Tech in 2012: It’s a chance for Paul Johnson to look smart
That's Paul Johnson on the right, in case you wondered. (AJC photo by Johnny Crawford)
On the morning of Nov. 28, 2009, Paul Johnson was poised to become the unchallenged king of football in a state that takes the sport seriously. He was 19-5 in two seasons as Georgia Tech’s coach. That night his Jackets would play Georgia, whom they’d famously beaten 45-42 in Athens the year before.
Tech was 10-1, ranked No. 7 nationally and champion of the ACC Coastal Division. Georgia was 6-5, having just lost at home to Kentucky. Not since George O’Leary was working against Jim Donnan had Tech beaten the Bulldogs twice in a row – Chan Gailey, O’Leary’s successor, hadn’t done it even once – and now Johnson was roundly favored to make it 2-for-2 against the hated Mutts.
But Georgia won. The Bulldogs pounded the Jackets on the ground, and Tech’s final chance was wasted when Demaryius Thomas dropped a fourth-down pass. For Tech and for Johnson, nothing since has been nearly as good.
From Johnson’s 19-5 start, Tech has gone 15-14. (The sweetest of those 15 on-the-field victories – the 2009 ACC championship game over Clemson – was vacated by NCAA sanctions involving Thomas’ eligibility.) Tech went 6-7 in 2010, 8-5 last season after starting 6-0. Tech hasn’t beaten Georgia since 2008 and hasn’t won a bowl game under Johnson. All of which means …
This is a mighty big year for Tech and its coach.
The first blush of success has faded. The big names Johnson inherited from Gailey are gone. Tech hasn’t fallen to pieces — on Oct. 15, 2011, it was ranked No. 12 in the land, and two weeks later it would beat No. 6 Clemson by two touchdowns – but it hasn’t consolidated the gains of 2008 and 2009.
Which isn’t to say it’s in complete retreat. Tech has been picked to finish second in the ACC Coastal Division, and if the Jackets can beat Virginia Tech on Labor Day night in Blacksburg they’ll become the front-runner. (The Tech-Tech winner has taken the Coastal every year of its existence.)
Speaking at Tech’s media convocation Saturday, Johnson nodded to his opener and also beyond, to early games against Virginia and Miami. “Clearly the month of September is going to be huge,” he said. “We may be the only team in America with three division games in September.” (Actually, it’s not the only team in Georgia that does. Check UGA’s schedule.)
The Jackets have an incumbent quarterback in Tevin Washington, an excellent A-back in Orwin Smith and a defense that has, in two seasons under coordinator Al Groh, made incremental improvement. Johnson called this team the deepest “since I’ve been here,” but depth isn’t to be mistaken for top-end talent.
Going on available manpower, this wouldn’t seem much different than last season’s team, or 2010’s. Once again, Tech isn’t apt to out-talent many ACC opponents. If you handed this roster to another coach, you would hope he could bleed out six wins. But Johnson by himself constitutes a mighty X-factor.
He is, as has been noted, a really good coach. He’s capable of winning games you’d swear he shouldn’t. (Clemson last season is the most recent example, though Clemson offers the flip side of that X: On any given Saturday, it can lose to just about anybody and yield 70 points in the process.) Johnson has always come across as the smartest guy in the room, and through the 2008 season and most of 2009 he seemed the sharpest coach in this state.
But those seasons were a while ago, and the clock’s ticking. Georgia Tech has again assumed also-ran status in the not-exactly-top-heavy ACC and, having lost three consecutive in-state collisions, is again staring up at the Bulldogs. This remains a proud and resourceful program, but it could stand a jolt.
That jolt could arrive Labor Day night. (Full disclosure: I think it will.) Even as Johnson tried to downplay the Virginia Tech game – “Is it the end-all be-all to the season? I would doubt it,” he said Saturday – there’s no doubting the opportunity it presents. It’s a big game on the road against a brand-name opponent, which means it’s a prime-time chance for Paul Johnson to remind us he’s still Paul Johnson.
By Mark Bradley
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454 comments Add your comment
Bugs Bunny
August 5th, 2012
7:57 pm
If it’s on the web then has to be true. Right Mr. Bull? What exactly did Tech do? That’s on the web too. It has nothing to do with “smoking dope, guns with serial numbers altered, athletes stealing from fellow athletes, beating women, etc.” You know the usual stuff (Richt Cup leader).
Please enlighten us about Tech’s major “infraction”.
I do know U(sic)GA has a player that still can’t play because of steroid use. I actually feel bad for him because I do not think he purposely did anything wrong. It’s amazing how dense you are, how do you function? You just like to make stuff up and use the “web” as your crutch.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 5th, 2012
7:58 pm
If you are not squirming, then you should be. You sure have been caught in enough lies already to be squirming.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 5th, 2012
7:59 pm
Pitbull has probably been to a few football games in Athens, but I doubt he ever attended any classes there. Even educated rednecks have more common sense than he does.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 5th, 2012
8:06 pm
@ Bugs Bunny……or vice versa. LOL
Unhappy Valley
August 5th, 2012
8:10 pm
PitiBull,
Supersize that order, mutt
August 5th, 2012
8:24 pm
@ Unhappy Valley……was that a deliberate misspelling? The correct word is ALTAR, but in this case, I think ALTER is very appropriate…..LOL
Bugs Bunny
August 5th, 2012
8:37 pm
Mr. Bull can dish it out but can’t take it. Sorry little guy.
Bugs Bunny
August 5th, 2012
8:38 pm
His itty bitty feefees got hurt.
GTBob
August 5th, 2012
8:43 pm
You only make me squirm in your own mind.
Yeah, yeah. Weren’t you going to call the NCAA about CPJ? Or were you going to call the Big East and tell them that you took away their AQ status? You have important things to do. I will quit messing with you.
Bugs Bunny
August 5th, 2012
8:44 pm
“Stan,
I understand. I have read on the web how Tech students who are not lilly white are treated with disrespect on the Tech campus. That includes minorities from both the USA and from overseas.
So I can see how your racial bigotry carries over to Georgia players most of whom are black and of course the buzz word (excuse the pun) for non white people for Tech white elites like you is thug.
I bet you call your own Tech athletes thugs behind their backs when they can’t hear you, don’t you?
Stan, people like you are pathetic losers.”
Should not this be under “Moderation”?
If he’s going to throw that out then he should expect as much if not more.
Bugs Bunny
August 5th, 2012
8:52 pm
My comment is in poor taste but he just called Stan a racist. I also think your article is about Tech. Unless it’s really just a forum to trash Tech.
If that’s the case please type that at the top of your article. Maybe something like “Even though this story is about Georgia Tech Football all UGA fans(sic) are invited to bash away with no consequences. We will not allow Tech fans to retaliate or respond in kind. Please enjoy!”
GoldMan
August 5th, 2012
9:05 pm
All da chatter form the UGA boyz, man, great for website hits, can we get to 15 pages?
Trueblueeagle
August 5th, 2012
9:06 pm
I can see the dawgs fan have them winning the NC and tech a losing year. It the same on bull they put out every year. Miami and Virgina lost a lot of players and VaTech will need time to have and offense line ( same thing as UGA), UGA will lose one of the following Vandy, Auburn, or Fla. all have improved while UGA has stayed the same, if not gone down some. USC is better than last year and Mizzzu is not going to afraid of the Big bad SEC East Champs. 9 wins for UGA and 10 For Tech.
macrotech
August 5th, 2012
9:14 pm
Haha…reading Pit’s posts is like reading the Enquirer! Entertaining and creative but lacks substance! Hell, I’d be a bitter pup, too if MY team had been playing football for over a hundred years and had ONLY two national championship trophies to show for it! Wanna talk about ufo’s or big foot spottings?!
Supersize that order, mutt
August 5th, 2012
9:19 pm
LOL @ macrotech
TechTrekker
August 5th, 2012
9:24 pm
When will Mark Richt beat a top 10 ranked team? Been a few years, what, 09′?
CPJ had yet another genius of a win against top 6 ranked Clemson, another top 10 falls to the Genius…..
macrotech
August 5th, 2012
9:36 pm
Welcome back Supersize….been enjoying those emails! Did WnE EVER come out of the closet on his complimentary posts on the mutt blogs?
BJizzle
August 5th, 2012
9:49 pm
You are all analyzing this too much. CPJ is a great coach. I’d take him over Chan any day. With talent and expierence his offense thrives. It’s that simple. You don’t have to have an enormous pro style playbook to compete. CPJ has his plays memorized and he is unpredictable at times. I’ll take that. He made Nesbit look like a decent option style quarterback, when really Nesbit ran the spread coming out of high school. And then we come to the conclusion of Tevin Washington. I’m sure that he’s a nice guy but I’ve had season tickets to the tech games for 8 or 9 years now and he is by far the worst quarterback I’ve seen play at tech. I’d rather have Reggie Ball back. The sad thing is, is that some of these yonger guys lack expierence to take that starting roll this year. So I say give it some time, and let the retard play out this year or maybe he’ll get beat out mid season. We’ll just have to see.
macrotech
August 5th, 2012
10:03 pm
BJizzle, I think you’re a little hard on Tevin…I admit that I was hoping he’d have gotten better last season, but I didn’t think he was the biggest problem we had. Our defense was BRUTALLY young so we’ll leave them out of this. Our offensive line looked lost a lot last season….hopefully, this won’t be the case for this upcoming season. I’m hoping that Tevin will prove to be a good answer for Tech!
Supersize that order, mutt
August 5th, 2012
10:23 pm
@ macrotech…..of course WnE has never explained all the praises he has heaped on UGA players; you really didn’t expect him to, did you? I now no longer even read his posts or respond to him, since he trashed (I mean TOTALLY trashed) Angelo Taylor because of the very questionable, if not illegal, things he did after leaving Tech. Angelo apparently was guilty of some bad stuff, but the fact that NOW the USOC, the IOC, the UST&FA, and his fellow Olympics teammates are ok with him (his teammates elected him captain of the team), then as far as I am concerned, his past has been taken care of in whatever ways were required. Of course, that’s not good enough for WnE, so I have absolutely no use for him now…..NONE!!! Not that I ever had much use for him to begin with. LOL
macrotech
August 5th, 2012
10:43 pm
Haha….I didn’t think so. I saw his barking on the Taylor affair…WnE has proven to be a blowhole! Perhaps, Gas-X might prove more effective than the milkbones I’ve been offering him.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 5th, 2012
10:53 pm
macro, did I send you the article on Roddy Jones that my newspaper friend wrote?
macrotech
August 5th, 2012
11:01 pm
I don’t think so…could you re-send it?
Supersize that order, mutt
August 5th, 2012
11:05 pm
sure will. It’s awsome. Check your email in about 5 minutes
Supersize that order, mutt
August 5th, 2012
11:12 pm
OK, macro…..sent
macrotech
August 5th, 2012
11:15 pm
Thanks! I’ll go check it out now…good evening to you, sir! GO TECH!!!
Big Crimson 75
August 5th, 2012
11:20 pm
Ussain Bolt is a Baaaaaaad dude!!!!
He whipped the best field ever for the 100m.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 5th, 2012
11:20 pm
@Crimson…..he blew them away, didn’t he?
Big Crimson 75
August 5th, 2012
11:43 pm
Supe — I’m proud of our guy, Justin Gatlin.
Hitting the Podium with those speedsters is an accomplishment.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 6th, 2012
12:01 am
@ Crimson…..DEFINITELY!!!
1 4 GT
August 6th, 2012
12:25 am
100 Meter Dash! Man, how apropos that they call it a dash. 1st time ever 3 men under 9.8 seconds. 1st time ever 5 men under 9.9 seconds. Usain Bolt .05 off his world record of 9.58 seconds. And when he ran the 9.58, he eased up about 2 steps from the finis line. MAN CAN RUN, HUH??
GTBob, Jr.
August 6th, 2012
12:27 am
Big C..: Best field ever?lmao..No Ben Jonson or Carl Lewis!! Orwin Smith for the Heisman!!!!
fishfryCalvin
August 6th, 2012
12:31 am
Not as fast as Calvin Johnson or Lavette!
JM
August 6th, 2012
8:29 am
The defense needs to do a better job of stopping teams from scoring. It has been a struggle.
College football is on the horizon | Breslanta.com
August 6th, 2012
8:34 am
[...] the past few years, but Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Mark Bradley thinks the Yellow Jackets will be a smarter team in 2012, starting with Johnson. He’ll have to prepare the Yellow Jackets for a gauntlet of games at [...]
Spike
August 6th, 2012
9:19 am
Whatever happened to St. Simons? Crickets chirping……
THE CLOCK IS TICKING
August 6th, 2012
9:25 am
From Johnson’s 19-5 start, Tech has gone 15-14. (The sweetest of those 15 on-the-field victories – the 2009 ACC championship game over Clemson – was vacated by NCAA sanctions involving Thomas’ eligibility.) Tech went 6-7 in 2010, 8-5 last season after starting 6-0. Tech hasn’t beaten Georgia since 2008 and hasn’t won a bowl game under Johnson. All of which means …
juvenal
August 6th, 2012
9:43 am
this year definitely judgement time…hopefully a few new formations for the O’…
William Casey
August 6th, 2012
10:22 am
@BJIZZLE: Anyone who would prefer Reggie Ball to Tevin Washington at QB has never been paid to be an offensive coordinator. I’d go for it if I could transplant Tevin’s brain into Reggie’s more athletic body.
juvenal
August 6th, 2012
10:26 am
Reggie had great wins against AU, vt, & um…
gt4ever
August 6th, 2012
10:29 am
@Bjizzle
Retard…. Surely you jest… I would agree that Tevin would not play QB anywhere but GT.. Good grief, he is our team leader, and busts his butt everyday in practice, and continues to go 120 percent in every game i have watched… He will be our QB for this year, we probably need to get behind him… It’s not his fault that he has to run for his life every time he takes a snap… He is simply the reason I believe that CPJ is going to fail overall… CPJ can’t recruit big time. Yes, there are a few exceptions, but with as many high profile football players that are coming out of Georgia, GT is not in the running for many… I am impressed with Tevon, he has carried the load very well for a div 2 type player… Win or lose Go Jackets.
Really?
August 6th, 2012
11:04 am
A chance for Paul Johnson to look smart???????
I don’t think so!!
gt4ever
August 6th, 2012
11:08 am
@Really
Hey, CPJ is making abut 2 mil a year… Sounds pretty smart to me…
Really?
August 6th, 2012
11:20 am
@gt4ever
maybe so, but still an idiot.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 6th, 2012
11:54 am
@ gt4ever…..that’s the best post I have ever read by you. I KNEW you wouldn’t let me down
Supersize that order, mutt
August 6th, 2012
11:57 am
The real idiot on here is Really? You have never posted one even semi-intelligent post. You are just an ignorant, arrogant POS who has probably never even been to a college class, and possibly even not to a college football game. And you think you are “smart” spending time on a rival’s blogs or blogs dealing with a rival??? That’s not smart; that’s a stupid waste of time on your part. But apparently you wet your pants making stupid comments about people you don’t even know, and actually know very little about. GET A LIFE, bubba !!!!
Joke by Coke
August 6th, 2012
12:02 pm
@Supersize that order
Surprise you can even read.
I noticed on this website(AJC.com) was advertising tickets for Tech games calling it “Fun on the Flats.” What is that? Tickle piles,dress up like Star Wars characters, I know its not watching that loser of a football team
Joke by Coke
August 6th, 2012
12:06 pm
Wow, I guess you told me. Feel better now, tough guy.
All I have is time, so get over it d’bag.
What a loser and an idiot you are supersize boy just like your duck lip coach See ya, nerds!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Supersize that order, mutt
August 6th, 2012
12:34 pm
When you ACTUALLY fill up the stadium in Athens, then and only then can you talk about the empty seats in Grant Field. I’ve seen the UGA games on TV, and there have been plenty of empty seats there at every game I have seen. Is Sanford & Son Stadium bigger than Grant Field? Yes, why wouldn’t it be, when 90% of the morons in Georgia think UGA actually has a decent football team. When have the dwags beat anybody of any consequence lately? Hell, when have they even played anybody of any consequence, other than LSU last year in the championship game which they backed into because USC actually played a REAL SEC schedule.
Joke by Coke
August 6th, 2012
1:42 pm
Huh? Why are you talking about UGA? I could care less about them.
“When you actually fill up the stadium in Athens” What is that?
How can “I” fill up the stadium?? I don’t know that many people.
Such an idiot. All Tech fans really.
I don’t see any UGA ads to buy tickets, so your argument makes no sense.
I am not a fan of either school, just trolling thru the blogs using multiple handles and you idiots
get all fired up. And yes, I fire up the Dawg fans as well.
UGA does have one thing over Tech, beating them on regular basis in football.