aw isn’t that cute!
Showing solidarity for a fallen comrade.
Your boy got his @$$ banned and he deserved it, while guys like me are perfect gentlemen and know how to behave such that I have never, ever been warned for anything that I have posted.
I’ll bet that eats at you.
Your sleeping bag partner 5150UOAD gets booted, and a guys like me that you disagree with never even get chastised.
I guess when you’re an angel like me that rarely uses profanity people have no reason to ban you.
Ol'JacketFan
August 17th, 2012
2:33 pm
UOAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
duece coupe
August 17th, 2012
2:38 pm
Good interview with #17 Orwin Smith
on espn.com college football ACC.
FL Jacket
August 17th, 2012
2:40 pm
“The GT fanbase is so infected by CPJ that they don’t want to see that we have been getting fat on a weak OOC schedule and having the good fortune of the ACC being very weak during CPJ’s first 4 seasons.”
Huh? Did you not read the earlier post about UNC having the most players drafted into the NFL of any one school in 2011? I object to the notion that the ACC doesn’t have talent.
WnE
August 17th, 2012
2:43 pm
re:
Supersize that order, mutt
August 17th, 2012
2:30 pm
I bet WnE disputes the stats and FACTS that FLJ researched and posted in his article. That’s typical of pompous, opinionated trolls. Personally I will take facts over opinions any day. But since I no longer even read what gollum posts, I guess I will never know for sure.
__________
So you prefer facts like:
3-13 vs the the Big-4 since CPJ got here.
The big 4 being Va Tech, Miami, UGA, the Bowl Game.
GTVegas
August 17th, 2012
2:44 pm
UOAD !!!!!
WnE
August 17th, 2012
2:50 pm
Which poster questioned the Academics Rankings?
Which poster went on record saying that the Recruiting Rankings are probably more accurate than the Academics Rankings since those magazines deal with Colleges on the “honor system”?
Anecdotal evidence is in that I am half-right so far, see link:
http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/emory-university-misrepresented-student-1501300.html
FL Jacket
August 17th, 2012
2:59 pm
“So you prefer facts like:
3-13 vs the the Big-4 since CPJ got here.
The big 4 being Va Tech, Miami, UGA, the Bowl Game.”
Here we go again. Cherry-picking the losses while igoring…
4-1 Clemson
2-0 FSU
3-1 UNC
3-1 Rest of the SEC
FL Jacket
August 17th, 2012
3:00 pm
Seriously, cherry-picking the 13 losses of a coach who is 34-19? Would you feel better if he just went ahead and won them all?