Johnson: ‘We’ll see’ on starting QB for Maryland

I dont have a problem with the offense per se. I think it can be effective. What I have a problem with is it being the only option. Look at Air Force, yea they use the option, but they line up in the I, and various other forms. They aren’t one dimensional… CPJ just stuck on TO, and just now getting in barely the pistol after the ineffectiveness of the TO last few years.

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I’m over my head and you folks think I’m a genius! Ya’ll ain’t got the guts to hit me in the mouth!!

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Come on guys. You got to be kidding me. Why all the downcast faces. We got rid of Al Groh. Give us time. Our offense can’t be expected to carry this team every week. Besides we were playing grown min with our kids. And how bout our new sign in the North End Zone. And did you stop by McCamish Pavillion? How bout that place. It will be open again before the big Duke game. Stick with us and we will go places.

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Fire Pitiful Paul before he “Lewis’ ” the program—(He already has,I’m afraid, a 50 cent start that way)-Dang, never thought I would miss the old days of mediocrity—Can’t even beat Muddle Tennessee, or Brigham young or old—But we by gad showed those Presbyterians a thing or two–

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We have more leaks than the Titanic to right this ship..

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The sky is not falling, no matter what all of you overzealous alumni conjure up. This program will get its act together & be successful in spite of an extremely uneven playing field in recruiting. Concerning the disparities Tech endures, Johnson will be successful & we are fortunate to have him! Talent is not the problem either, look at Texas, Auburn & Arkansas & the star basis they have recruited. Give me a break, Tech will never win 10 games a year consistantly until the hill gives us some calculus & physics less majors + lots more exceptions.

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Been a Tech fan all of my life and will continue to do so. I have seen good teams, mid to good and plain our sorry teams over the years. However, I am very disappointed in this years team. After the 6 and 0 start last year, a majical season could have happened, but no, they found a way to louse it up. Mostly the defense. When you can’t tackle and defend a pass you are in trouble. Thought this year would be better. But no, for the most part the defense has loused this season up also. Don’t know how to tackle, don’t know how to defend a pass. Look at all good defensive teams and they jam the line on the receiver, not Tech, we give them an 8 to 10 yard cushion, and still don’t know where the ball is until it is caught. The special teams literally suck. Now comes yesterday, and this offense can’t convert one third down play all day. This team is now demoralize, down on themselves, and in my opinion, has quite for the rest of the season. They will be going through the motions. You can’t say we don’t have the players that GA has, no we don’t. But you don’t give out scholarships unless these guys can play. And Tech has some very good athletes. Perhaps with a new defensive coach coming in next year, things will improve in that area. I love the TO, but until you start throwing the ball a lot more than Tech does, your running game is going to get stopped. If CPJ would stop being so bullheaded, as smart as he is, he should see that. As for the remaining 4 games left on schedule, we might win 1 and that being Maryland next week. At this point in time, Tech will not even be favored to beat Duke and I know we will be underdog against NC and the Dogs.
J

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Based on our recent academic ratings with our athletes, we don’t do very good there either.

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Recruiting, scheme, and coaching are horrible. If you can beat Middle, something has to give. Drad has lost the alumni and local sports fans. He said this was a priority? Gimme a break….

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Maryland is down to their ONLY scholarship QB left. That’s right, they’ve lost THREE QBs to injury this season.

If Maryland puts up pts & yards vs. the Jackets then this D will have to go down as the worst D is 25+ years!

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CPJ treats his players poorly. While I think Richt is too soft on his, at least he does not belittle and berate them in public on the sideline. And when CPJ sends a player in with a play, why does he have to shove the player onto the field? He is a bad deal Tech, and coming from a dawg fan, your players deserve better?

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4 – 8 at best in the fifth year of his reign. Sad. Glad we will not have to watch some wretched bowl effort. No need to think about going to Athens – they will need the style points by then and will massacre us.

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…to four…

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Come on comparing reggie to washington is a little below the belt don’t think? Just plain low.

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If we’re lucky, Auburn’s putrid, desperate program will hire Johnson away at the end of the season. Then, Georgia Tech could hire O’Leary and Friedgen back for a 5-7 year encore before they both retire. There’s no telling where the Jackets would be now if they had both stayed.

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Some of the arguments on these boards are laughable. I’ve read numerous times on here that CPJ isn’t a good head coach… You ever check his record at Georgia Southern? Navy?

Lets talk recruiting. Read on here hundreds of times that he can’t recruit. Well, let’s just look at that, shall we? Here are Georgia Tech’s year-by-year recruiting since 2002 from Rivals.com:

2002: 63
2003: 50
2004: 79
2005: 62
2006: 57
2007: 18
2008: 49
2009: 49
2010: 43
2011: 41
2012: 56

It looks like recruiting has actually improved in the CPJ era.

For such an educated fan base, you guys are failing hard when it comes to logical arguments.

How about the argument that the triple option doesn’t work? Top five in rushing yards every year he’s been here isn’t working? He’s apparently taken a team with a QB that can’t throw, and is too slow, and still averaging over 450 yards a game this year. The offense works, with or without passing. Oh, and by the way, he has implemented pistol formations into it as well.

Also, he is stockpiling talent. Look at Boise State. Do they recruit the top talent? Answer: no. They redshirt almost every incoming freshman, and slow the turnover rate and gain an extra year with everybody though. This is the same as what CPJ has been doing. And, if you look at the recruiting rankings, he does recruit talented enough players, so this should work well as it continues. By doing this, to get a real judge of an entire CPJ recruited team, the next two years should be what we judge him on.

There are downsides to CPJ obviously. One is his demeanor on the sidelines. The way he yells at players may result in some of them tuning him out. At Georgia Southern, he probably had better players than most teams, and with all the winning, the yelling didn’t seem as bad. At Navy, they’re used to being yelled at by superiors. It’s part of the training. At a big-conference school, where you are woo-ing the players to come play for you-star high school athletes-then berate them weekly on tv, it might not be as well-received. Whether that’s all on him or also on the players as well, is up for debate.

The lack of defense during his tenure is concerning. Yes, it could be said that because of the offense they run, the defense doesn’t see much time in practice against conventional style offenses. However, considering the scout team mimicks that week’s team, this isn’t the biggest problem.

The choices in defensive coordinators is concerning as well, and perhaps his choices for assistants overall. The special teams coach hire is puzzling. To go get someone who was coaching in Canada, when there are plenty of qualified assistants that have ties to this area was a poor choice. Not so much because I don’t think the ST coordinator can’t coach (the ST unit hasn’t been very good though), but he has zero ties to the area for recruiting. That can’t help.

Basically, CPJ has warts, like all coaches not name Saban. He is an offensive mastermind, yesterday not included. Again though, even the best look bad occasionally. His offense does and has worked, with both his players and Gailey’s players. He definitely has the ability to outsmart the opposing coach more often than not. On the other hand, he can’t get a quality defense here (remember when George O’Leary had the same problem?), he is an abrasive person at times, maybe causing players to tune him out or quit, and he has gotten a little too conservative the last few years, as opposed to his first few here. All in all, he should be given more time to sort through the struggles. The talent is there, the offensive scheme is there, lets see what happens with a new defensive coordinator.

It really makes some of you “fans” seem less than educated with the arguments you put forth as to why CPJ should go. Being such a strong educational institution, to argue the pro’s and con’s of the football program should have a higher level of discourse and more well researched and backed in fact arguments than what is spewed here on a daily basis.

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Wow! I had to scroll back to the top to make certain I wasn’t on the mutt blogs!

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Please do not fire Paul Johnson.

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Wow, more intelligence spewed since my post…
@highly respected troll: O’Leary and Friedgen are both good coaches. But, Friedgen failed at Maryland. Where had CPJ failed before coming here? Why fire CPJ to hire a fired former ACC HC? Wasn’t that the argument against Al Groh? O’Leary also struggled fielding quality defenses. Remember Joe Hamilton’s Junior and Senior years? A lot like now, only Tevin Washington is no Joe Hamilton.

@time is up: You bring up another failed argument against CPJ. That he can’t produce NFL talent. Lets look at this logically. On defense, GT can produce NFL talent. They run a 3-4, and may move back to a 4-3. Both systems are run in the NFL. A quality DC can produce NFL draft picks. On offense, obviously the system can produce running backs. Jonathan Dwyer can attest to that. More than one NFL scout has been quoted as saying GT is good at preparing WR’s for the NFL due to the blocking training they receive. And if they’re talented enough, they come out of this system, just like Demaryus Thomas and Stephen Hill. Offensive lineman? Maybe a bit more challenging due to having mostly smaller OL’s, but can happen just like anywhere else. The only position that that argument may hold merit is at quarterback. And currently at QB we have maybe our highest rated recruit of the CPJ era in Vad Lee. So, that argument holds no weight.

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@Rwill – Johnson hadn’t failed anywhere before, but he’s failed at Georgia Tech. I was an undergrad at Southern when Johnson was there and he had some great teams, the ‘98 and ‘99 versions being the best. In 1998 they went 14-0 before blowing the NC game against UMass and then they won the 1999 NC game against Youngstown State. They also won the 2000 NC, largely on the back of Adrian Peterson – a player recruited by Tracy Ham. But, Johnson’s two best teams were laden with talent largely recruited by Frank Ellwood and Tim Stowers.

As far as Friedgen, he was fired after being the ACC COTY (for the second time) and he won the ACC Championship his first year at Maryland. His offenses at GT were much better than what Johnson is producing now. Besides, I wasn’t suggesting that he should be the HC at Tech (though it would be an improvement).

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@highly respected troll: CPJ has also been ACC COTY and won an ACC championship. Friedgen won his in his first year at Maryland. With someone else’s recruits. Where were the ACC championships when he had all his players at Maryland? Friedgen’s offenses at Tech weren’t better than CPJ’s. They are comparable, and definitely different, but both produce 400+ yards per game, and 30+ points per game. If you think Friedgen’s offense produced better than CPJ’s then post some stats to back it up. I posted the recruiting ranking to make my point, all you guys are doing are spouting off with no facts.

Do you not realize that in your first paragraph you say CPJ has failed at Tech (with an ACC championship and a winning percentage of .600), then in your second paragraph tout Friedgen’s successes at Maryland (ACC championship, and a winning percentage of .600).

In your first paragraph, you say Johnson won national championships largely with others’ recruits. In your second paragraph, you then tout Friedgen, who won the ACC championship in his first year (WITH OTHERS’ RECRUITS).

Can you people not see the lack of logic you are using? You want to fire a head coach with a .600 winning percentage, to hire a previously fired ACC coach, who is 66, with a .600 winning percentage? What???

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Why can’t we write contracts for coaches based on performance? Pay CPJ $1M/year and $100k/win, double for UGA and ACCCG, and Bowl games. That way, when we lose, we can at least say it didn’t cost us anything.

Tech sure has some sorry lawyers….also failed to successfully argue our appeal for our ACC championship in 2009.

As for football—the TO is a good offense, but dadgum let’s add a few plays to it. As some have pointed out Vad, stumbles alot and I do not think he is coordinated enough to run the TO–so DO NOT RUN IT with him! Is the goal to win or stubbornly run your offense? TW runs the TO fairly effectively—he doesn’t pass well. Days, runs the TO so-so, seemed scared on the pitch, can throw a decent pass, but has ball control problems. Vad is still a bit raw, has a good arm and good vision/athletic ability when running, but doesn’t look comfortable running the TO and making reads—the reads are complex and Vad seems to be still in thinking mode not reaction mode. He cannot run the TO well.
So what is CPJ to do? If the TO must be run, then TW is the guy. If we have enough confidence to put in plays from the pistol, then run Vad from that. Or do both and interchange them even within a series.If it’s 3rd and 6 bring in Vad and throw a pass. Once Ds start adjusting, then run a sweep with Vad….throw on 1st down with TW…in other words, quit being predictable….go out of your way to not be predictable. Until we learn how to pass rush, the D is not going to get much better so the offense has to pick up the slack. We do have the tools, they just need to be deployed in an unconvetional manner.

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@RWill – Friedgen did win in 2001 with other coachs’ recruits but he also won ACC COTY in 2011 with his own recruits. Besides, if you read my posts again you’ll see that I never touted Friedgen as HC at Tech. I said bring him AND O’Leary back. I think Friedgen makes a great OC (maybe Johnson, too) but I would prefer Tech have O’Leary as HC.

Johnson’s offenses are comparable to Friedgen’s? You must have selective memory. In 1998 and 1999 the Jackets put-up points and yardage that Johnson’s trainwreck can only dream of. Remember the 1999 game against Florida State? The Jackets put-up over 500 yards and 35 points in Tallahassee that night against the team that won the NC that year. Johnson’s crew wouldn’t have managed 150 yards and ten points against that crew. Hell, they couldn’t manage much more than 150 yards againt 4-loss BYU yesterday.

Paul Johnson HAS failed at Tech. Want to talk his record against Georgia? When you lose to your arch-rival three-of-four (including to two of their worst teams in years, i.e., 2009 and 2010) you stink. When you let Middle Tennessee run-over you, you stink! When you can’t win bowl games EVER, you stnk. And newsflash – there is NO 2009 ACC Championship at Tech anymore. Hell, he lost to a 6-5 Georgia team in 2009 right before his offense looked totally inept in the Orange Bowl against Iowa.

Quit making excuses for this clown. The more you guys defend him, the deeper you’re going to sink.

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If Tech loses to Maryland, it is time for a fire sale!!

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I WILL say I think it’s time to give Vad Lee the bulk of the QB duties…there isn’t much to play for THIS season….time to invest in the future.

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