Tech’s Paul Johnson: The best playcaller in the business
PJ's adjustments haven't included sending this guy in motion -- yet. (Brant Sanderlin, AJC)
It was the night of Oct. 3. Georgia Tech was playing Mississippi State in Starkville. With 9:21 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Jackets punted.
I mention this for a reason. That was more than a calendar month ago, and the Jackets haven’t punted in a second half since. Not at Florida State. Not against Virginia Tech. Not at Virginia. Not at Vandy.
Eight quarters of football. Not one second-half punt. And you know what this says?
Paul Johnson is the archduke of adjustments.
We hear announcers talking about them all the time. We hear Erin Andrews and her sideline-reporting ilk ask, “Coach, what adjustments will you make at halftime?” Ninety-five percent of the time coaches wind up doing the same thing in the second half as they did in the first.
Not PJ. He tweaks. He brings a guy in motion from a different angle. He splits a guy a tad wider. He runs the same stuff, only slightly differently. And Tech’s offense goes from powerful in the first half to unstoppable in the second.
You might ask Willie Martinez about this. Last November Georgia went from leading 28-12 at halftime to trailing 35-28 — in the span of seven minutes and five seconds. The Bulldogs had the game in hand, and suddenly they were chasing it. (And once PJ gets ahead, forget it. Tech is 8-1 the past two seasons in games decided by five or fewer points.)
“He’s not really coaching,” says Wayne Hogan, the pithy Tech associate AD. “He’s playing a video game!”
And that’s it exactly. Johnson figures stuff out on the fly. Even if the opponent seems to havee a handle on his stylized offense, he performs his little ju jitsu. He wears a headset on the sideline, but it’s just for show. He could make the same mid-course corrections wearing earmuffs.
We’ve known for a while he’s an outstanding head coach, but what sometimes gets lost is that he’s the best playcaller in the business. Hogan again: “Our coach is pretty cool.” And that’s it, too. To borrow Bob Greene’s description of Frank Gifford, PJ of GT is always the coolest guy in the room — even if the room holds 80,000.
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451 comments Add your comment
Sonny Clusters
November 5th, 2009
11:41 am
Clusters could always call plays that work. On both sides of the ball. We was instrumental in calling audibles and in setting defenses when we was playing ball. We was “like having a coach on the field” according to Stinky Wintes and he don’t praise lightly. We asked Jeff this morning if journalists do any eye-gouging when they is after a story but he didn’t answer. What about it, Mark?
GT Bob
November 5th, 2009
11:43 am
Is everyone as sick of Saint Simons as I am. Hey Saint, when you get old enough to shave you’re welcome to join in.
LJacket
November 5th, 2009
11:44 am
While I am impressed and extatic about his play calling, I am equally impressed with the self discipline our team shows. No wild celebration displays, fist pumping, chest beating, dancing, etc. They get really excited about touchdowns, but almost always politely hand the ball to the ref in the end zone. Then put their heads down and get back to work. I like it. That takes a lot of coaching about team, not self, and getting the job done.
Dean George Griffin
November 5th, 2009
11:47 am
Mark, Good article! Now, serious question: Do you think it’s going to affect Tech’s chances adversely, that Wake Forest keeps possession of the football for long periods of time like CPJ’s Tech does? Will our advantage there be cancelled out?
Harry B
November 5th, 2009
11:48 am
Georgia Tech is terrible.
Once again, Georgia Tech is an incredible lame place where the breed of college student is different than most universities. The kids that go there just suck. Whenever I hear these Tech fans talk smack on here, i literally laugh to myself and discredit their opinions because they are loser Tech fans!!
Its like, ok you are doing well in football this year, but you lose at the game of life because you are a freakin loser nerd from Tech. And that makes me smile.
Georgia Tech sucks in every way, i mean you can not dispute this factually. Honestly.
Flowery Branch Yellow Jacket
November 5th, 2009
11:48 am
I listened to CPJ’s radio show last night, wherein he discussed his personal input into the offensive AND defensive performance. Assuming he’s being honest, CPJ is satisfied with his coaching staff, including DC Wommack. I get the feeling that the main thing we lack is DEPTH. If we think the “adjustments” are effective NOW (and they are), just think how much more effective they will be when we have enough personnel to go 2-3 deep at every position. No more moving a cornerback to a safety spot (or vice versa). It’s going to be a fun time on The Flats.
Mark Bradley
November 5th, 2009
11:49 am
To Dean George Griffin: No. Tech has better players than Wake. (It had better players in the 2006 title game in Jacksonville, but that’s another story.)
WTH
November 5th, 2009
11:51 am
Just ignore the idiots and they will go away.
XXXVII
November 5th, 2009
11:51 am
I can stand on the sideline and call for the option over and over and over too. I guess i’m a pretty good play caller too!
GT JJ
November 5th, 2009
11:52 am
LJacket – when you get into the endzone as much as we do, understand know how to handle it with class. silly doggies don’t get there enough to know.
Sonny Clusters
November 5th, 2009
11:53 am
Wait just a minute calling people nerds. We was always one of the best students at our school and because of that some people thought we was nerds, but not so. Honor Roll was something we took for granted and then when athletic success started coming our way we was always humble, but we wasn’t nerds. Pocket protectors can be used in a variety of ways by athletes and non-athletes alike.
WTH
November 5th, 2009
11:53 am
Just ignore the trailer trash and they will go away.
UGA Grad
November 5th, 2009
11:54 am
Harry B, I disagree with your mindless rant. My wife went to Tech, so I take offense to your comments.
WTH
November 5th, 2009
11:55 am
XXXVII
Keep believing it is just the triple option. They probably run the option 50 percent of the time.
Gt4ever
November 5th, 2009
11:56 am
Triple Option, Good Grief. We do not run the triple option…..
GT JJ
November 5th, 2009
11:57 am
Harry B, get back to your high school shop class and stop hanging out in the computer lab. you need to get busy learning a trade, boy.
Sonny Clusters
November 5th, 2009
11:58 am
They is a lot of name calling on these AJC blogs, more than on more polite blogs elsewhere. But these blogs have Mark and Jeff and they is worth the price of the paper (internet access). Soon, when the AJC moves to Dunwoody we will be accepting a paying position at the paper and may get a chance to do a little blogging of our own and when we do they won’t be any name calling allowed. Sticks and stones may break our bones but eye-gouging could make us blind.
Indydawg
November 5th, 2009
11:58 am
Ever seen Tecmo Bowl Mark??? Paul Johnson’s play calling resembles the following…
Pass 1
Run 1
Run 2
Run 3
And oddly, STILL BETTER THAN BOBO….
GT JJ
November 5th, 2009
11:59 am
at least we made it almost 30 minutes before the idiots arrived.
Indydawg
November 5th, 2009
12:00 pm
Hey Mark, Johnson’s playcalling is like Tecmo Bowl….
Pass 1
Run 1
Run 2
Run 3
And yet still better than Bobo….
Harry B
November 5th, 2009
12:01 pm
Hahaha WTH maybe you and St. Simons can have a convention to discuss how incredibly lame your institution is.
Does it hurt you inside, just a little, to know that the standard of a fun, decent person at GT is so skewed?
I can rest easy at night knowing that Georgia Tech students suck. You suck, think about it, soak it in, and remember that you go to one of the nerdiest places around.
You arent real college football fans, you are Tech fans, who happen to play college football with the real people of the world.
Does this make sense to you? Do you admit that your school sucks?
StraightJacket
November 5th, 2009
12:03 pm
Another little tidbit re: Coach Johnson’s playcalling:
He does it WITHOUT the neat, polished, color-coded, laminated, and trimmed “situational play-calling” sheet in his hand.
Coach Johnson joked along the lines of saying that if a coach is spending all that time looking at his opponents’ past tendencies, he just might MISS what they’re doing TODAY! Worse, if the coaches calling the plays don’t know they’re offenses well enough that they have to resort to play-calling sheets, then maybe they should learn their offenses a little better.
Coach Johnson wears the headsets to get word from coaches upstairs on things he can’t see on the other side of the field. Things like “what did the backside safety do on that play”? Then, the next time he calls a play that may have failed, he’ll change one or two blocking assignments, and voila!… we’ll have a big play.
Check out our plays over 20 yards this year. Many of them come AFTER the adjustments you’re talking about,
Good observation, Mark. And it isn’t even basketball season yet.
-StraightJacket
Big Ten Sleeper
November 5th, 2009
12:03 pm
I heard Purdue is going to offfer PJ a huge contract to come up there. Word is he will accept!
MalibuGT
November 5th, 2009
12:04 pm
it is still fascinating to me that players like Josh, Dwyer, BeBe are thriving in an offense that is so different from what they were recruited for.
will be fun on Saturday. no team should be more prepared for us than Wake, since they’ve seen the option from Navy the past several seasons.
UGA Grad
November 5th, 2009
12:04 pm
I don’t like the idiots either. I hope they aren’t Dawg fans but I’m sure they probably are. I can assure you they probably didn’t go to UGA.
GT JJ
November 5th, 2009
12:06 pm
Nice try big ten sleeper. we’re not biting.
UGA Grad
November 5th, 2009
12:06 pm
Purdue…LOL
richtfan
November 5th, 2009
12:06 pm
mark, what it says is that you are a suck up to Tech.
WTH
November 5th, 2009
12:06 pm
Big Ten (Dawg Fan probably HBTD),
I guess you have inside sources at Purdue, ESPN, SI, etc. How much is the contract exactly and for how long. I am sure you can tell us.
Larry
November 5th, 2009
12:07 pm
I hear people say that Tech has a ‘high school’ offense. In a way, this is true, but they execute it very well. Defending an option attack is all about assignment football, but even at the college level, most defenses simply arent disciplined enough and thus struggle with assignment football, and thats why Tech’s attack works. Nesbitt isnt a great passer, but he doesnt have to be. Thats the beauty of Johnsons offense.
I am a Ga fan, but i like to see Tech do well. They are fun to watch. But its getting harder to get behind them when the blogs are full of jackasses like St Simons and Yellow Fuzz. You guys need to learn how to support your team with pride instead of being such dicks.
Paddy
November 5th, 2009
12:08 pm
lefty fielder…. my guess on other teams opting out of the option offense is they could not run it with the percision of a PJ. In the last two mon. I heard 2 former college coaches say if they got back into coaching they would adopt the PJ option offense. To me that was quite revealing and a credit to what your opponents must go through to stop this damn thing!
WTH
November 5th, 2009
12:08 pm
See Mark, it only took a little over an Hour for a dog fan to call you a Tech homer although richtfan did not say it quiet that nice.
GT JJ
November 5th, 2009
12:09 pm
UGA “Grad” says it all. I will always give a graduate the benefit of the doubt (including my own blacksheep/dawg brother). it’s the sidewalk fans that are usually the morons.
Big Ten Sleeper
November 5th, 2009
12:09 pm
Just remember you heard it here 1st!!
UGA Grad
November 5th, 2009
12:09 pm
Larry, you need to add “m” to the mix too.
Sonny Clusters
November 5th, 2009
12:09 pm
Coach said we only needed about three plays, run, pass, kick. Mostly we run. Sometimes we passed. If they didn’t work, we kicked. Football is not that complicated if you’ve been Honor Roll.
Bark Madley
November 5th, 2009
12:11 pm
Gotta admit Mark, Bark Madley has a nice ring to it. Nice article. Do you by chance have the stats for how many fail 4th down attempts GT has in that time frame?
RAMBLE ON!!!
November 5th, 2009
12:12 pm
You know, I had almost forgotten about that cold day in Nov. when Roddy Jones ran for 16.5 yards per carry while the team accumulated more than 400 yards on the ground while completing one pass in route to a 45-42 beat down in Sanford and Son Stadium.
Thanks for reminding me Mark.
Spot on as usual.
Tech75
November 5th, 2009
12:12 pm
Hey Larry – it’s a two-way street, pal. “People who live in glass houses”…..
UGA Grad
November 5th, 2009
12:13 pm
Sidewalk fans are important to the fan base. I’m just saying that I didn’t go to school with anyone who acts like the morons I see here.
Born2Buzz
November 5th, 2009
12:14 pm
Mark, that last jab about the ‘06 CG is going to get m all stirred up again.
m, he’s gone. We’re all thankful. Forget about it. Focus on the now.
And yes, we are all tired of Yellow Fuzz, St Simons and Ramble On and their gutter talk. I’d say they may not be real GT grads as real Tech men show more class.
Heard someone asked CPJ why he didn’t have a card with plays on it to review, like most other coaches. He said “Why? I know all the plays. It would just be something in my hands that I never look at.”
UGA Grad
November 5th, 2009
12:16 pm
Sonny Clusters – I just want to say that I’m sorry no one taught you how to write or master the English language. Big hug!
Tu87
November 5th, 2009
12:17 pm
Once again over reaction by Bradley and deception. To quote:
“It was the night of Oct. 3. Georgia Tech was playing Mississippi State in Starkville. With 9:21 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Jackets punted.
I mention this for a reason. That was more than a calendar month ago, and the Jackets haven’t punted in a second half since. Not at Florida State. Not against Virginia Tech. Not at Virginia. Not at Vandy.”
They have punted in a 2nd half since that game, just not those 4 he mentions. Punts in the 2nd half this year alone: Clemson-3 times, Miami -once, North Carolina – once and LSU last year once. (I didn’t check last years games – only the LSU game). Wow the media really is awful, all you have to do is go to ESPN and check the play by play recaps of any game. Took me 5 minutes
WTH
November 5th, 2009
12:17 pm
Hey Larry, why don’t you read the post by HarryB at 11:48 and tell us what you think about it.
hedge puller
November 5th, 2009
12:17 pm
CPJ isn’t going anywhere. He isn’t all about the money. His family is most important to him and the family loves it here.
RAMBLE ON!!!
November 5th, 2009
12:18 pm
I guess I won’t get invited to Born2Buzz’s next Zima party.
Gosh darn it!!!
Paddy
November 5th, 2009
12:18 pm
Native bird… you don’t like CPJ offense? What is not to like when you average 400 yrds per game on the ground and make the other team cry! Maybe you should find another school to root for. CPJ looks like he will be around for awhile.
Come on over to Athens, we can always use the fans. Go Dawgs
NVAJacketsfan
November 5th, 2009
12:18 pm
It is amazing how many folks don’t realize the play call is not just the particular “big”play (Option left, Option right…) but also the tweaking of the blocking scheme’s, the telling the a back to brush the defender and take off down field, the telling the WRs to cut back on this or that defender after the initial snap…
These are the places that CPJ makes adjustments at the half and they are why Tech’s offense has been significantly more commanding in the second halves so far this season.
GT JJ
November 5th, 2009
12:18 pm
Agreed that sidewalk fans are important and I’m not looking down my nose at anyone who cheers for the Jackets. Just sayin that more often than not, they’re the culprits for the idiocy on the blogs and elsewhere.
UGAIsSoLastYear
November 5th, 2009
12:18 pm
A few years ago we had the best punter in the country! He was good. Florida has kicked the fewest punts but you missed the most telling stat with regards to their punts. Through 9 games, not one has been returned for any yardage!!!