A devalued ACC title game? Not to pugnacious Paul Johnson
Goal No. 1: Still attainable. (AJC photo by Johnny Crawford)
The champion of both the ACC Coastal and Atlantic divisions lost to garden-variety SEC opponents. Therefore the shamed teams should head for Tampa under cover of darkness or, better yet, decline to play the game at all. Isn’t that what we’ve been hearing? Isn’t that how a mortified Georgia Tech must feel?
“We’re 10-2,” Paul Johnson said Tuesday, speaking at his weekly media briefing. “We don’t have to apologize for anything.”
And the loss to Georgia seven days before the ACC title game? “That’s football. Nebraska is in a [conference] championship game. Does it have to apologize for losing to Virginia Tech? Pitt’s playing for the Big East title: Does it have to apologize for losing to N.C. State? Stanford has been having a great season. Does it have to apologize for losing to Wake Forest?”
Johnson is no fool. He knows that the South is consumed by SEC football, and regional cackling over the SEC’s dominance last weekend — Georgia over Tech, South Carolina over Clemson, Florida over Florida State — has become a full-blown cacophony. “I understand the storyline. But last year Clemson and us beat South Carolina and Georgia, and it didn’t seem to be too much of a story then.”
The difference was, Georgia and Carolina weren’t about to play for a conference title and a slot in the Orange Bowl. But that is, as Johnson noted, the way of football: “If you play enough games, you’re going to lose sometimes.” And it isn’t as if the regal SEC hasn’t seen a team coming off a loss play in its championship game.
“You look at the ’90s,” Johnson said. “Florida State would beat Florida, and a lot of those times Florida was in the SEC championship game.”
Well, yes. The Gators played in seven of the first nine SEC title games, and only once did they enter off a victory. Five times they lost to the Seminoles, and once they tied. And in the tie — the historic “Choke at Doak” — the Gators led 31-3 after three quarters.
Johnson’s point: Those losses to an ACC opponent didn’t stop Steve Spurrier’s Gators from celebrating when they took SEC titles. Indeed, Spurrier’s 1996 team would overcome Alabama in the Georgia Dome and then win the national championship by beating Florida State in a Sugar Bowl rematch. Playing for a title in anything — especially in college football, where real titles are hard to come by — means never having to say you’re sorry.
Johnson: “We’ve got other fish to fry. You’ve got to move on. I can’t imagine that either team would show up in Tampa and not be fired up.”
The coach offered no excuses for losing to Georgia: “We went into the game stoked and ready to play. We just got beat.” But he also made it clear he didn’t feel as if order had necessarily been restored to nature. (Indeed, asked on 790 The Zone about Georgia, he said: “What’s the last thing they won — 1980?” And he suggested a way for Tech fans to handle ribbing from Bulldog backers: “Punch him in the face.”)
To the media, he offered this less pugnacious appraisal: “Everybody’s got good players. Georgia’s got good players. Georgia Tech has good players.” Here he smiled. “We’re going to be here a while. That won’t be the last time we play Georgia.”
This Saturday will, however, mark the first time GT under PJ plays for an actual championship. Raymond James Stadium won’t be sold out and the game won’t be a ratings smash, but it will matter very much to this coach and this program and to the Clemson Tigers, too. “This is like the playoffs,” Johnson said, and when the game ends one team is going to be handed a big trophy and will get to spend the first week of 2010 in Miami. That’s not nothing. That is, on the contrary, a substantial something.
Yes, the ACC championship lost more than a bit of luster last Saturday, but they’re still going to play the game. Somebody has to win it. Might as well be Tech.
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1,273 comments Add your comment
Really?
December 1st, 2009
4:12 pm
T-Shirts have been made for the ACC Chipper this weekend! HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SO8Y3MIsoP8/SxMN88MGbFI/AAAAAAAAGqM/eFnge3sjMxc/s1
Really?
December 1st, 2009
4:12 pm
1st
Erin Andrews' Landing Strip
December 1st, 2009
4:16 pm
The Super Genius is a might testy. I guess this game did mean something to Tech after all.
And what has Georgia done since 1980? They’ve beaten Tech’s behind like Tech stole something at the rate of 22 wins, 8 losses. All the pouting and posturing about your unstoppable offense and your unmatched ability to see what the defense is doing and summarily dismiss it with a brilliant adjustment doesnt change two facts: One, you got your behind handed to you last Saturday night in your own backyard by a team struggling to stay above .500 for the season. Two, Tech certainly deserved to win last year because it played harder than UGA did, not because you’re such a freaking genius. UGA didn’t get manhandled, or fooled, UGA played lazy and got smacked by a team that kept coming on after them. Props to Tech for that, but don’t mistake it for more than it was. A team that had gotten its behind handed to it 7 years in a row finally got up off the deck against a team that had gotten a little too fat and happy against the perennial pinata.
In other words, Napoleon, UGA’s A game beats Tech’s A game. Our C game doesnt beat your A game, probably never has. You nerds can muster up one of those mismatches a couple of times a decade. Get used to getting your testy little behind beat, and remember what happened to the LAST genius operator of an unstoppable option attack who was the head coach at GTU. You aren’t a former GTU QB, so I figure two more losses like this one and you’ll be taking your flexbone to the high school DVD circuit with Tony Franklin and HIS unstoppable attack.
Really?
December 1st, 2009
4:17 pm
Wow, it is easy to be first on the Tech blogs! I guess because all the Tech fans are on the UGA blogs!
MLH
December 1st, 2009
4:17 pm
30-24
Hmmmmm
December 1st, 2009
4:18 pm
Go Tigers…..
MLH
December 1st, 2009
4:18 pm
Actually UGA has won a conference championship since Tech last has.
MLH
December 1st, 2009
4:19 pm
And a BCS bowl at that
AndyC
December 1st, 2009
4:19 pm
All true Mark, but the difference is that even though Tech may win the ACC championship, they have no shot at getting to the championship game and wouldn’t even if they had beat UGA. If your team is in a good conference and you win your conference and only lose one game over the course of the season you should have a reasonable shot at the championship game. Not so for the ACC because it is weak and gets zero respect nationally.
DevilInLaw
December 1st, 2009
4:19 pm
The winner will go to a BCS Bowl. But the loser of Ga Tech-Clemson will go to … wait for it … either the Music City Bowl or the Champs Sports Bowl.
What a tremendous drop that would be for Tech to from 10-1 and top of the CFB food chain to slumming it in Nashville or Miami in a second-tier bowl. In fact, it would be in a bowl that is worse than the bowl the Yellow Jackets were in last year.
I can’t wait to hear ol’ Paul Johnson complain about that fiasco allowed by the ACC offices.
Buzz Belle
December 1st, 2009
4:20 pm
I’m so proud to be a Yellow Jacket, to have Paul Johnson as coach, to have a 10-2 season after two years, to play for the conference championship and possibly a BCS bowl. I REALLY am!
jsmuga
December 1st, 2009
4:20 pm
When is the last time tech had a winning streak against UGA……. Obviously he is not going to start one…….
gtyj2
December 1st, 2009
4:20 pm
haha i like CPJs response when was the last time uga won somethin 1980? Classic then hell why not if uga fans continue to give you hell punch him in the face
chuck
December 1st, 2009
4:21 pm
Paul Johnson is a sore loser and he wouldn’t give the other team credit if somebody put a gun to his swollen head. I hope Clemson beats the stuffing out of Tech, and I am not a fan of either team.
uga_b
December 1st, 2009
4:21 pm
Maybe he should worry more about his defense getting punched in the mouth.
The ACC Champ Game is more important
December 1st, 2009
4:21 pm
Do you think ANY of the Georgia or Carolina players would trade places with Tech or Clemson players on Saturday… I think so.. 2 teams are playing football on Saturday…. 2 teams are watching TV !!! (or getting arrested !)
Big Sur Dawg
December 1st, 2009
4:22 pm
LMAO – ManBoobs Johnson advocating tech fans to punch dawg fans in the face. It’s obvious he doesn’t know his fanbase – every tech douche I’ve ever known would piss their yellow pants at the thought of physically confronting anything more animate than a calculator.
gadog
December 1st, 2009
4:22 pm
Please stop trying to legitimize gt going to the championship game. It won’t work. They got beat by a 7-5 SEC team and they’re playing for an ACC championship. Give me a break! It’s a joke and the gt fans know it. And so does everyone in the college football arena. Better luck next year!
Joshgekko
December 1st, 2009
4:22 pm
It has nothing to do with apologizing. Simply a continuing of the thought that the SEC as a whole is better than the ACC as a whole. Something that, for the first time in a while, ACC fans were doubting. The ACC is a fine conference and the talent is spread pretty even across the board. It’s just that when two middling (hard to say as a UGA fan) SEC teams beat the top two teams in the conference the last week of the season, it’s going to be noticed.
Andre "Pulpwood" Smith
December 1st, 2009
4:22 pm
The Super Genius is a might testy. Saturday’s game must have meant something after all.
And what has Georgia done since 1980? They’ve beaten Tech’s behind like Tech stole something at the rate of 22 wins, 8 losses. All the pouting and posturing about your unstoppable offense and your unmatched ability to see what the defense is doing and summarily dismiss it with a brilliant adjustment doesnt change two facts: One, you got your fanny handed to you last Saturday night in your own backyard by a team struggling to stay above .500 for the season. Two, Tech certainly deserved to win last year because it played harder than UGA did, not because you’re such a super genius. UGA didn’t get manhandled, or fooled, UGA played lazy and got smacked by a team that kept coming on after them. Props to Tech for that, but don’t mistake it for more than it was. A team that had gotten its fanny handed to it 7 years in a row finally got up off the deck against a team that had gotten a little too fat and happy against the perennial pinata.
In other words, Napoleon, UGA’s A game beats Tech’s A game. Our C game doesn’t beat your A game, probably never has. You nerds can muster up one of those mismatches a couple of times a decade. Get used to getting your testy little fanny beat, and remember what happened to the LAST genius operator of an unstoppable option attack who was the head coach at GTU. You aren’t a former GTU QB, so I figure two more losses like this one and you’ll be taking your flexbone to the high school DVD circuit with Tony Franklin and HIS unstoppable attack.
Enjoy the World’s Smallest Outdoor Cocktail Party.
gtyj2
December 1st, 2009
4:22 pm
Devlinn your re-tard the looser of this game will either go Gator or Chick-fil-a not Music City or Champs Sports
Yep
December 1st, 2009
4:22 pm
tech fans are too nerdy to punch anyone in the face……be for real loser……
Saint Simons Can Suck It
December 1st, 2009
4:23 pm
(((((((((((30 – 24)))))))))))
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
74Dawg
December 1st, 2009
4:23 pm
Wow. lotsa traffic on this blog. My head is spinning:) Personally, I think if the ACc wanted to do the right thing by the fans and their espn contract, they should bench Tech and Clempsom and let UGA play USC for the ACC title. Oh, wait, we already did that. Well, it would sell out and get much better ratings anyway. This game will do well to draw 30,000 … flies.
DevilInLaw
December 1st, 2009
4:25 pm
Seeing as the Chick Fil-A (Va. Tech) and Gator (FSU) have already filled their ACC spots, please do tell how the ACC title game loser is going to end up in either of those games.
juvenal
December 1st, 2009
4:26 pm
there are other blogs? tampa couldn’t sell out the alcs!that’s why they moved it…they thought fsu & um would be in it every, but it ain’t so easy without non-qualifiers, something the sec definitely leads in…
Saint Simons is my caddy
December 1st, 2009
4:27 pm
((((((((30-24))))))) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!~!~!!!!!
MLH
December 1st, 2009
4:28 pm
Does anyone even know what time or channel the All Cupcake Conference championship game is on? There has been no mention of the game on TV.
Sour Grapes
December 1st, 2009
4:29 pm
30-24 HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
74Dawg
December 1st, 2009
4:29 pm
The really sad thing about this is Tech probably peaks this year and next. After that, D. Thomas and
Nesbitt are gone,along w/ the A back and the B back. Guess they will be going down a little lower in the alphabet. And if Willie can figure out the option offense it won’t be long till La. Monroe figures it out.
Sorry!
December 1st, 2009
4:30 pm
gtyj2 – Sorry but it appears FSU will be going to The Gator Bowl so check that one off.
http://jacksonville.com/sports/college/florida_state_seminoles/2009-11-30/story/bobby_bowdens_final_game_as_florida_state_co
b.davis
December 1st, 2009
4:30 pm
Actually Johnson is right on.
Neither Tech or Georgia has done much in many years. Georgia just generally wins more games and gets the hell beat out of them at a higher level than Tech.
Tech hangs around and wins here and there but generally has been the weak sister in football in Georgia, it does not follow the dawgs have been special, they have just been less ugly.
Well times are changing and once tech gets the defensive coaches they need they will go a lot higher than slick Willie, or two tanned Richt will ever go.
Michael
December 1st, 2009
4:30 pm
What’s this about GT and Clemson both beating UGA last year? Maybe I’m just losing it, but I don’t remember UGA even PLAYING Clemson last year.
uga_b
December 1st, 2009
4:31 pm
You STAY CLASSY Paul Johnson
Dead Dog
December 1st, 2009
4:31 pm
Your mascot is still dead.
GT IS A 4TH RATE HIGH SCHOOL TEAM
December 1st, 2009
4:31 pm
IF YOU HAVE NOT HEARD IT, GA DAWGS WON THE TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL NATIONAL TEAM OF THE WEEK (WEEK OF NOV 28) AWARD BECAUSE FOR THE WOOPING THEY GAVE PAUL JOHNSON’S TECHIES. “REMEMBER THE NOVEMBER 28″ HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAH AND MORE HHAAHHHAHHAHHAH AND SOME MORE HAHHAHAHHHAHAHAHA FOREVER AND EVER.
r@mblinwreck
December 1st, 2009
4:32 pm
The burning question is why do UGA fans post comments on a TECH blog? Oh, I remember now…. Unemployment!! Get a job fleabags!!
matthew
December 1st, 2009
4:32 pm
I relish the idea of Tech fans punching Georgia fans in the face. Bring it on, douchebags.
b.davis
December 1st, 2009
4:32 pm
Also keep in mind that last year the dawgs were ranked number one in the country before the season started and ended up with nothing.
This year more of the same, and next and next.
uga_b
December 1st, 2009
4:32 pm
You STAY CLASSY Dead Dog
The Grinch
December 1st, 2009
4:33 pm
What is the attendance over/under for this much anticipated rematch for the A She She championship between #10 tech and unranked Clemson, 40,000? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Big G
December 1st, 2009
4:33 pm
To Really? and MLH. I know where we will be December 5th. Where will you be? Yea you won Saturday so go pound you chest and gloat all you want. We played our worst game of the year and you happened to play your best. All I know is the Paul Johnson will not, I repeat, will not let you own us as you have in the past, you know it too.
KJ
December 1st, 2009
4:33 pm
It’s like the Seinfeld episode where Jerry encounters the fat naked man on the subway, who says “I’m not ashamed of anything”, and Jerry retorts “That’s the problem…. you SHOULD be”
The Grinch
December 1st, 2009
4:34 pm
r@mblinwreck
December 1st, 2009
4:32 pm
And so what’s your excuse for posting? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Sorry!
December 1st, 2009
4:35 pm
b.davis – pretty sure UGA’s record over the last 8 years would be looked at as special but nice try!
GT IS A 4TH RATE HIGH SCHOOL TEAM
December 1st, 2009
4:35 pm
I HAVE TO ADMIT. IT I DID NOT EVEN KNOW THAT AWARD EVEN EXISTED. HAHAHHAHAHAHAH AND MORE HAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAH FOREVER AND EVER.
calvin
December 1st, 2009
4:36 pm
So far this is just like Gailey’s next to last
season. Tech was 9-2 going into the Georgia
game and then lost 3 in a row.
Considering what happened in the Clemson game
earlier this year, this Saturday’s game is as
frightening as they come:
Tech scored the first 24 points. Then Clemson
scored the next 27 points. And Tech scored the
final 6 points.
Unfortunately, Tech can’t stop anybody reliably.
The Grinch
December 1st, 2009
4:37 pm
Big G
December 1st, 2009
4:33 pm
I know where the Bulldogs will be on Saturday. They will be getting sized for the coveted “score” rings. I do believe it was 30-24, right? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
GT IS A 4TH RATE HIGH SCHOOL TEAM
December 1st, 2009
4:37 pm
GT TECHIES GO PUNCHED IN THE MOUTH BY THE STAY CLASSY DAWGS. HAHAHAHHAHAHHAAHAHHA HAHHAHAHHHAHAHAHAH AHHAHAHHAHAHAHHA AND MORE HAHAHHAHHAHAHHA FOREVER AND EVER.
VJacket
December 1st, 2009
4:40 pm
I actually read some of the comments for the first time.
I will not make that mistake again.