Tech notes: Milton likely replacement for I. Johnson
1. Georgia Tech defensive back Chris Milton has made his mark this season with excellent special-teams play. He’ll likely have an opportunity to close out 2012 by starting at safety in the Sun Bowl.
Milton, a redshirt freshman, is the probable candidate to replace the injured Isaiah Johnson, who will not play against USC in El Paso, Texas, Dec. 31.
“He’s earned it,” interim defensive coordinator Charles Kelly said. “He’s worked his rear end off.”
Milton, who played at Folkston’s Charlton County High, has taken most of the practice snaps with the first-string defense this week since Johnson’s injury, which coach Paul Johnson described Wednesday as “lower extremity” and “a major injury.” Jamal Golden and Demond Smith have also taken turns with the first unit.
“It’s kind of bad for Isaiah, what happened, but I’m just trying to help my team,” Milton said.
Milton’s special-teams play earned him limited time with the defense toward the end of the regular season, but he played mostly at the opposite safety spot, which has slightly different responsibilities, Milton said.
“The one thing I’ve been very happy with is the way Chris has stepped up,” Kelly said. “He’s making all the calls. He can make plays. It’s been obvious that he can get people down. He’s done it on special teams.”
2. Losing Johnson is particularly costly for the Sun Bowl. The Jackets will have to track USC wide receiver Marqise Lee, who won the Biletnikoff Award, given yearly to the nation’s top receiver. Asked if he had seen many players as good as Lee, Paul Johnson replied, “Not that I’ve seen on film.”
Lee has caught 112 passes this season for 1,680 yards, both Pac-12 records, with 14 touchdown receptions. A sophomore, he was a unanimous first-team All-American, the Pac-12 offensive player of the year and was fourth in Heisman Trophy balloting.
“He’s got great hands, great ability, but when he catches the ball, it’s hard to find one guy getting him down right then,” Kelly said. “Changes direction and then when he catches the ball, he makes plays after he does it. Really, he’s got a complete game.”
Lee starts with Robert Woods, his high school teammate, who merely caught 73 passes for 813 yards and 11 touchdowns.
Said Kelly, “Woods is the real deal.”
3. Johnson was coy about his plan for using quarterbacks Tevin Washington and Vad Lee, saying “Why would I tell the other team what we’re going to do?”
He did acknowledge that both will play, as has been the case for the past seven games. For the past five games, they’ve both played two series to start the game and then coaches determined playing time after that. Tuesday, quarterbacks and B-backs coach Brian Bohannon said the fact that it’s a bowl game will not influence coaches’ thinking.
“The bottom line is, we’re not thinking about next year,” he said. “We’re thinking about winning that game, because that’s a big deal, to win that last game.”
4. Speaking of Washington, he has completed his classes, as he completed his management degree over the summer and took classes this semester as a postgraduate. He said he will give professional football a shot after the season ends.
“Other than that, I came to school to get my degree and be able to go out in the world and make a living for myself without football,” he said. “I’ve got my degree and now I’m ready for whatever opportunity opens itself.”
5. Kicker Chris Tanner will handle field goals and extra points, while David Scully will take the kickoffs. … Safety Jemea Thomas will be available to chat with fans on Twitter on Thursday at 3 p.m. He’ll take questions on the athletic department account, @gtathletics.
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82 comments Add your comment
Jacket Detective
December 20th, 2012
10:06 am
As I’ve been saying for the last few weeks, if u r not a homeboy, buy some tickets.
At least a half ACC package.
Jacket Detective
December 20th, 2012
10:07 am
And to be a broken record again:
Recruiting and coaching.
What a concept.
How long has this been going on?
GT Joe
December 20th, 2012
10:20 am
JD: I’m baaaaaack
Recruiting is half the story. We recruited a stud dual-threat QB 2 years ago. He’s stuck behind a mediocre senior QB.
I hear that we need to “score early and often” to beat USC. Scoring early would mean that Tevin leads us to points in his 1st two drives. Not gonna happen.
juvenal
December 20th, 2012
10:34 am
ah, Joe, just when i swore off….Merry Christmas! & the new year brings a new QB starter….as for #1, i’ve always felt it was scheme, not talent-or heart……
Jacket Detective
December 20th, 2012
10:45 am
Joe I missed ya.
Not.
No you’re Ok.
I’d like u better if u will fork up some money for ACC package.
Yea I’m pushing that like a sales guy but I just don’t like a lot of fans of other teams in our basketball arena.
Jacket Detective
December 20th, 2012
10:48 am
And I hated the BYU game for a lot of reasons.
Think that one was tough to take at home.
U should try a bad game surrounded by the other team’s fans.
I made friends with them as I usually do.
I get miffed at folks who sell their tickets and force me to be a diplomat for GT.
GT Joe
December 20th, 2012
11:16 am
If you build it (a winning program), they (fans) will come.
Remember when the braves barely drew 1500 fans in the mid 80s? You can call us fair weather fans; I might say we are making a point with our pocketbook.
ibidGT
December 20th, 2012
11:40 am
GT this season scored 34.5 ppg according to ESPN. That has GT ranked 36th overall out of 118 or 120 teams? Good, not great.
The ranked teams GT played this year, they lost to all of them. Furthermore they were kept to 17 points or less against all but Clemson.
It doesn’t matter how many yards CPJ and his amazing TO get…wins are all that matter. We out gained UGA in total yards? Really? All I remembered is losing 42-10.
They might be getting the yards but it doesn’t matter if they lose the game. The ‘production’ I pay attention to is the final score, not the total yards.
GTRanj
December 20th, 2012
12:10 pm
@ibidGT
Please tell me who you’re going to bring in as coach to bring half the amount of success that CPJ has brought. Please make me a list. Do it now. We are waiting.
I can’t wait for CPJ to get his Defense in order, so that so called “fans” like you can stop your crying.
@UGA = Yawn
You also left out the 2-1 record vs FSU and the 3-2 vs Clemson.
And also if you weren’t actually a UGA troll, you would see that ( 9 + 11 + 6 + 8 + 6 (maybe 7 this year) ) / 5 = 8 ( 8.2 with a win this year ).
Milton to replace Isaiah Johnson in Sun Bowl
December 20th, 2012
12:19 pm
[...] by srschirm Your link sends us right to the GTSportsTalk football forum. Beg pardon schirm. Tech notes: Milton likely replacement for I. Johnson | Georgia Tech Reply With Quote + Reply to Thread [...]
TeknocratNOTdemokrat
December 20th, 2012
12:59 pm
All the pros and cons don’t mean a damned thing – nobody’s gonna pony up the $$ to buy him out. I don’t want CPJ to leave because there’s no one else to hire…we might be able to get Grobe from WF as a suitable replacement, but I doubt it…he’s gettin’ on up there and I doubt he’d want to move right now. Who else? PUH-LEEZE, don’t go throwin’ any TV types around, or other ex-NFLers, we’ve already been there, done that. also don’t want another nobody from a nowhere conference…so give us some names.
GT Joe
December 20th, 2012
1:12 pm
Ranj: George O’Leary is twice the coach CPJ is. Hell, Chan Gailey never had less than 7 wins.
Now, I’m not calling for CPJ to be fired. His choice of DC was bad. His choice of QB for the past 2 years was bad. He is recruiting is mediocre at best. His offense is good against inferior teams, bad against good teams. But he’s not a BAD coach. Just not a GREAT coach.
If you think CPJ is the best Tech can do, then you must have a low opinion of Tech Football.
GT Joe
December 20th, 2012
1:18 pm
Also Ranj: please don’t delude yourself by thinking that the defense is our only problem. Offense IS a problem. I’m hopeful that it’s all due to the QB choice, and Vad will restore our offense to greatness. But 15 vs. FSU? 10 vs. UGA? 17 vs. VT? 7 points in the 2nd half vs. MTSU? 0 points in the last 25+ minutes vs. Miami? 17 vs. BYU? Forget the defense, the offense wasn’t good enough to win those 6 games. Period.
Way To Go
December 20th, 2012
1:20 pm
Now just fill us in on who will replace Johnson, the coach.
GTRanj
December 20th, 2012
1:40 pm
@GT Joe
Your stats there are very true, for this season the offense didn’t put up points on those teams. But most of the seasons, even against the better teams, UGA, FSU, Clemson, Virginia Tech, most of the times we did put up points. What i’m trying to say is you cannot expect to win by your offense every game, sometimes you need your defense to win you the game. Hell i’ve seen good teams (Alabama, Notre Dame, LSU) win by only scoring what we did in the ACCCG, how did they do it? with a good defensive showing.
Al Groh has been the problem for the past 3 years, just look at the drop-off from when he got here. Johnson is a proven winner. His 1st two seasons here are a credit to him, what he did at Navy is a credit to him, His national Championships at Ga Southern are a credit to him. Why am I bringing these up? Because I want a coach who is a proven winner and I feel that if Paul gets it right with the next DC we can be getting Ga Southern results on our level.
You can look up negative stats on most of the successful coaches in the country and point to those only and make him look bad. You can do that all day and say hell Gaily didn’t have less than 7 wins, but what I know is that CPJ is a winner and Gaily, as many others will agree with me is average at best.
Jon Koncak
December 20th, 2012
1:52 pm
Yawn. Replacing a two-star player with another two-star player. Will still get boat raced by any team with decent athletes (and occassionally even get boat raced by the likes of MTSU). This football program is a raging dumpster fire.
GT Joe
December 20th, 2012
2:01 pm
Ranj: 2 years does not a successful coach make.
I like CPJ. I like the offense. But you need to take into account that we had better talent those 1st 2 years, AND no one in D1 had really played against an offense like ours those 1st 2 years. So there was an element of surprise to our offense. Not any more. Now that folks have seen what we do for 4 years now, they know how to defend it better. And it will only get harder.
You blame Al Groh for the last 3 years. I blame CPJ for playing Tevin the last 2 years. Either way, it’s CPJ’s responsibility. He’s the boss. Are you ignoring the downward trend in wins? Plot the wins vs. year and tell me what the slope is. After 5 seasons, we have enough data points to see a real trend.
GT Joe
December 20th, 2012
2:03 pm
Koncak: Vad is most def not a 2 star player. Is “boat raced” some country bumpkin term for “destroyed”?
haha
December 20th, 2012
2:21 pm
USC 52
lowly gt 20
old dog
December 20th, 2012
2:43 pm
GTRanj,
You used alot of words to basically this: defense wins games. If y’all ge a good d, you will see MARKED improvement. Remember, though, you have to bring in some decent talent, and on the D-side of the ball, the poor coaching was surpassed only by the poorer talent. Bring in a few studs and a good D-coach and see what happens. It can be done.
ibidGT
December 20th, 2012
2:50 pm
I’m supposed to fork over replacements for CPJ RIGHT NOW but yet you are allowed to wait over 5 years for an improved defense?
He had early success but has only gotten worse.
A great track record makes a strong case when you are HIRING someone. But it doesn’t mean squat how many championships he won at Southern or somewhere else when the results at GT have been average at best.
CPJ isn’t a BAD coach like GT Joe pointed out, just average. Gailey was average as well.
Home Crowd
December 20th, 2012
4:05 pm
@ rambling buzz and Jacket Detective- that’s my beef with CPJ. I’m all for discipline, but I’m getting a bit tired of CPJ berating these players on the sidelines during games. How often do you see CPJ clap his hands or smile at a player for doing something right. Most of the time, he’s screaming at someone to do their job or asking them if their stupid. This old school style of coaching is not working in today’s game. Could be a contributing factor to the reason this team tried to quit on him midway through the season.
GTRanj
December 20th, 2012
4:05 pm
@GT Joe
You are delusional if you think that throwing Vad Lee in there last year would have gotten us more wins. He has stated himself that he only started to fully grasp the offense around the UNC game, hence the coaches playing him more. Tevin Washington, although not a great player, at the time was our best option on offense.
As far as using his 1st two years as my only aspect of coach johnson’s success, that is not true. I used his Navy history as well as Ga Southern. Navy Plays Division 1 football, so your argument that we surprised everyone the first two years doesn’t count. His overall record is 147–64, and that speaks for itself. To say a coach with that record is average (ibidGT) would make you sound pretty idiotic.
To say that Paul Johnson is average like Chan Gailey is just play stupid. Gailey’s all time record is 112–92, his NCAA record is 68–41. The man is awe full and nothing compared to Paul Johnson.
To ignore the fact that the defense down trending over the past couple of years is the reason for the decrease in wins is also idiotic. Here is are the defensive ppg for each year
year: ppg W-L
2012: 29.9 6-7
2011: 25.8 8-5
2010: 26.2 6-7
2009: 24.8 11-3
2008: 18.8 9-4
Now it is as plain as that, over the years the defense started giving up more and more points. In 09 the offense was THAT good that it carried us to our success, but the following years, the defense continued to get worse while the offense plateaued (Still putting up lots of points and yards per game). My point here is that the defense has gotten so bad that we cannot rely on it to win some of the games where the offense may not be clicking very well.
Its not all lack of talent, because I know some people within the program (graduate assistants) who were telling me at the beginning of the season that Al Groh is just too old. He wasn’t going to cut it anymore. Lets face it as well, Tech is not gonna get recruits like FSU, UGA, Clemson b/c we don’t offer enough easy majors. That being said, Coach johnson’s system doesn’t require 5 * recruits to have success. We now need a coach on the Defensive side who can recruit that decent Defensive player every once in a while, but we mostly need him to be like VA Tech’s bud foster and coach up the kids to make Nasty defenses.
Face the facts man, its been the defense that’s cause 80% of the downtrend in our football program. Now lets fix that and have good football like in 09 or better back here on the flats.
Go Jackets!!
GT Joe
December 20th, 2012
4:51 pm
Ranj: Where do I begin:
1. I didn’t say Vad would have gotten us more wins last year. I don’t think he would have done worse. But I will say that Vad in his 2nd year as starter in 2012 would have done FAR better than Tevin did this year. And I’m sure Vad wouldn’t have gone 3-10 with 2 INTs vs. UGA last year.
2. Nobody in the ACC plays Navy, nor does UGA. So when they played us, it was probably the first time those teams saw the Triple Option since the 1940s. Get it?
3. Nice coaching record. Unfortunately, the most relevant factor in judging whether or not a coach can be successful at GT is to look at his past record AT GT. Navy record? Far less relevant.
GSU record? completely irrelevant.
4. Chan Gailey Never had a losing season. CPJ? working on his 2nd in 5 years. Chan actually won a bowl game. Chan never won less than 7 games. Chan is in the NFL. He’s average? LOL.
5. Defensive trend: perhaps you should be a little less idiotic and realize that scoring has exploded in college over the past 5 years. ALL defenses are giving up more points nowadays. Unfortunately, OUR offense is not keeping pace with every other offense. Hence our #36 ranking in points. To put it in perspective, we would have been #6 in the country if this was 2009.
wrecked
December 20th, 2012
5:05 pm
GTranj, Pj is in way over his head. Winning at the Naval Academy and Southern are worlds different than beating good BCS teams.PJ should have FBS tattooed on his forehead. He will be successful when he returns to an FBS conference.2 losing seasons in 3 years ,his only successful campaign over these years (2011) 5 wins came against teams that had a total of 10 wins among them. The demise of GT football program came when Pj started having to play with the players he’s recruited and coached. The offense doesn’t score points against decent /good defenses. It will take the next GT coach 2-3 years to begin to repair the damage PJ has done. Its not that his teams are just losing they are getting blown out 49-28, 41-17, 42-10 .
Jim 70
December 20th, 2012
6:00 pm
Congrats Tevin. With your degree you can control your own destiny, whether pro football or the business world. Even if pro ball, that life doesn’t last forever, but your Tech degree will.
GTRanj
December 20th, 2012
8:04 pm
GT Joe
1. You win the position in the off season to get the right to start. Obviously Tevin Washington won the position this and last year, which is why HE IS THE STARTER. Vad couldn’t even win the backup quarterback position last year!!! Now that is not to say I don’t think Vad can get it done, I just don’t think you should throw the kid out there when he would be in over his head. Give him time to learn, let him build his confidence and then let him loose. This is exactly what the coaching staff is doing with him right now. Do I think the current Vad Lee is better than Washington?? Hell yes. Do I think he should have been the starter at the beginning of the season? No. You have to let him develop before you throw him into the fire. And by the way, In the UGA game, the offense and the QB were not the biggest problem, It was that defense that looked like it was playing with 8 guys instead of 11 the whole time. And Vad, as I remember, didn’t fair much better than Tevin in that game.
2. You stated previously “AND no one in D1 had really played against an offense like ours those 1st 2 years.”
I gave you the Navy example because guess what, Navy plays D1 football, and guess what, CPJ was pretty damn successful there! He was successful even after his first two seasons! Navy doesn’t play random teams every year, they play lots of the same teams year in and year out, and those teams didn’t “Figure Out” the TO.
3.If you had half a brain, you would realize that I put the coaching record in there to back up my argument that the last three years are a result of a non-existent defense. If you look at CPJ’s body of work over the time he has been coaching, he’s a winner!
4.Chan Gailey is the definition of Average. Sure he never had a losing season, but how many ACCCG did he win? How many super bowls has he won?
Last but not least where the hell does he coach right now???? THE BUFFALO BILLS!!! argueably one of the worst teams in the NFL since the early 90’s
It is the equivalent of a politician taking the vice president position, is where you go to end your career and make a bit more money while you’re at it.
Last I checked he’s getting ready to be fired, by one of the worst teams in the NFL.
No my friend you’re right, he’s not average, he’s worse than that.
5. That is an interesting bit of statistics you have there, may I ask where you got them? Because if you look at Rivals defensive ppg over the last couple of years, It looks pretty much the same to me. Unless you read numbers differently from I do.
I’ll even provide you with the link, just change the year in the top right:
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/stats/byteam?cat1=defense&cat2=Total&sort=1137&conference=I-A_all&year=2012
Any that is well rounded should be able to win by 21 points. WE AVERAGED 34.5 THIS SEASON!!!!!
You look at irrelevant statistics like 36th in points, IF WE HAD A DEFENSE WE WOULD BE WINNING LIKE CRAZY
That goes to my last point, I’m agreeing with everybody, as I’ve stated before, that CPJ is the HC and he is responsible for shortcomings of the team. I agree with you guys 100% but I know that he at the same time brings alot to the table. Special teams is on the right track, now he needs to correct the Defense because if he gets that right, other teams need to watch out. Lets give him one more chance to get it right, if he doesn’t I’m with you guys we need to head in another direction. Until that time comes however, lets be a good fan base and give some damn support.
GTRanj
December 20th, 2012
8:11 pm
@wrecked
You’re just babel ling on with the same points that I’ve already addressed. Gailey had one, maybe two good recruiting years, other than that, HIS RECRUITING AVERAGED LESS THAN CPJ’s.
Do you even know what you’re talking about because how can CPJ return to the FBS, he’s coaching in it right now. Georgia Tech is in the FBS.
Your lesson for the day is done son. Now go do your homework or no T.V. for you this week.
fan
December 20th, 2012
8:32 pm
The newspaper said former AD Radavich had fond memories when he was at tech, while he was giving them the finger driving down North Avenue on his way to Clempson.
GT Rich
December 20th, 2012
10:11 pm
Declining talent on D and inadequate coaching/recruiting to maintain the quality on that side of the ball.
Chan Gailey had Calvin Freaking Johnson on his team and only put up 6 points against Wake Forest. His Bills are pitiful. That is what makes Chan average.
For those asking, who could be a replacement — Ken Wisenhunt has GT ties and is a name for consideration, but I like CPJ and believe he can turn things around with the right hire.
GTRanj
December 20th, 2012
10:18 pm
GT Rich preach brother
GT Fan
December 20th, 2012
11:19 pm
GT Joe
December 20th, 2012
2:01 pm
Ranj: 2 years does not a successful coach make.
I like CPJ. I like the offense. But you need to take into account that we had better talent those 1st 2 years, AND no one in D1 had really played against an offense like ours those 1st 2 years. So there was an element of surprise to our offense. Not any more. Now that folks have seen what we do for 4 years now, they know how to defend it better. And it will only get harder.
——————————-
GT Joe,
Are you sure you’re not a UGA fan?
IKD, 5 yrs in, and the O (heavily run-based in case you haven’t noticed) STILL averages 300+yds rushing / game. Seems that, by your reasoning (element of surprise), GT should be avg around 200 yds / game. And this is, the past 2 seasons, WITHOUT a B-back even close to Dwyer or Allen.
The offense if fine ……. GT’s gotta get a D!
Just look at the Holiday Bowl … on right now. In the 3rd Qtr it was 6-3, San Diego St over BYU (you remember BYU’s D vs. GT right?). Then BYU’s D got even better! They had a sack-fumble-TD in the endzone, then a blocked punt (scored a TD shortly thereafter), then a pick-6. BYU, with 1:15 to play now leads 23-6. GT Joe, BYU is LEADING BY 17, and their OFFENSE hasn’t scored a single pt!!!!