Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
As a follow up to this post, I wanted to post my thoughts on some of the reasons why I think hiring Paul Johnson was a great move for Georgia Tech. For the record, I am a Tech alumni and a HUGE Tech fan so I’ll state again that my post should be considered to be biased but hopefully well thought out and logical. Lest we forget, there are plenty of naysayers out there that will digress and try to focus on “BCS vs. the option” but I would like to put the spotlight on “BCS vs. Paul Johnson” instead.
Instill Confidence
The future of Yellow Jackets football is bright. Why? It’s not because of the option-based offense that is often called ‘gimmicky’ by American football followers. It has more to do with the new Head Coach that is not installing this so-called gimmicky offense but because he is instilling new and pure confidence to his new football team. Everyone whose ever asked Paul Johnson about his “system” or heard him talk about it understands how much rock-solid confidence he has in it that some would even go as far as calling it being stubborn. I wouldn’t argue with that whatsoever but what I like reading and seeing is Paul making the players believe and build faith in something that they are not used to. He’s like an powerful evangelist for the experience he gained over his college football career. Confidence flows from the leader to the followers; from the head coach to the assistant coaches and players. Paul Johnson exudes confidence and it will show in our football team.
Turn-around Winner
I even have caught myself questioning where this confidence comes from but a quick google to see Paul Johnson’s history in college football shows his impressive résumé of turning around programs and being a winner. The thing that impresses me most is his ability to find ways to win with the tools he’s been given which so far has been limited at best. There’s always been doors that prevented him from recruiting the best in the nation and that door has been kicked wide open. Right now, I don’t think it’s the question of whether or not he will maintain his winning record because I have no doubt that he will at Tech. The question is how far will he be able to surpass that by winning the games that matter: bowl games, championship games, and rivalry games. With Paul’s track record, I have faith that as the Yellow Jackets matures, the fans will savor the answer to that question.
MacGyver of Football
Paul Johnson is the MacGyver of American Football. It’s funny to metaphorical say that but it’s true. He takes whatever is available to him as a resource without taking anything for granted and maximizes the usefulness of everything to come out with wins. PJ is always quoted as saying that he needs to learn what his team can do. From what I can find, he uses that and molds his “system” so that it fits. The Naval Academy lead the nation in rushing last year because that is what they were best at; he saw no point of putting balls up in the air and risk interceptions. At Georgia Tech, he technically has better resources in the rushing and passing attack so I would be very surprised if we don’t see Calvin come out for snaps or see designated option-pass plays from Josh and Jaybo. Naysayers, be aware of Paul Johnson’s MacGyver-ism. 
GO JACKETS!
THWG!
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Thursday, August 7th, 2008
We are merely weeks away from witnessing the new generation of Georgia Tech football. New coaching staff, new offense, new quarterbacks, new running backs, new defense, new uniforms, and so many other “new” things… and I’ve been trying my best to keep up with everything that is new and developing since the end of our disappointing season last year. Of course, the biggest change of all is the change that our new Head Coach, Paul Johnson, is bringing with him from his former tenure at the Naval Academy: the option-based spread offense.
The Old Regime
Under former Head Coach Chan Gailey, Georgia Tech ran an offense predominantly known as the “pro-style” offense in College football. This type of offense pivots on two types of plays, a passing play where the quarterback snaps the ball under center or in shotgun and throws it to a wide receiver or a running play where the quarterback hands off or pitches the ball to one of his backs. The question that the defense needs to answer is… is the offense going to pass the ball or are they going to run the ball. Chan ran this type of offense during his entire career at Tech and it was a decent offense but as we found out over the past five years, it was never consistent due to talent that wasn’t spread across the field on both sides of the ball.
The New Regime
Paul Johnson, on the other hand, runs predominantly an option-based offense in flexbone formation that tries to spread the defense out across the field. The core of such an offense is a strong dual-threat quarterback that has the ability to run the ball himself as a carrier and at the same time have the arm to throw the football. The triple option is quite an elusive offense because no one really knows where the ball is going to end up, not even the offense, until the whistle is blown.
Snapped under center, the QB receives the ball and has to make multiple decisions based on how he reads the defense. First option is to hand it off to the B-back who will run it up the middle. If he sees the linebackers in the path, he will hold onto the ball and start rolling out to either his left or right and be flanked by an A-back. If he sees that a defender is shadowing him, his second option is to lateral to the A-back right before the defender commits to tackle him in which case the A-back will have the ball to run the ball. Otherwise, if the quarterback sees that a defender is shadowing his A-back, the third option is to keep the ball himself to run the ball. Technically, there is also a fourth option which is for the QB to throw the ball to a receiver down the field but this is rather called the option-pass play rather than a triple-option because the wide receivers on a triple-option play are usually used as blockers instead of running routes.
The key to this offense is not brute strength or speed, it is execution. Every time a play is called, every single person on the offense will have a job that they have to execute flawlessly because no one knows who the ball carrier will be or where the ball is going to go. Paul Johnson has had a lot of success with this type of offense so far at his previous coaching positions at non-BCS schools. So when Paul was hired, there were plenty of opinions by practically everyone that this type of offense will not work as effectively at the BCS level. The primary argument seems to be that the defense is faster so that the elusiveness of the triple-option becomes null.
My (maybe biased) Opinion
As a Tech fan (so I may be guilty of bias here), I think the criticism has been overdone. No one knows what this offense is going to look like; Paul Johnson was quoted as saying that they ran the ball at Navy because it was what his team at the time was good and he was taking advantage of what he knew the team was capable of. Yes, he likes and has absolute belief in his offensive scheme (a.k.a the “system”) but this certainly does not mean that the system is not flexible to fit the profile of the team. A good Head Coach will take advantage of the available talent and get the victory. If Paul believes that he can do this at GT without throwing the ball, I’m not going to argue with him. Otherwise, if Paul sees good things happening when the ball is in the air, I am confident that he will not neglect to pass the ball. It is simple as that.
Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Yellow Jackets came out in the first game and pass the ball often to give those sports columnists something to write about for Friday. On that same note, I also wouldn’t be surprised if Tech never threw the ball in the first game and keep it on the ground 100% to give future opponents a false sense of security by letting them think that they will only have to worry about defending the ground game.
Either way, as you may be able to tell, I am very excited about this season. I had very high expectations last year and was let down pretty hard. I think we will have some surprising wins this year and also unexpected losses but I will be a happy fan just to see the critics proven wrong whether it be this season or the next.
External Links
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Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008
I am very excited about the new era of Georgia Tech football that became official yesterday and started today. Before I continue, I wanted to add that Chan Gailey was a good coach and deserves a lot of respect for having upheld a program that has been seriously lacking the fuel that it needed from the administration, fans, students, boosters, alumni, and the staff. From the outside looking in, Chan looks like the guys whose job is to hold the chains wearing a GT cap; he looked bored to death and waiting for something better. Maybe he was but when most of the Tech players stood up for him after he was fired, I knew that what everyone sees in the sidelines was not the same Chan Gailey that his players and staff saw in the locker room. I did see some fire from him when a ref blew a call in our loss to U(sic)GA (yes, we would have lost regardless of that call) but it was too little and too late.
Ultimately, Coach Gailey wasn’t fired because he was a bad coach; I think he was fired because he rarely showed passion for his team. If he were being interviewed right after our 6th straight loss to our rival, he probably would have said something stoic like “our passes were being dropped, I did see some good things happening that we can expand on but no team is ever perfect”. Personally, if I were Dan Radakovich, 50% of me probably would have told him that he had next season to see improvement… not even significant improvement, just noticeable improvement… something more than what the fans have been enduring for so long because year after year we can’t help but have higher hopes for the next season. The other 50% wouldn’t have turned out any different than it turned out now.
Head Coaches get paid a lot for the chance of being criticized as the scapegoat when teams don’t progress and also paid for the chance to get shoved aside by interviewers chasing after an individual playmaker after winning a Championship game. Either way, Chan is now the offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs and I think it’s a good fit for him as an offensive-minded football coach. While, I won’t be as big a fan to the Chiefs as I am to the Panthers, I know I will be tempted to check up on him just as I do with Calvin Johnson, Jarret Jack, and so many other former Tech atheletes that I have followed during and after my time in Atlanta.
With Paul Johnson coming in after turning around the football program at Navy, I am a very excited Tech fan looking forward to September to see what our new offense (and defense) will look like. One thing that I was impressed about our new Coach was the fact that he was disappointed with the players’ performance at the Humanitarian Bowl. Primarily because I was disappointed too and it’s great he didn’t play the disappointment off with just a hope of doing better next time. I feel like this will put the needed fire in our players, students, and fans.
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Monday, January 8th, 2007
It’s a sad sad yet inevitable day for Yellow Jacket fans everywhere. Calvin Johnson (#21) has declared for the NFL draft foregoing his Senior year of eligibility at Georgia Tech. Calvin brought all Jackets fans a lot of excitement over the past three years and will be missed. I hope you will be paired with a reliable quarterback. Good luck, Calvin!
As for Georgia Tech fans, don’t fret. We have a spectacular Class of 2007 coming in and our outlook is pretty good.
p.s. Boo, what a boring BCS ‘Championship’ game but in the end, good job Gators.
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Monday, November 27th, 2006
So for the sixth year in a row, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets fell to U(sic)GA. Like last year, it was a close game and came down to the last minute which ended with an interception of Reggie Ball’s pass (hey, isn’t that how we lost last year?). I was pissed off all night and most of the day today. Not really just because our offensive wasn’t connecting (just like during the Notre Dame and Clemson games where we lost as well) but because HOW we lost.
I have yet to see in my life a college or NFL football game where the referees do not blow the whistle as soon as a pile is created by players after a fumble. There was a referee already there at the pile ready to pull off the players to see who recovered the ball but no one blew the whistle. Why? There was no possible way to determine whether or not the ball was still loose or not in the pile; I have never seen officials not blow the whistle when a pile is created after a fumble. Yes, it looked like the most likely team to have recovered the ball was U(sic)GA but the fact that there was a fumble and no whistle within seconds of a player pile is, to me, ridiculous. And it’s not like the SEC officials are going to admit to this mistake.
It’s okay though. In the end, we still deserved the loss because our offense wasn’t clicking – we seem to do that every few games. It’ll just mean that our offense be good to go on December 2nd, for the ACC Championship game against Wake.
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Tuesday, September 5th, 2006
Went down to Atlanta to see some college buddies. Went to the GT vs. ND game… whoever the ref was with the L on their back. Go take a timeout in the corner and think about the mistake you made. Even the Notre Dame coach said your call was bad.
Went golfing for the first time. We were only able to play 16.5 holes. Obviously my score was ridiculously beyond par but I was mostly focused on the technique and getting a feel of how to swing. I could hit the ball well off the tee but from that point until the hole – it took a while. 
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