Paul Johnson’s offense isn’t hurting Tech; his approach is
Paul Johnson on Saturday: Another close game, another loss. (AJC photo by Johnny Crawford)
Because Paul Johnson’s stylized offense has become the public image of Georgia Tech football, it’s tempting to blame his creation whenever Tech loses. (Which, not incidentally, it has done seven times in its past 11 games.) But here’s where numbers rear their pesky head. The Jackets scored 36 points and gained 419 yards against Miami on Saturday. And we pin this loss on the offense?
Right about here, you’re probably expecting some Al-Groh-has-to-go screed. If so, you’ll be disappointed. Has this coordinator elevated Tech’s defense? Those 42 points and 609 yards yielded Saturday are all the answers we need, but to finger Groh and the D is to miss the bigger picture. What’s dragging Tech back to mediocrity is …
Paul Johnson.
Yes, he’s the same coach who went 20-7 his first two seasons here, beating Georgia in Year 1 and winning the ACC title (since vacated) in Year 2. That’s the trouble: He’s still the same coach, and he’s coaching the same way.
Whenever you’d see Johnson’s teams at Georgia Southern or Navy, your first thought was, “What it would look like if you ran that offense with real Division I-A talent?” For two years we saw. We saw Joshua Nesbitt and Jonathan Dwyer and Demaryius Thomas and this offense score 45 points in Athens and 49 in Tallahassee and 39 against Clemson in the ACC championship game, and we hailed Johnson for taking Chan Gailey’s players and winning bigger than Gailey ever had.
Then Gailey’s players began to leave, as college players will. From the 20-7 of those two giddy seasons, Tech has since gone 16-14 overall, 10-9 in ACC play. An even more salient stat: With Nesbitt as starting quarterback, Tech was 23-11; since Nesbitt broke his arm at Virginia Tech in November 2010, Tech is 11-10.
That sounds like an indictment of Tevin Washington, who succeeded Nesbitt. It’s really not. Washington isn’t the player Nesbitt was, but that isn’t his fault. The greater issue is that Tech football functions less as a total program and more as a front for Johnson’s stylized offense. In 2008 and 2009, that offense had so many good players it could overcome most any failing anywhere else. Without those players, the whole operation has suffered.
Oh, the offense still functions. Tech ranks 19th nationally in total yardage, 13th in scoring, third in rushing yards. But the offense couldn’t kill the clock — you’d think a running team would be able to kill the clock — with a 17-point lead against Miami, and by the final frantic minutes the Jackets’ defenders, who aren’t to be confused with Alabama on their best day, were covering nobody and missing every tackle. For the third time in five games, Tech couldn’t hold a late lead and was forced to overtime. For the third time in those three overtimes, the offense couldn’t score a touchdown.
We flash back to Nov. 7, 2009. Tech had seen Wake Forest score late to force OT. The Deacons took the ball first and kicked a field goal. Tech faced fourth-and-1 at the 3. After considerable lobbying from Nesbitt, Johnson chose to go for the first down. Nesbitt converted. He scored the winning touchdown on the next snap. He did those sort of things.
On Saturday, Johnson eschewed an overtime field goal and saw Washington stopped on fourth-and-inches. Same coach, same bold choice. Different players, different result.
Those who criticize the scheme have it backwards. If you took these same players and put them in a pro-style offense, Tech might finish next-to-last in its division. Johnson’s offense is the only thing that makes Tech worth mentioning. (Lest we forget, that offense stacked 56 points and 594 yards on Virginia only nine days ago.) But Johnson is not just some scheming offensive coordinator: He’s the head coach of a proud and distinguished program, and too often it seems the program exists only to prop up his offense.
Johnson might think recruiting rankings don’t matter — he has said as much — but we’re seeing now the limits of a team that has talent closer to Georgia Southern’s than, say, Georgia’s. So long as Johnson can outsmart somebody and his offense can run free, Tech can win. But you can’t outsmart everybody, and the better teams won’t let that offense go unchecked. So then it’s down to execution, and Tech has lost five of its past six games decided by 10 or fewer points. The exception came against Duke.
Johnson might say his team is two plays away from being 4-0 and leading its division, and he’d be correct. But plays must be made by players, and Tech doesn’t have enough of those. What it does have is a stylized offense. And that’s about all.
By Mark Bradley
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515 comments Add your comment
wreckmaniac
September 25th, 2012
12:17 pm
Now that the most impt game of the year ( Miami) is lost the only key event remaining is UGA. And I refuse to watch the Richt smirk that he has during his Tech games. I don’t blame Richt . He has earned that smirk. It kills me to know that Tech will not knock it off his face.
Alan
September 25th, 2012
12:35 pm
Bradley is correct. Recruiting does matter. Some coaches have it and some don’t. It just so happens that Paul Johnson and Al Groh are terrible recruiters. Both have very abrasive personalities. Groh ran UVA into the ground with his lack of ability to recruit. Now you have both of them together. Bad combination. Rivals has the 2013 class at GT #48 and UGA at #8. There is your problem.
All Most Heaven
September 25th, 2012
12:37 pm
I think that we should Fire CPJ and make Groh the head coach. Mark wrote that it wasn’t his fault…
Willie Martinez
September 25th, 2012
12:38 pm
I’ll be ya Huckleberry.
Jacket Detective
September 25th, 2012
12:43 pm
@RealDeal.
Folks are voting with their feet.
Are you a season ticket holder?
Tech season ticket holders like me may become an endangered species.
The Groh hire was very dumb.
We did not have the players for his system.
That gave Paul an excuse for two years.
Year three is here and time is up.
Maybe you should sit next to some obnoxious Cane fans for a game like the last one.
You’d be on here calling for Johnson’s head of u did.
Jacket Detective
September 25th, 2012
12:44 pm
if u did.
T-man
September 25th, 2012
12:44 pm
Mark, you couldn’t be more right. Johnson’s teams have not been the same since the loss to UGA in ‘09. The first couple of years he probably did have more better players which often made the difference in critical situations. But also since his offense were new Div. 1-A, it caught many of Tech’s opponents off guard and ill prepared. Much has changed since then. Teams on Tech’s schedule are now preparing to play Tech’s “styalized” offense as early as the previous spring. They all know that if they can get a late lead on Tech, the chances of winning go up immeasurably. Why? A one dimisional offense coupled with a inconsistant defense gives hope to all teams in the fourth quarter or in overtime. If Tech plays inconsistent then it’s because it has inconsistent coaching. Tech’s problem is simple enough – a inflexible offensive minded head coach who can’t recruit good enough on either side of the ball to avoid the stench of mediocrity. This certainly isn’t “fun on the flats” is it?
BooBoo
September 25th, 2012
12:45 pm
Any coach of a legitimate university football program who has more than 6 days to prepare to play Johnson’s offense, and an additional 3 quarters of actual play in a game, can shut it down cold. The same fourth quarter, last minutes lack of defense, leading to OT where loss awaits the Jackets, has now been repeated in three consecutive games (Utah, VaTech, Miami). GaTech needs to leave Division 1 Football and play a GaState, Tulane, Presberterian, Coastal Carolina, et al schedule and only recruit players who can pass calculus without a tutor taking tests for them.
Born2Buzz
September 25th, 2012
12:49 pm
MB, there is talent on the team, just not on the field.
Vad Lee has to play the rest of the way. Get Synjyn Days and Broderick Snoddy on the field. Let Gotsis play some on the DL. Keep Jabari Hunt-Days on the field on 3rd down. Maybe even get Fred Holton healthy for once.
Mr. Hankey
September 25th, 2012
12:49 pm
CPJ always has a dour, sour look on his face like he’s “touching cloth”. He and his silly little offense are the last team any future pro player will pick. Ya guys need to fire his butt and now. He annoys me on a molecular level.
Gotta love it
September 25th, 2012
12:50 pm
We are 2 plays away from being 4 – 0. You could also say you are 2 plays away from being 0 – 4
When I’m feeling blue I drop in on the GT blogs it really cheers me up – so much in fighting – so much delusional thinking – enough coulda woulda shoulda to sink the Titanic.
WnE is one of the few GT fans that actually sees through the fish fry smoke and makes an honest (if painful) assessment of the mess that is GT football.
WnE for AD
NYJacket
September 25th, 2012
12:51 pm
Mark,
You would probably be writing that Bobby Dodd had problems after he lost a few more games than expected.
You don’t win the number of games CPJ has won at all levels unless you can coach and manage a program.
He will get this ship turned around.
Elmer Fudd
September 25th, 2012
12:53 pm
I think all ACC teams and UGA can agree.
Here is to CPJ staying at Tech for a long long long time !!!!
Al Bundy
September 25th, 2012
1:06 pm
@RealDeal
This great coach of ours has lost 7 of his last 11 games. The program is going backwards not forward. We will be lucky if we beat MTSU this weekend. MTSU has a quarterback who can throw and we have a secondary that can’t cover and a D-Line that can’t put pressure on a Quarterback.
Highly Respected Southern Troll
September 25th, 2012
1:07 pm
Johnson’s 2009 team was way overrated. The defense was terrible! Anyone remember the Seminoles putting up something like 400 yards and 35 points in the first half? Squeaking past Wake Forest in overtime? Then the godawful game against a sorry Georgia team?! O’Leary’s 1998 and 2000 teams would have pummeled that bunch, and his 1999 squad might have beaten them, too.
T-man is right: the Yellow Jackets haven’t been the same since the UGA game in 2009.
Born2Buzz
September 25th, 2012
1:13 pm
Hey, look on the bright side, we could be Arkansas.
11BPSGDawg
September 25th, 2012
1:13 pm
I’m a Dawg fan, but pull for Tech whenever they don’t play UGA. They are indeed a storied program. I think they were the first team to win all 4 major bowls (Orange, Sugar, Cotton and Rose) back in the day. However, Tech had only 1 player drafted this year. Georgia State also had 1 player drafted this year. I would bet that teams like Jax State, Georgia Southern and such had more drafted. I think that proves how far the talent level has fallen at Tech. CPJ would be a better OC than head coach. His arrogant, narcissistic personality is not good for recruiting or dealing with fans and media. Also, if you are not a running back or O lineman, why would you want to go to Tech if you had any thoughts at all of making it to the next level? Receivers and Qbacks are going to have a hard time making it to the NFL from the Wing T. I know there are exceptions (Demarrio Thomas, etc.), but the majority of players prefer a pro set or spread offense today to make the jump to the next level. How many more losses for Tech this year with CPJ’s own players and how hot is his seat?
hmm28
September 25th, 2012
1:24 pm
Simple plan to possibly save Tech season and set up well for the future:
Step 1 Bench TW as he is Reggie Ball all over again, Start Vad Lee
Step 2 Since you can now pass the ball, be lot more creative with the play calling.
Step 3 At season end fire Groh, go hire a young dline or linebackers coach from a 3-4 NFL team
Step 4 Watch Tech quickly rebuild and move past another wasted season.
BravesFan79
September 25th, 2012
1:28 pm
I wanna see what GT looks like with another QB before we throw PJ under the bus.
MC
September 25th, 2012
1:32 pm
Can you imagine what Aaron Murry will do to us with no pass rush? And then you throw in that stable of backs. DAMN!
The Factor
September 25th, 2012
1:47 pm
I like Johnson as a coach. Brilliant. But his success came with Gailey’s players. Lineman that went on to the NFL. I don’t blame him for not wanting to play the game and suck up to a 17 year old who wants to hold a press conference. But that’s what the game is now. If he has that sullen look when he entertains recruits, he has no chance of landing the 4 & 5 star guys.
wayners
September 25th, 2012
1:56 pm
the culprit in these losses is defence. groh is a good coach but he has very little to work with. johnson had a fourth and one with 2 minutes to play and punted. I’m thinking wow, has he not been watching this team no way the defence stops a JC team. I think it’s time for a pro-style spread offence
RealDeal
September 25th, 2012
1:59 pm
Funny how Johnson won the ACC Championship with “Gailey” players… What did Gailey win with them again?
stown
September 25th, 2012
2:08 pm
tech will win 7-8 games, go to another minor bowl and probably lose. the AD and coach will get raises again, for mediocrity. it never changes.
Next year
September 25th, 2012
2:12 pm
We have the talent it’s just redshirt freshman or high school seniors. We’re about to go on a wave of success like the 2007 class that included Nesbitt.
Peter
September 25th, 2012
2:21 pm
Paul Johnson is Offensive in more than one way. Get rid of him Tech before it’s too late
DOC 51
September 25th, 2012
2:21 pm
CLEMSON will destroy GT.Their boys are way too fast for our (2-star) players.
JPHurricane
September 25th, 2012
2:22 pm
Gee, just one week ago everything was on the upswing at GT. Offense is rolling, a Junior Varsity team from Miami coming into town to have revenge brought down on them…
Let’s face it, CPJ offense worked at smaller schools playing against lesser talented players. After five years, all the teams that have decent talent have figured this offense out. GT defense needs GTs offense to control the ball to protect their lack of top-caliber D1 talent, and in the late third and entire fourth quarter they couldn’t stay on the field.
GT Joe
September 25th, 2012
2:24 pm
DOC 51: Did clemson get faster in the last 12 months and we got slower? Explain your statement.
George P Burdell
September 25th, 2012
2:24 pm
Agreed. No talent at all on this team!
GT Joe
September 25th, 2012
2:26 pm
All the Al Groh haters: he gave up 20 to VT (should be enough for us to win), and gave up 20 to UVA.
Has one bad game against MIA this year, primarily because the offense couldn’t stay on the field for the last 25 minutes of the game (4 1st downs in the last 25 minutes).
Get a grip fellas. The common denominator in our lousy performance over the last 20 games is… Tevin Washington.
MC
September 25th, 2012
2:36 pm
GT Joe…to put it simply. Clemson will beat the sheet out of us. No pass rush spells half a hundred if not more on our D.
GT Joe
September 25th, 2012
2:39 pm
MC: is our pass rush worse than it was last year? Cause we beat them last year.
Big Crimson 75
September 25th, 2012
2:46 pm
Joe — you’re spot on!!
Al Groh has more respect in the Coaching Profession than Paul Johnson ever will.
Groh’s defense had 1 bad game outta 4.
Johnson’s offense had 1 bad game outta 4.
Result — 2&2. That’s on the Head Coach.
As an outside observer, it’s quite obvious to see GTs problems — lack of talent!!
Paul Johnson should have in place @ Tech in his 5th year:
-one of the best O-Lines in college football
-a stable of game-breaking RBs
-a top 5 dual threat QB
He’s 0 for 3!! These are his primary positions for the Trip Option.
I don’t understand the love affair with Tevin Washington. The kids awful. You’re not winning any premier games with Washington. He’s not good enough.
Johnson loves this. He’s gonna squeak another 2+mil from Tech while letting a good Coach like Al Groh take the fall. Classy.
DJ
September 25th, 2012
2:54 pm
Go Hokies!
GT Joe
September 25th, 2012
3:04 pm
Crimson: he does have a stud dual threat QB. Just won’t start him. His name is Vad Lee.
North Ave Killer Beez
September 25th, 2012
3:07 pm
If the stubborn old fart would just play the play-makers instead of letting them sit & wear baseball caps. PJ made is bed so let him rubble in it.
buzzinjacket
September 25th, 2012
3:21 pm
Mark, are you always high when you write? You really think Gailey recruited better players? Gailey was also an Offensive mind and his QBs were AJ Suggs, Reggie Ball, Damarius Bilbo, Tayor Bennett, Steven Threet, with Nesbitt starting when Gailey was gone. The QBs PJ has recruited are night and day compared to Gailey.
WnE
September 25th, 2012
3:39 pm
re:
Old Gold
September 25th, 2012
10:51 am
Bottom line is results matter. Not results from a “what have you done from me lately”, “only winning matters”, “it’s all about the dollar”, “win at all costs” mentality. Heck, you can recruit any kid who can run and catch but have no values and dismiss him from the team and suspend him for a game or two (Hmmm…sounds like a program in a town 70 east of North Ave.) and call yourself a “Nation”. Back to the point..bottom line is that over 4 years that results matter and 0 for 4 in bowl games, 1 in 4 against “that team and school only known for 12 Saturday’s a year” and many times not even on those Saturday’s. For the school that still owns 4 national championships, institutional integrity, smart minds it may be time for change. Still love the Jackets though!
________________
Every 4* or 5* Recruit is NOT a THUG, in fact Marshall & Gurley say hi from Athens, and Tuitt says hello from S. Bend also.
Trying to justify crappy Recruiting by being fearful that every elite Recruit will end up like Crowell is a poor way to look at Recruiting.
When you Recruit a 4* or 5* you are MUCH MORE LIKELY to get an Andrew Luck or RG-III than you are to get a Crowell, GT fans like you love the stories of guys like Crowell to use it to justify GT’s own poor Recruiting.
Question:
Do you INTENTIONALLY AVOID Beautiful Women for the same reasons, i.e. they might have other hidden flaws?
You approach towards Recruiting Elite players is a losers mentality!
BTW, those “flaws” you find in the Crowells of the world are just as prevalent in 2* Recruits, except that 2* Recruits don’t get the same amount of media coverage.
The same numbers of lazy guys that don’t want to study are proportionate among 2* Recruits just like they are among 5* Recruits.
All the LAZY guys aren’t 4* or 5* guys and all gritty, hard-nosed, work ethic guys aren’t the 2* guys.
For some reason the GT fanbase has romanticized the 2* Recruit as GT’s savior while vilifying the 4* & above Recruit.
This is a poor outlook IMO.
GT Joe
September 25th, 2012
3:45 pm
WnE: You are dreaming if you think GT will be getting 4 and 5 star recruits, unless we win a few ACC titles and some BCS bowl games.
Going to be a long process to get there.
WnE
September 25th, 2012
3:48 pm
re:
William Casey
September 25th, 2012
12:55 am
Orwin Smith will play in the NFL. Maybe Louis Young.
_____________
Orwin Smith is huge question mark for the NFL, he’s too under sized to run between the tackles and has not shown on film that he’s a great pass catcher (30-45 catches in a single year), plus he’s only a mid 4.5s to lo 4.6s guys in the forty.
Orwin is smallish, less than 210 with avg. speed, remember Dwyer & Allen were 1,300 yd. guys and only got drafted in the 6th & 7th rounds.
CPJ ’s system hurts Offensive players unless you are a 6-3 to 6-4 WR that runs under a 4.4 in the forty, in other words elite god-given talent can trump CPJ’s gimmicky system.
NVAJacketsfan
September 25th, 2012
4:10 pm
It is becoming clearer that the problem is on both sides of the ball. Tech can’t stop anyone late in a game (conditioning or depth?) and they can’t seem to control the ball. I have as a Tech fan applauded Tech’s big play explosiveness. When the media sits there and says that Tech can’t come from behind because they are run based it SHOULDN’T be true since we are so dependent on the big play. It has become a two headed monster because Tech no longer seem to be able to count on getting yard when they need it, and they don’t seem to be comfortable enough when behind to get the big plays running the normal offense. I think Mr. Bradley is correct, we aren’t getting the players who can overcome those plays when the offense isn’t executed to perfection. You are NEVER going to get ever play executed perfectly. If we could Tech would never lose, it is an unstoppable scheme if it is executed correctly on every play.
wrecked again
September 25th, 2012
4:11 pm
Now Vad Lee is the savior, after the 2010 season it was going to be Days. This staff can’t develop talent even when they stumble up and actually get decent athletes to sign. It will take a couple of years for tech to recover from the PJ experiment.
NVAJacketsfan
September 25th, 2012
4:12 pm
WNE, Dwyer only dropped that far because of the positive drug test caused by his medication. He was on most lists for 2nd to 3rd round before that.
GT Joe
September 25th, 2012
4:13 pm
NVA: it’s not that we aren’t getting the players; we aren’t PLAYING the players. Case in point: Vad Lee. Superior in all ways to Tevin Washington. No one disputes that. CPJ is too stubborn (or too married) to bench TW.
Why can’t we keep possession of the ball late in games? Because all we can do is run. Tevin can’t pass.
Vad can.
GT Joe
September 25th, 2012
4:15 pm
Ummm, after 2010, Vad was the savior too. Vad came to tech in 2011 with a higher skillset than Days and TW combined. Vad should have been the starter LAST year. But CPJ wanted to save his star for another year and hope to have a good season with TW. Now, he’s married to TW and won’t bench him (a la Reggie Ball/Chan Gailey).
WnE
September 25th, 2012
4:19 pm
re:
NVAJacketsfan
September 25th, 2012
4:12 pm
WNE, Dwyer only dropped that far because of the positive drug test caused by his medication. He was on most lists for 2nd to 3rd round before that.
____________
His drug test was for ADD drugs which didn’t affect his draft status.
Please explain what happened to A. Allen going in the 7th round after rushing for 1,300 yds.?
Big Crimson 75
September 25th, 2012
4:35 pm
Johnson won’t hedge his bets this year.
They’ll be minimal Vad Lee sightings.
Don’t think for a second he’ll roll out Vad & watch him get destroyed this year.
Hope is all he has to hang his cap on.
Tech’ll win 7, fire the scapegoat(Groh), then sell the masses on Vad for 2013.
Under The Bleachers
September 25th, 2012
4:37 pm
The program is not moving forward.
In a city and a state with football talent pouring out of high schools there should be absolutely no reason for GT to not to be competing for championships every year in the ACC.
The system in place is not working.
Billyho55
September 25th, 2012
4:43 pm
Mr. Bradley,
THANK YOU FOR THIS ARTICLE! IT’S ABOUT DAMN TIME WE HAVE A REPORTER AT THE AJC THAT IS NOT SCARED TO SAY IT LIKE IT IS! BRILLIANT, JUST BRILLIANT MR. BRADLEY!