Paul Johnson Apparently Isn't Feeling The Love from GT?

Ran across this article on the Dr. Saturday column at Yahoo Sports. Does it sound like CPJ is questioning the commitment of the university to having a (semi-)decent football program? Kinda sounds that way to me. Makes me wonder if he sees the writing on the wall pointing to the exit. Maybe he was just feeling a bit salty after the Clemson & Miami games. Who knows!

Read it here for yourself.

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Comments

There is nothing to love about GT, to or from.

This is like the devil saying that hell's gotten a little too hot for his liking.

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I just think that this style of football is on the way out. I don't care about all the stats that run this type of offense. I care about wins and loses and aside from Navy there is not a consistently good school that runs it and if you have a couple of weeks to prepare for (bowl games) they usually get shutdown. JMO

Ga. Southern might disagree with you.

Arkansas State seems to agree

Shoulda known that was going to happen. I should have said last years team and others before. This new coach claims the option isn't going anywhere, but doesn't seem that way. They have inherited some of the best talent Ga Southern has ever had. Its like the offensive staff is trying to cram play dough into a square hole. They get some results, but boy is it messy.

It's not the offensive identity, it's the fact that he completely ignores the defensive side of the ball.

God forbid a college value academics over sports, what is this nation coming too?

I can imagine no more rewarding a career. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction:
β€œI served in the United States Navy"

He's at Georgia Tech, and they could do that but not now, maybe later

21st century QBs Undefeated vs UVA:
MV7, MV5, LT3, Grant Wells, Braxton Burmeister, Ryan Willis, Josh Jackson, Jerod Evans, Michael Brewer, Tyrod Taylor, Sean Glennon, and Grant Noel. That's right, UVA. You couldn't beat Grant Noel.

Key Player's Log

It's now been 11 days since I've been able to watch a Hokie football game. Hurricane will be here soon. Running short on tailgate leftovers. Starting to consider news about Paul Johnson worth discussing.

Send hype. Not sure I'll last until Saturday.

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Can't wait for next installment of Key Player's Log.

This....might be worth a weekly column during the season

You get the feeling that CPJ is looking at all the investment in programs places like VT Clemson, and other schools are making, and he's getting a bit envious. Of course, if their fan base and money people had a football team worth watching, they likely would be contributing toward those improvements. Don't know what the money situation is at GT, but the first expense they may consider is a contract buyout.

Take the shortest route to the ball and arrive in bad humor.

Don't know what the money situation is at GT

Their football outfitter is Russell Athletic. I could take a guess...

No, I *don't* want to go to the SEC. Why do you ask?

We don't love dem Hoos.

A decade on TKP and it's been time well spent.

Everyone should listen to this interview. I've never seen Paul Johnson bear his soul like this and be completely honest. This is mind expanding in his comments about the conference as a whole, especially at the last 1/3 of the video. Truly there is great insight here about expectations and commitment.

Very true. He's been getting reamed down here.

Coach PJ just white flagged it.

What recruit will want to go play for a college team whose own coach questions his school's commitment to the team?

I think he's being honest, but it comes at the detriment to his own program.

You think GT is bad now? Just wait till the next coach has to completely overhaul that roster.

Marshall University graduate.
Virginia Tech fanatic.
Formerly known as JWillHokieAlum.

My guess is that the next coach will be next year's coach.

Take the shortest route to the ball and arrive in bad humor.

Yeah, he's getting railed down here by the fan base and the sports talking heads... And it's a new AD, so I'm assuming he's reading tea leaves.

Problem is, for the confused-swarming-honeycombers is that they're still 3-deep paying for ex-basketball coaches and CPJ signed an extension a year or two back. And it will continue to get harder and harder in the football arms race (especially in/around GA) for a gimmick offense where talent beats it most of the time and the ACC isn't getting weaker.

Plus: F CPJ in the A, hard.

"...sticks and stones may break my bones but I'm gonna kick you repeatedly in the balls Gardoki!"

Yup, the old AD cycling basketball coaches and extending CPJ's fully guaranteed contract after every good season has put them in a tight money situation. But can the new AD raise the money might be the big question.

I just watched the interview. While 1) I don't really care for CPJ and 2) he's going to get raked over to coals for the quotes, I think he makes a fantastic point. Not something people want to hear but look around the ACC and see what is going on and look at GT and look at what is not going on.

"We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behavior" Stephen M.R. Covey

β€œWhen life knocks you down plan to land on your back, because if you can look up, you can get up, if you fall flat on your face it can kill your spirit” David Wilson

I'm in a PhD program with 2 GT grads, one of whom is an avid college football fan and one of my sons is a college football fan (though not an "avid" fan). All 3 would prefer to see GT spend money to improve academic facilities, dorms, etc than put millions into football.

In many regards GT is what they want to be in football. They brought in PJ because the military academies have been above average while running PJ's O (or a variation of it), but those schools don't play against the likes of Clemson, VT, UNC, UGA, Miami, FSU, etc for 2/3 of their games, every year.

30 years after starting grad school at Virginia Tech, I finally defended my dissertation and earned my PhD.
Don't give up on your dreams.

Yes, but, academics and athletics are generally two separate pools, unless I'm missing something. The athletic department gets its funding from various sources, such as gate receipts, conference payouts, and the "Athletics Fee" tacked onto tuition, and uses that money completely for athletics. The academic side budget consists of tuition, research grants, endowment, state funding (for public schools), and other miscellaneous sources. I'm pretty sure the two pools don't mix, so saying "I'd rather spend the money on academics" doesn't really work because you aren't going to take the ESPN money and build classrooms with it.

I fully understand that point. My point is that GT alum are basically saying "if I'm going to give $, I'm going to do so in a way that makes GT a better school, not to sports".

It's the same reason that GT is in a financial bind on BB former coach salaries, that many others have mentioned. In contrast, LSU had no probs raising $ to buy out Les' sizable contract. Sports simply isn't teh focus of potential donors at GT, like it is at other schools.

30 years after starting grad school at Virginia Tech, I finally defended my dissertation and earned my PhD.
Don't give up on your dreams.

Yeah, but if they wanted to just be a little better than average they should have kept Chan Gailey. I think his worst season was 7-6. CPJ has had multiple losing seasons.

CPJ has had multiple losing seasons.

But they are Georgia Tech. THEY CAN DO THAT!

The game has changed a bit from those days. I think GT is looking around and seeing what it took at Clemson to turn the program around and the pains that Miami is going through, in particular the costs and expectations are changing.

30 years after starting grad school at Virginia Tech, I finally defended my dissertation and earned my PhD.
Don't give up on your dreams.

They are looking at a rebuilding effort that lasts the better part of a decade, unless they somehow decide to stick with the triple option and hire a coach that runs it.

"I liked you guys a lot better when everybody told you you were terrible." -Justin Fuente

There's a black hole if I ever saw one...

No, I *don't* want to go to the SEC. Why do you ask?

We don't love dem Hoos.

maybe they'll can the football program altogether and then Cumberland can force them to play a game anyway with walk-ons and run up the score to, I dunno, say 222-0?

Warning: this post occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)..

GO PHOENIX!

(Yes, I looked it up)

No, I *don't* want to go to the SEC. Why do you ask?

We don't love dem Hoos.

To be fair people said the same thing when PJ took over about it being a rebuilding effort and him needing to get his players in. Those were some of his best years. A new coach with a new direction and style can immediately sell recruits from one of the most talented states on immediate PT. Wouldn't take that long if they hire the right guy to be more competitive than they are currently. Not like the coastal is scaring anyone.

Those were the best years. On O, they haven't had a 3 year run that's close to what they did when Nesbitt was QB. On D, PJ inherited a DL that had 4 future NFL draft picks. Now they 1 guy per season who is 2nd or 3rd team All ACC, but nothing close to what PJ inherited.

PJ "getting his own players" isn't nearly as good a PJ with the trash that he inherited.

30 years after starting grad school at Virginia Tech, I finally defended my dissertation and earned my PhD.
Don't give up on your dreams.

I'd say that the new blood in the coaching ranks of the Coastal will make the GT job a little harder than it's been in the past half decade. But I do agree that a fresh start with the right hire could put GT back on the road to relevance fairly quickly.

I also think the right hire could still be a guy that runs the triple option - Ken Niumatalolo from Navy comes from the same tree as PJ, but I find him to be a much more personable public figure. Just seems more likable.

That being said, I don't think GT needs to run the triple option to be successful. We're only a decade removed from a pro-style offense that produced Calvin Johnson. Atlanta shouldn't be a hard sell to recruits, and if you get a good recruiter who can excite the fanbase and some quality staff around him, there might be a real momentum shift. I'm also not sold on Kirby Smart at UGA and think there's room to maneuver in the state if GT gets a fresh face in the room, but you never know.

I wouldn't mind GT becoming another annual pasty for us to play alongside UVa and ECU

"When I was growing up, Virginia Tech was a school that was kicking ass and taking names, and it's time we get back to that" - James Franklin

Pasties FTW

30 years after starting grad school at Virginia Tech, I finally defended my dissertation and earned my PhD.
Don't give up on your dreams.

Beef? Very Yankee or more specific upper mid-west.

Even when you get skunked; fishing never lets you down. 🎣

Yeah, GT has been too much stress for far too long. After going to all of the Techmo bowls in Lane since we joined the ACC, I had to call it quits after the 2012 game. Too many close calls and even a loss.

A pasty is a baked pastry, a traditional variety of which is particularly associated with Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. It is made by placing an uncooked filling, typically meat and vegetables, on one half of a flat shortcrust pastry circle, folding the pastry in half to wrap the filling in a semicircle and crimping the curved edge to form a seal before baking.

I just don't understand how they get these things to stick to boobies

If you've never had one, they are AMAZING. Like a pot pie and an empanada got freaky one night. They make them on the UP of Michigan and a little further south, but you can find them in Chicago, too.

"I liked you guys a lot better when everybody told you you were terrible." -Justin Fuente

There are so many things that I want, and TKP keeps adding to the list.

Reel men fish on Wednesdays

Why sure, I'd love to eat something that looks like a smiley face that is bleeding out of it's eyes.

"Nope, launch him into the sun and fart on him on the way up"
-gobble gobble chumps

"11-0, bro"
-Hunter Carpenter (probably)

Just imagine that's a UVA fan's face thinking about their football program and I'm sure you'll get your appetite back.

"That move was slicker than a peeled onion in a bowl of snot." -Mike Burnop