I just believe it is time for our fan base to come together on the issue of Paul Johnson.
The Paul Johnson haters should give him credit for what he has done the previous 10 seasons. It has overall been a nice body of work and the 2014 season is literally a once in a generation season for GT. I think he has done as well if not better than any coach we could have hired over the same period. I appreciate what he has done. I have a lot of fond memories at Bobby Dodd during his tenure.
The Paul Johnson apologists should now realize that his time is over at Tech. Even if he is still coaching next season, he has lost this team. For years his offense could overcome bad defenses and special teams. But the offense can no longer hide the multiple deficiencies with this team. He used to be able to out coach the other guy on game day. That is no longer the case. He has simply made too many questionable decisions lately. And his teams seem ill prepared.
And finally, he is stubborn. We had a QB who cannot throw and has a bad wheel. Yet he played the entire game and threw the ball poorly once again. Could we have not at least tried at half time to put in the guy that led us to 3 straight touchdowns in the second half of USF? I just don't buy the whole "he sees them at practice every day" argument. We see what is going on every Saturday. With Oliver, we would be no worse than 1-2 right now. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. This is how I feel about CPJ's coaching decisions every week.
I feel very badly for TQM. He doesn’t have the support or coaching available to him to do what needs to be done, or he is asked to do. I literally fear for his health the remainder of the season.
As far as playing someone else to help the team out at a certain point? A guy named Nick Saban, in the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP game, put in someone else over a player that had led his team to a ton of big victories. Saban’s ego was focused on his team winning, not focused on the possibility that someone would question his choice.
I think CPJ is good for young people to be around, that he is a good, decent person / father / husband. I wish we had put money in facilities (like many in the shoestring budget Yellow Jacket Club of the 1970s started to thankfully push for) so that we would have every advantage now for him.
But I feel today like we just again played the UT game of 2017. I have doubts to CPJs recruiting ability (even considering academics because I don’t know how Elon, gsu, etc are recruiting such academic giants that we have to raid their classes), his loyalty to certain coaches, his gameday decision making, his ability to motivate, his demeanor in areas important to a successful program.
I am not eloquent enough to list it all.
It will be tough to replace CPJ, but we need to. The longer he is here, the tougher it will be to recover.
I in no way “hate” CPJ. I do love GT, just like all here.