In honor of Paul Johnson being at the game tomorrow... what's your favorite memory from his time as coach?

[Jophish17]

 

[4shotB]

I hope CBK is trying to convince CPJ to become a consultant. That would be an instant upgrade to the coaching staff!

Consulting with CPJ is an instant upgrade to ANY FB staff, college or pro. He is that good at what he does. IIRC, he has worked with Bellicek (sp?)and the Baltimore Ravens. IMO, having Bill Bellicek ask for your opinion on anything FB related is like Derek Trucks asking you for tips on the slide guitar or Warren Buffett asking for your investing advice.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I wonder if he would tweak his offense now that he has had time to see the changes in the college game. He continued to stick with the way his offense was run even though the rules had changed some of his blocking schemes. He was a great play caller but recruiting and poor defense finally did him in. That last loss to UGA seemed to really drain his energy on the sidelines. He was probably ready to retire. He was very generous by not forcing a contract buyout. I have great respect for him and I am thankful for his years at Tech. He was a helluva coach.

He adapted his offense to the players he could get. Had two quarterbacks set to run a modified flexbone / pistol formation. One turned out to be Vad Lee, who couldn’t quite get with the system and the other ended his career with a catastrophic ATV accident.

Even Tevin ran a lot of pistol but when his receivers kept dropping balls (you know the one) CPJ had to figure out what gave the team the best chance to win.

People talked about him being stubbornly committed to a system. I never saw it that way. He was stubbornly committed to winning. And he was never going to run what “the big kids” were running if he couldn’t recruit like the big kids.

Smart. Realistic.

 

[wrmathis]

He adapted his offense to the players he could get. Had two quarterbacks set to run a modified flexbone / pistol formation. One turned out to be Vad Lee, who couldn’t quite get with the system and the other ended his career with a catastrophic ATV accident.

Even Tevin ran a lot of pistol but when his receivers kept dropping balls (you know the one) CPJ had to figure out what gave the team the best chance to win.

People talked about him being stubbornly committed to a system. I never saw it that way. He was stubbornly committed to winning. And he was never going to run what “the big kids” were running if he couldn’t recruit like the big kids.

Smart. Realistic.

And his offenses in Hawaii were slinging it all over the place and not just running.

 

[gtg021x]

2008 u(sic)ga

But even before that, I'd been by the Rose Bowl practice fields plenty, but something changed with CPJ and the summer of '08. The sleds on the field had some new stenciling. "BEAT GEORGIA".

 

[jgtengineer]

The 2010 game frustrates me because wasn’t that all set up by a missed PAT? And that was just one of many 2004+ snakebite moments in that series of ridiculous close losses.

Wasn't a miss exactly was a block where they just blew up the center and it wasn't called same thing happ ned in 2014

 

[ClydeBrick]

Something new in the stadium tonite:

 

[Thwg777]

This gives me an idea to bring some signs for the last guy to hang in some fitting places.

 

[AlabamaBuzz]

Well, his former teams, GSU and GT, won the games played on the nights honoring CPJ. Fitting.

 

[cpf2001]

I’m adding this game to the list of favorite Johnson moments

 

[4shotB]

Well, his former teams, GSU and GT, won the games played on the nights honoring CPJ. Fitting.

Given this, I am all in favor of honoring him every time we play at home!

 

[jgtengineer]

I'm so glad cpjs got to watch dontae play like he knew he could

 

[GTBatGirl96]

I forget which year it was, but we scored a touchdown against vandy on the first play of the game because CPJ saw something at their warmups. He was amazing.

Took my two sons to the 2014 Orange bowl. Best game in person.

 

[stinger78]

Did they show any ceremony for CPJ?

 

[jgtengineer]

Did they show any ceremony for CPJ?

A bit they also had him join the ACC crew before the game.

 

[Enuratique]

I wonder if he would tweak his offense now that he has had time to see the changes in the college game. He continued to stick with the way his offense was run even though the rules had changed some of his blocking schemes. He was a great play caller but recruiting and poor defense finally did him in. That last loss to UGA seemed to really drain his energy on the sidelines. He was probably ready to retire. He was very generous by not forcing a contract buyout. I have great respect for him and I am thankful for his years at Tech. He was a helluva coach.

I was going to make a similar comment. Loved the CPJ era but between rule changes, Tobacco Road conspiring friendly schedules for our opponents (always a bye before playing us), and a general feeling that teams had figured out just enough to slow his offense down I think he was done. I would love to think about how he could tweak his blocking to negate the rule changes if at all possible. Lastly I wonder if the portal era would have allowed him to get even better “prototypical” kids…

 

[stinger78]

I'm so glad cpjs got to watch dontae play like he knew he could

Based on what I've seen, Dontae is the best RB we have in the house at this point. He just hits the hole hard. Haynes is a step faster and can muscle up at times. Cooley can run if he has a big hole, otherwise the tends to run in place.

 

[stinger78]

Because of the memory of attending with my son, the FSU game in 2008 will be my most special moment. Cooper caused the fumble inside the 5 yard line to save the game.

The win over VPISU at night when they were ranked was also awesome.

Lastly, I can remember the relief when we finally beat the DWAGS in Paul's first year. It was glorious.

I wish we would have supported this man with all of our resources available, and I really think by now, we would have already had another special year or 2. I know everyone doesn't agree with me, but his genius always gave us a chance when our talent did not.

We darn sure wouldn't have walked into the abyss we've been in. But... that's all history now.

 

[ThatGuy]

Consulting with CPJ is an instant upgrade to ANY FB staff, college or pro. He is that good at what he does. IIRC, he has worked with Bellicek (sp?)and the Baltimore Ravens. IMO, having Bill Bellicek ask for your opinion on anything FB related is like Derek Trucks asking you for tips on the slide guitar or Warren Buffett asking for your investing advice.

Also Urban Meyer. IIRC, while he was at Utah he picked CPJ’s brain a lot. Then he went to Florida, and the rest of the “spread offense” took off, with a lot of its roots in the option.

 

[ThatGuy]

As for my favorite memory, I loved so many of them. But I just thought of a favorite thing - the way CPJ ran in plays from the sidelines.

Countless announcers and commentators remarked at it with a chuckle, calling it “old school.” Some of them, like Kirk Herbstreit, loved it and the overall offense the same way that I did - they (I) appreciated the fact that it didn’t need to try to be flashy, or to “air out” the ball all the time because that’s what all the other teams were doing. CPJ did what worked, and stuck to his guns and principles. He didn’t need to put guys in the shotgun. Or to send in plays via signals. He did it his way, and he ground out the wins.