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
Ghost
August 17th, 2012
3:05 pm
The ACC does put players in the NFL , but it is widely considered the weakest of the top 5 conferences.Since 2005 only 1 ACC team(VT 3 times) has finished the season ranked in the top 10 poll, and only 1 FSU has finished in top 5 since 2000. Not a flame but just the facts on the conference. The ACC needs FSU and Miami to reestablish themselves as football powers.You can’t be considered a good conference when the conference champ doesn’t finish in top 10 on regular basis and is continually getting abused in BCS games.
G-Money
August 17th, 2012
3:14 pm
Enter your comments here FTR: Tech is unfortunately 3-10 the last 2 years against Top 50 Defenses but not the 1-11 that was stated earlier.
GT fan
August 17th, 2012
3:17 pm
WnE … can you provide Chan Gailey’s record vs. “the big 4″ VT, UGA, UM, and Bowl Games, please.
Many thanks!
GT fan
August 17th, 2012
3:28 pm
Thanks Ghost.
I wonder, does $ play any role in the ACC & Big East always being considered weak? There’s no argument that there are many more “ESPN/BCS Friendly” (ie. cash cow) teams in the SEC, Big 12, or Big 10, plus USC & Oregon out West, and TD Jesus just South of the Windy City.
ESPN sign a multibillion $ deal with SEC …. why wouldn’t the “dirctors” of college football want to cram SEC football down every viewer’s throat? Kinda like Yankees-Red Sox, or Tiger-mania. ESPN does the thinking for most of the fans, like it not.
GTfan 2012
August 17th, 2012
3:28 pm
Can you believe that at Alabama Saban is 0-1 against Louisiana Munroe, 0-1 against a pathetic FSU team, and 0-1 against Utah. Does he ever win any games? Fire the bum.
WnE
August 17th, 2012
3:37 pm
re:
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
__________
Here we go again:
Clemson; an under-achieving program that had a HC change in mid -season
FSU, the 2 times CPJ played them were the end of the Bowden era when he was a lame duck HC that wasn’t Recruiting well and the Program was in disarray.
UNC ;2 years of those games included multiple NCAA suspensions and a HC change right before fall camp started.
3-1 vs the rest of the SEC……………..The fact that you had the gall to post this shows how delusional you are in your defense of CPJ. The 3 wins came vs. Miss. St (twice) & Vandy, while the loss came vs. LSU.
You really think it is an accurate measuring stick to include these 4 games with all the “off field” stuff that has happened to those schools?
You really want to beat your chest over beating Miss St. twice and Vandy once while getting beat by LSU & UGA and dropping Bama from this year’s schedule?
WE dropped Bama and added cupcake city, when we did they added MICHIGAN, based on that scenario who do you really think canceled that game?
In all honesty do the 4 games that I list more accurately tell the STRENGTH of GT’s FB program OR do the 4 games that you picked out?
Be honest for once!
WnE
August 17th, 2012
3:48 pm
re:
GT fan
August 17th, 2012
3:17 pm
WnE … can you provide Chan Gailey’s record vs. “the big 4″ VT, UGA, UM, and Bowl Games, please.
Many thanks!
_____________
Chan’s record vs. the big-4 the last 4 yrs was 5-11, and while he was doing this he was paid between $800k & $1.0Mill.
CPJ is 3-13 vs. the same big-4 and will make $2.6 million this season coming up.
Chan never beat UGA and was 0-6 vs. them, he was around for 6 yrs.., so I used his last 4 yrs. to give a sorta of an equal comparison vs. CPJ’s 1st 4 years.
Under Chan we played tougher OOC schedules, UGA was much tougher with two #2 finishes (?maybe) in the final polls and I think 5 or 6 Top-10 final finishes.
Also the ACC was a much tougher conference during most of Chan’s tenure, the ACC has been exceptionally weak during CPJ’s tenure.
FL Jacket
August 17th, 2012
3:51 pm
“Clemson; an under-achieving program that had a HC change in mid -season”
Under-achieving? 2 ACCCG appearances in 4 years and the winner in 2011? And that HC change was in the middle of the 2008 season…
“3-1 vs the rest of the SEC……………..The fact that you had the gall to post this shows how delusional you are in your defense of CPJ. The 3 wins came vs. Miss. St (twice) & Vandy, while the loss came vs. LSU.”
Seriously? I keep hearing about how we would never compete in the SEC…well guess what, we do. 4-4 in 4 years.
“In all honesty do the 4 games that I list more accurately tell the STRENGTH of GT’s FB program OR do the 4 games that you picked out?”
In a delusional world maybe, where the expectation would be to go undefeated against the best teams in those school’s recent histories…
FL Jacket
August 17th, 2012
3:54 pm
“Under Chan we played tougher OOC schedules, UGA was much tougher with two #2 finishes (?maybe) in the final polls and I think 5 or 6 Top-10 final finishes.”
Nonesense. The 2005 and 2006 games GT weas, hands down, more talented and much better than UGA…everywhere except 1 position. The QB play lost us those 2 games, and CCG kept putting that same clown in at QB.
Ghost
August 17th, 2012
3:54 pm
GTFan, I don’t know what $ has to do with conference Champs losing BCS games and not finishing in top 10. In 2007 when Bama was 7-6 (they were actually 2-6 they had to vacate 5 wins of course FSU wasn’t much better having to vacate all of their wins from that season too)but Saban seems to have bounced back pretty well.The SEC usually puts 2-3 teams in top 10. It probably has more to do with having more good teams than it does money.Actually the Big east has been pretty respectable 7-7 in BCS games.
BLT
August 17th, 2012
3:56 pm
You have an answer for everything. You must be a joy to be around. Yesterday you wrote on a UGA blog that Tech will “never recover”. Someone that claims to be a big TECH fan and yet we are “DOOMED”. I doubt you are a fan, but if you are remember that Tech is “DOOMED”. They will never recover. Find another team and go post there. Please
GTVegas
August 17th, 2012
4:01 pm
UOAD !!!
Quit wasting your time on Wheenie. His mind, among other things, is too small and his view too myopic to be taken seriously, by us or his girlfriend (or maybe boyfriend). Why else would someone post the diatribes that he does with such twisted and incomplete facts. He is to GT as MSNBC is to anything Republican.
FL Jacket
August 17th, 2012
4:08 pm
“He is to GT as MSNBC is to anything Republican.”
Or…he is to FoxNews as anything that is fair and balanced
WnE
August 17th, 2012
4:13 pm
re:
G-Money
August 17th, 2012
3:14 pm
FTR: Tech is unfortunately 3-10 the last 2 years against Top 50 Defenses but not the 1-11 that was stated earlier.
___________
I think you’re using the total Defense rankings, whereas some people use Scoring defense rankings.
Either way, it is pretty clear that CPJ ain’t the Offensive genius that the GT fanbase thinks he is.
3-10 is still horrible vs. top-50 defenses and I checked, 2 of those wins in 2011 came vs. NCSU & UNC that were ranked 41 & 49 (total defense, not scoring defense), so it is not like they were shutdown units that we beat.
GTVegas
August 17th, 2012
4:19 pm
FL Jacket – Whatever, both analogies work. It’s wasnt the politics that mattered, but rather the use of select facts to support one’s position, however slanted it may be.
UOAD !!!!!
GTVegas
August 17th, 2012
4:21 pm
Wheenie is entitled to his opinion, and we all know what it is by now, so there is no need to read anything he puts in print.
FL Jacket
August 17th, 2012
4:27 pm
“3-10 is still horrible vs. top-50 defenses and I checked, 2 of those wins in 2011 came vs. NCSU & UNC that were ranked 41 & 49 (total defense, not scoring defense), so it is not like they were shutdown units that we beat.”
Citing W/L records versus top-anything defenses says absolutely nothing about whether the offense played effectively against those defenses or if GT’s defense was a liability in those games. There is nothing scientific about what you’re doing WnE…it’s a misleading stat if you are referring to the offense…
WnE
August 17th, 2012
4:34 pm
re:
FL Jacket
August 17th, 2012
4:27 pm
“3-10 is still horrible vs. top-50 defenses and I checked, 2 of those wins in 2011 came vs. NCSU & UNC that were ranked 41 & 49 (total defense, not scoring defense), so it is not like they were shutdown units that we beat.”
Citing W/L records versus top-anything defenses says absolutely nothing about whether the offense played effectively against those defenses or if GT’s defense was a liability in those games. There is nothing scientific about what you’re doing WnE…it’s a misleading stat if you are referring to the offense…
___________
What is does show is that our vaunted hi-octane genius offensive system can be held in check good enough for teams with Top 50 defenses to have a better than normal chance to beat CPJ.
3-10 or 1-11 vs. top 50 Total defenses or Top-50 scoring defenses is not a good look for a supposed offensive genius.
It leads one to believe that we, especially CPJ have been getting fat on weak opposition.
FL Jacket
August 17th, 2012
4:50 pm
“What is does show is that our vaunted hi-octane genius offensive system can be held in check good enough for teams with Top 50 defenses to have a better than normal chance to beat CPJ.”
Wrong. Again. All what you’re stating shows is that, in those 13 contests against “top-50 defenses”, our offense didn’t score more than our defense could allow. There’s no measurable statistical correlation of offensive performance in your statement.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 17th, 2012
5:21 pm
@ FLJ…..you’ve been away for awhile. Just IGNORE the jerk. Almost everybody else does now. All it does it get you frustrated, and nothing is worth that. I never even read what he posts anymore, because it’s always the same biased drivel. You posted an extremely intelligent, FACT-BASED article, which should be required reading for all CPJ-bashers. If gollum chooses to belittle your stats and facts, then so be it; it really comes as no surprise.
U O A D !!!
unajacket
August 17th, 2012
6:14 pm
Weene & 90: You need to increase your medications, they don’t seem to be working.
Tech is really fortunate PJ is the coach,, considering the recruiting & curriculum issues at Tech, who would improve on his record, not even Saban, Miles or Richt would do as well.
Ghost
August 17th, 2012
6:40 pm
FlJacket, you’re not serious about Tech being a better team in 2005. Tech defense played well but….Georgia was ranked top 5 for most of season until DJ was injured. Had 8 1st team all sec players, 8 players drafted in 2006 won the SEC by beating 3rd ranked LSU by 3 tds. Finished in top 10. Tech finished 7-5 unranked losing to a mountain west school in Emerald Nut Bowl In 2006 Gailey had developed some talent, but hands down better than Georgia? Rebuilding with a freshman QB, and Calvin was shut down once again.I do agree that Techs roster had more talent in 2005 and 06 than they do now.
WnE
August 17th, 2012
7:43 pm
re:
Ghost
August 17th, 2012
6:40 pm
FlJacket, you’re not serious about Tech being a better team in 2005. Tech defense played well but….Georgia was ranked top 5 for most of season until DJ was injured. Had 8 1st team all sec players, 8 players drafted in 2006 won the SEC by beating 3rd ranked LSU by 3 tds. Finished in top 10. Tech finished 7-5 unranked losing to a mountain west school in Emerald Nut Bowl In 2006 Gailey had developed some talent, but hands down better than Georgia? Rebuilding with a freshman QB, and Calvin was shut down once again.I do agree that Techs roster had more talent in 2005 and 06 than they do now.
______________
Part of the agenda in supporting CPJ is to try and make Chan look as bad as possible, the revisionist history that you pointed out above is yet another attempt to make Chan look worse than he was, which they hope will make CPJ look better than he really is.
This is a guy that just wrote that so what if CPJ went 3-10 or 1-11 vs. top-50 defenses, it means nothing, yet when he conjures up some sort of “yards per play” drivel he acts as if it is the most important document ever written about CFB.
GT fans like FlJacket are blind loyalists to the HC (CPJ), instead of what is best for GT FB, the institution.
superDawg
August 17th, 2012
8:24 pm
All tek people are dilusional and WnE proves it on a daily basis.
Wal-Mart Retards
August 17th, 2012
9:43 pm
SuperDawg? That’s an oxymoron. I guess all dawgs are oxymoronic.
1 4 GT
August 17th, 2012
9:46 pm
superDwag–you’re right. “Carnack” aka weenie or however one wishes to spell aka gollum aka WnE has proven there are delusional guys on this blog. All 2 of you!!
1 4 GT
August 17th, 2012
9:48 pm
bark bark ruuuufffff ruuuffffff grrrrrrrhhhrrr ROOUUUFFFFF BARK GGRRR
GTfan2012
August 17th, 2012
10:15 pm
UOAD!!! That’s all I’ve got to say about that.
GT fan
August 18th, 2012
12:24 pm
99.9% of the time I skip over WnE’s posts. The other 0.01% I bait him into showing again showing how ignorant/jaded he is.
I asked him yesterday to tell how great Gailey was vs. the “big 4″ (VT, Miami, UGA, bowl games) and he “twists” his facts to try to prove his smarts.
————————–
WnE:
……..Chan never beat UGA and was 0-6 vs. them, he was around for 6 yrs.., so I used his last 4 yrs. to give a sorta of an equal comparison vs. CPJ’s 1st 4 years.
Under Chan we played tougher OOC schedules …. blah, blah, blah …. did I ask him about GT’s OOC scheduling? NO!
Also the ACC was a much tougher conference during most of Chan’s tenure, the ACC has been exceptionally weak during CPJ’s tenure.WOW, WnE actually thinks the ACC was MUCH tougher when CG was GT’s coach, and EXCEPTIONALLY weak with PJ as HC.
Just put down whatever you want, WnE, to make yourself feel correct.
Why don’t you go back and analyze some of the UTTER EMBARRASSING L’s that CG had. Those things are FACT … I want to see how you manipulate those.
GT fan
August 18th, 2012
3:36 pm
WnE …
CG’s bowl game oppentents:
Fresno St, twice … 2 EMBARRASSING loses. Especially the one where FS suspended NINE players
Utah, once …. EMBARRASSING loss (38-10) to a Utah team that was nowhere near as good as they are now. A Utah team that had to win it’s final game just to become bowl eligible at 6-6.
Tulsa …. big bad TULSA, a blowout win. PJ Daniels 300+ yds rushing
Syracuse … what a bad team Syracuse had become … another blowout win.
West VA …. horrible loss! Yes, only a coach as subpar as CG could’ve found a way to lose that game after taking a 35-17 2nd half lead with a QB (T.Bennett) WR (C.Johnson) and RB (T.Choice) EACH having his career best game!
Now go look at losses to UNC & Duke that CG had. EMBARRASSING loses again.
How about losses like:
39-3 to Clemson
27-3 & 51-7 to VT
51-7 to UGA
and The many losses to UVA.
WnE
August 19th, 2012
3:13 pm
re:
GT fan
August 18th, 2012
12:24 pm
99.9% of the time I skip over WnE’s posts. The other 0.01% I bait him into showing again showing how ignorant/jaded he is.
I asked him yesterday to tell how great Gailey was vs. the “big 4″ (VT, Miami, UGA, bowl games) and he “twists” his facts to try to prove his smarts.
————————–
WnE:
……..Chan never beat UGA and was 0-6 vs. them, he was around for 6 yrs.., so I used his last 4 yrs. to give a sorta of an equal comparison vs. CPJ’s 1st 4 years.
Under Chan we played tougher OOC schedules …. blah, blah, blah …. did I ask him about GT’s OOC scheduling? NO!
Also the ACC was a much tougher conference during most of Chan’s tenure, the ACC has been exceptionally weak during CPJ’s tenure.WOW, WnE actually thinks the ACC was MUCH tougher when CG was GT’s coach, and EXCEPTIONALLY weak with PJ as HC.
Just put down whatever you want, WnE, to make yourself feel correct.
Why don’t you go back and analyze some of the UTTER EMBARRASSING L’s that CG had. Those things are FACT … I want to see how you manipulate those.
_____________
It is utterly embarrassing how LITTLE so many GT fans like yourself actually know about CFB.
Fact:
Chan played against at least 5 maybe 6 Top-10 UGA teams, including 2 UGA teams that finished #2 in the Final polls ,while CPJ has been “fortunate” to go up against UGA during one of their most disappointing eras.
The UGA Teams with BVG as DC were a far cry from the UGA teams with Willie Martinez as DC.
Fact:
The ACC was a much tougher conference during CCG’s tenure as HC, he had to play future NFL Pro-Bowlers at QB like Philip Rivers & Matt Schaub and future NFL QBs like David Whitehurst that has gone on to have several NFL starts of his own, not to mention guys like Shaun Hill out of Md. that once competed with Alex Smith for the starting QB job in San Fran, meanwhile CPJ has gone up against & LOST to QBs like Jacory Harris that will be lucky to Coach Middle School FB somewhere.
It is not even close as to how much poorer the ACC has been under CPJ vs the ACC that Chan had to go up against.
Fact:
Chan’s OOC schedule was much tougher as he had to go up against future 1st round QBs like Jason Campbell (Auburn), and Brady Quinn (ND), they might not have had the greatest of NFL careers, but they are light years better than the QBs at Miss St., Vandy, MTSU, Gardner-Webb, SC State, W-Carolina and the other garbage Programs that CPJ has lined up to play OOC.
Your comments appeal only to the CPJ apologists and not to “real GT fans” that are willing to analyze GT FB at a high level and are honest enough with themselves to take the good with bad.
In summary, I have given you incontrovertible proof that the ACC was tougher during Chan’s tenure and that the OOC sked was also tougher during Chan’s tenure, my “proof” can also be validated by Sagarin SoS data.
You’re an embarrassment to yourself and to real GT Fans.
Fireant
August 19th, 2012
9:41 pm
Get Laskey in there… he may not have the speed(4.5ish) and he may not have the flash… what he does have is heart… always has… Snoddy is faster and more explosive but Laskey will run Norrth/South and will not shy away from contact… look forward to him and Green(both Starrs Mill HS) playing well for the Jackets this year…