Quick poll on the pulse of the fanbase....

Have you lost faith in CPJ?


  • Total voters
    274

AlabamaBuzz

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I voted "yes", but not because I believe PJ cannot coach winning football. I believe he can without a doubt.

I just believe that the combination of difficulty recruiting players to GT AND to his system is too much to overcome.

With that said, I will be rooting for him with everything I have. I believe that his system can help us overcome a talent gap, but the talent gap cannot be more than 25-30% from the best teams, and currently, I believe it is more like 35-40% from the top tier teams.
 

dressedcheeseside

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I voted "yes", but not because I believe PJ cannot coach winning football. I believe he can without a doubt.

I just believe that the combination of difficulty recruiting players to GT AND to his system is too much to overcome.

With that said, I will be rooting for him with everything I have. I believe that his system can help us overcome a talent gap, but the talent gap cannot be more than 25-30% from the best teams, and currently, I believe it is more like 35-40% from the top tier teams.
There's some truth in your 'talent gap' analysis. However, I don't think talent should be taken wholistically. A stud qb can get you so much more in this offense than just about any other position. Getting the "perfect" qb is like hitting the lottery and it should be easier for us with this offense than trying to do what every body else is doing.
 

AlabamaBuzz

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There's some truth in your 'talent gap' analysis. However, I don't think talent should be taken wholistically. A stud qb can get you so much more in this offense than just about any other position. Getting the "perfect" qb is like hitting the lottery and it should be easier for us with this offense than trying to do what every body else is doing.

Agreed that all positions are kind of "made equal" in my analysis. My main concern still are the big nasties.....It looks like we may do better this year in recruiting them, but we still have to get them signed and hold on to them after they get here!!

P.S. - I would love to see this thing turn around big time fast with PJ at the helm.
 

daBuzz

Ramblin' Wreck
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965
Well, for one thing, I think a poll on this board is not going to necessarily be a representation of the Tech fan group as a whole. Because, as a rule, this board discourages negativity and most people who are fed up with Coach Johnson or his system are therefore not going to be on this board.

As an example, I have refrained from commenting on the first two games on this or any other board for just such a reason.
 

dressedcheeseside

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Well, for one thing, I think a poll on this board is not going to necessarily be a representation of the Tech fan group as a whole. Because, as a rule, this board discourages negativity and most people who are fed up with Coach Johnson or his system are therefore not going to be on this board.

As an example, I have refrained from commenting on the first two games on this or any other board for just such a reason.
daBuzz, fire away, man. It's more a tone issue with me. Being critical and backing it up with analysis while keeping your tenor reasonable is welcome in my book.

I also agree that the majority of the fanbase is not represented by this board. It's not represented by any one board or even all the boards taken collectively. The majority of the fanbase don't blog.
 

jason

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
74
I have not lost faith. I am hoping he gets a chance with Thomas because I believe the next 3 years will be a lot of fun to watch. They recruiting has really gotten better and I have always thought if we could get a good defense it would be hard for anybody to beat us. I'm looking forward to watching These young recruits over the next 4-5 years and
hope PJ is the coach but if not at least the new coach will come in with a lot if talent to start with.
 

jchens_GT

Ramblin' Wreck
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573
Location
Georgia
I just believe that the combination of difficulty recruiting players to GT AND to his system is too much to overcome.

To me, this is a legitimate concern and is probably the main worry I've had with CPJ. I think his system is a productive one and can win with good athletes just like any system. I am not sure how you can measure the effect that perception of his system has on recruiting, but I have to think that it does factor in somehow. CPJ and his staff have not recruited well enough to debunk this one yet. I am hoping that the 2014 and 2015 classes are the beginning of our staff proving this one to be false.
 

GTJake

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I voted Yes, although I'm a fence sitter because I don't think changing coaches is an automatic good thing and stability is good for a program.
On the positive side, I see signs of improvement in recruiting, staff and attitude.
On the negative side, I would like to see less stubborness and a more diversified offensive scheme.
Also, I wonder what kind of lockeroom presence CPJ has, I personally don't think sarcasm is a good motivator and I think motivation for 18-20 year old players is important.
 

Spandex

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
24
I voted "yes," but I reserve the right to change my mind :)

I really like his style of offense, and he seems to be a very talented OC. I believe that the problem is with recruiting, and AFAICT, it's not getting appreciably better. I don't know if he hasn't figured it out yet (so that it might get better given more time) or if it's a peculiarity with recruiting for his offense (so that it may never improve significantly).
 

daBuzz

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
965
daBuzz, fire away, man. It's more a tone issue with me. Being critical and backing it up with analysis while keeping your tenor reasonable is welcome in my book.
Partial threadjack:
OK, here are my both my observations from the first two games:

Positives
1. I like the resiliency of the team a lot and I am very encouraged by the level of effort on both sides of the ball and special teams.
2. I think Justin Thomas is electric and his speed causes problems for defenses. I'm also really impressed with his arm strength.
3. Smelter has become a very complete receiver. If his 40 times are decent at the NFL combines, he may potentially move up to a 3rd or 4th round pick (right now I would put him as a later round pick). Regardless, I expect him to be a very productive receiver in the NFL because he blocks well, catches the ball very well and knows how to get open. He may not have 4.3 speed but he is definitely fast enough to play on Sundays.
4. The defensive scheme has been purposefully vanilla to this point because the coaches want to have something in the tank that better teams haven't seen. Even with that, the secondary has looked pretty good to my untrained eye.
5. You have to be encouraged by the # of kicks that Butker is putting out of the end zone. Against teams like Clemson and UGA, that can be a big positive if you don't let 4.3 speed guys have a chance to run a kickoff back.

Negatives
1. We have played very, very poorly in our first two games. I know with 100% certainty that our coaches had planned to use these first three games to not only build quality reps for our starters but also to try and get a lot of reps & experience for our backups in games that were expected to be lopsided. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to put those teams away until the 4th quarter in both games and it precluded us from building the type of depth that we want and need.
2. For all Justin's positives, he has two glaring problems in my opinion:
  • first, he needs to learn to put some air under the long throws. I suspect we will be around the 20-30% completion mark on long throws with him until he learns to throw to a spot and let the receiver run to the spot. It's very difficult to hit receivers in stride when they're 40 or 50 yards downfield.
  • more importantly, ball security is a problem with him. He looked great in the first game but he still has the habit of carrying the ball like a loaf of bread at times. Even with his speed, he will get hit from behind and that will happen more & more as we face better teams. It does us no good if he breaks a run for 45 yards to get the ball to the 20 yard line, if he then gets stripped on the next play and fumbles the ball. Also, he is a bit risky with the pitches at times. The pitch that resulted in the fumble the other day is one reason. Sometimes, it may result because of the difficulty in keeping pitch relationship with a super fast QB on the option, but that play was different. It happened because Justin pulled the ball on the mesh and was covered. He tried to immediately pitch it to the A-back (Zenon?) but the pitch was happening before Zenon had an opportunity to get proper distance to be able to receive it. Couple that with a high pitch to the face mask area and it was a bad decision. In this offense, the QB's are told, "When in doubt, keep the ball and turn up field. Get whatever yards you can get but hold onto the ball and live to fight another play.
3. So many people want to blame last season on Vad and his "lack of commitment" but I was told by someone who would know that "That's horses**t. Vad was 100% committed to being the best QB he could be while he was here. He may not have liked running the ball so much but he worked as hard as you could expect your QB to work. He was a vocal leader and everyone in the program was convinced he was going to be really special, given enough time. The whole 'lack of commitment' thing didn't come up until after the season. He felt like he had the potential to possibly play in the pros one day and didn't feel like throwing the ball only a few times per game was going to give him a shot at doing that, so he left."

I personally think that many people are overlooking many of Justin's negatives just because they want him to be really good. Not that it matters what you and/or I think so much, but people talking about Justin "progressing" from game one to game two have to be (in my opinion) overlooking quite a few negatives to think such. I'm not saying that we should sit him because I think he's far & away our best QB. But I also believe in calling things like I see them. And I think Justin played a very poor game against Tulane.
4. Defensive line and pass rush is very concerning to me at this point. It's hard to tell what the final product will look like because we haven't shown our complete package yet, so I'll reserve judgement until then. But it bothers me that we have played 2 of the worst 3 teams on our schedule and we haven't really pressured the QB a lot.
5. Lack of passing in the last game. I know what Coach Johnson is saying about them playing us in such as way that the run made more sense than the pass. But I also know that our assistant coaches find it difficult to recruit receivers when they have to try and explain why we only attempted 8 passes versus a lower-tier talented team. I was told flat out, "It's damned hard to recruit receivers for this offense".
 

Animal02

Banned
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3. So many people want to blame last season on Vad and his "lack of commitment" but I was told by someone who would know that "That's horses**t. Vad was 100% committed to being the best QB he could be while he was here. He may not have liked running the ball so much but he worked as hard as you could expect your QB to work. He was a vocal leader and everyone in the program was convinced he was going to be really special, given enough time. The whole 'lack of commitment' thing didn't come up until after the season. He felt like he had the potential to possibly play in the pros one day and didn't feel like throwing the ball only a few times per game was going to give him a shot at doing that, so he left."
You contradict yourself....being 100% committed and not feeling like throwing the ball only a few times a game.......who do you think you are kidding. Someone 100% committed doesn't play tentative and indecisive......you only have to look at the play difference of the QB's before and after.



I personally think that many people are overlooking many of Justin's negatives just because they want him to be really good. Not that it matters what you and/or I think so much, but people talking about Justin "progressing" from game one to game two have to be (in my opinion) overlooking quite a few negatives to think such. I'm not saying that we should sit him because I think he's far & away our best QB. But I also believe in calling things like I see them. And I think Justin played a very poor game against Tulane..

I do not think JT played poorly......though I do not think he played his best. JN put the ball on the ground many times.......Tevin did as well. As I posted in another thread, I would rather have a QB that is committed and a student of the system rather than a "better athlete" that would rather be doing something else.
 
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I voted Yes, although I'm a fence sitter because I don't think changing coaches is an automatic good thing and stability is good for a program.
On the positive side, I see signs of improvement in recruiting, staff and attitude.
On the negative side, I would like to see less stubborness and a more diversified offensive scheme.
Also, I wonder what kind of lockeroom presence CPJ has, I personally don't think sarcasm is a good motivator and I think motivation for 18-20 year old players is important.
If Johnson had a bad locker room presence, or bad practice presence, then there would be player rebellion, or at least evidence that he doesn't have the respect of the team. Now, obviously, players currently on any given team are not going to trash their coach, but have you ever heard any of Johnson's former players say anything negative about him? Hell, there are former Johnson players on the sidelines for every game supporting not just the team, but Johnson as well. And even former Tech players who didn't play under him are there and have good things to say about him. I was particularly struck by the fact that, after taking the ice-bucket challenge himself, he challenged former Ga Southern QB and now Ga Southern AD Tracy Ham. Johnson likes his players, and his players like him.

BTW, I vote NO. I haven't lost confidence in him. He frustrates the hell out of me at times with his play-calling (like I should know better....LOL), and sometimes even pisses me off with that (Music Bowl in particular), but I love his offense, and I love the way he emphasizes the STUDENT part of student athlete. We certainly don't need to get rid of him yet. It's that ever-rotating carousel of coaches at Tech that led to the mess we are in now anyway. Why repeat what has failed so many times already. It's not like he's giving us nothing but losing seasons. He has never had a season anywhere near as bad as most of Curry's, and a couple of even Ross's and O'Leary's. Look at Beamer at VT. His first 6 seasons there, he won 2, 3, 6, 7, 5, and 2 wins (in order). If some of these so-called fans at Ga Tech had been in Blacksburg, Beamer probably wouldn't have lasted past the 3rd year, and certainly not the 6th. And look what they would have missed by letting him go.
 

MWBATL

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I like CPJ on many levels. I could care less what the particular offense is, as long as it scores points. This offense has always, ALWAYS been so much more productive than Gailey's, that I think most GT fans have gotten spoiled. Heck, Gailey couldn't score points with the world's best wide receiver on the team.

I have been unhappy with the recruiting, but of late that seems to (maybe) have changed, so I am willing to wait another year or two to see how these recruiting classes pan out.

CPJ made a mistake with Al Groh, but heck, at first I thought it was a good idea too. So, just goes to prove you don't want me running the program either! Plus, i think you have to allow for a mistake every now and then. CPJ has corrected it, imho, and now it is just a matter of talent on the field that separates us from our chief rivals.
 

GTJake

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If Johnson had a bad locker room presence, or bad practice presence, then there would be player rebellion, or at least evidence that he doesn't have the respect of the team. Now, obviously, players currently on any given team are not going to trash their coach, but have you ever heard any of Johnson's former players say anything negative about him? Hell, there are former Johnson players on the sidelines for every game supporting not just the team, but Johnson as well. And even former Tech players who didn't play under him are there and have good things to say about him. I was particularly struck by the fact that, after taking the ice-bucket challenge himself, he challenged former Ga Southern QB and now Ga Southern AD Tracy Ham. Johnson likes his players, and his players like him.


Not like or dislike ... but lockeroom pre-game motivation.

I don't particularly like Lou Holtz but I have heard he was a great lockeroom motivator.
 

Eastman

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Usually where I disagree on posts is where the criticism seems too general such as "we played very very poorly against Tulane". As noted, like every game, there was good and bad. But for JT's fumble and interception, the game would likely have been a cake-walk with everyone jumping on the bandwagon that this year will be outstanding (which would also be unrealistic). For a young QB and team, it is understandable that mistakes will be made. I hope JT's mistakes will be a great learning experience that will lead to improved play and a great season.
 

dressedcheeseside

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Usually where I disagree on posts is where the criticism seems too general such as "we played very very poorly against Tulane". As noted, like every game, there was good and bad. But for JT's fumble and interception, the game would likely have been a cake-walk with everyone jumping on the bandwagon that this year will be outstanding (which would also be unrealistic). For a young QB and team, it is understandable that mistakes will be made. I hope JT's mistakes will be a great learning experience that will lead to improved play and a great season.
JT's problems are fixable and are attributed to youth and inexperience. Where we are in real trouble is where they are not.
 

jayparr

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I voted "yes," but I reserve the right to change my mind :)

I really like his style of offense, and he seems to be a very talented OC. I believe that the problem is with recruiting, and AFAICT, it's not getting appreciably better. I don't know if he hasn't figured it out yet (so that it might get better given more time) or if it's a peculiarity with recruiting for his offense (so that it may never improve significantly).
If you like the of. then you should have voted no. The recruiting would fall on hill; which imho is getting better, and rapidly so.
 

jacketup

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Let's see, a losing record over the last 4 years against FBS opponents, no top 25 wins in the last 3 years, only 2 winning seasons in the last 4 (thanks in part to 2 FCS opponents last year). All this while playing in the weakest division of the power 5 conferences.

The results of this poll seem to demonstrate the triumph of hope over experience. It is very difficult for me to understand how people can be blind to the facts, unless they are happy with what is, at best, mediocrity.

No, I haven't lost faith in Paul Johnson. I never had any. He had zero coaching experience at the BCS level when he was hired, and it shows. He still doesn't seem to understand recruiting, which is the single most important endeavor of coaching.
 
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