UGA preparation

[wvGT11]

What worries me though after listening to the radio show, and this could be the case this week is that as CPJ said they practice all of this, put in the hours coaching and prepping the team and then the product on the field flops. Missed assignments, tackles, busted plays that were practiced over and over. CPJ doesn't seem to have an answer to that. I just hope whatever the team did to prep for VT they do for UGA

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Which conference supplies the officials? Do we have to worry about the ball popping out five seconds after forward progress has stopped?

 

[Lavoisier]

It's how they are teaching it. For example lots of us alums are really bright and hard working, but we struggled with classes at tech where the professor was confusing or not clear about the material. Compounded with the 'drinking from a fire hose' analogy, stuff that should not be super hard becomes way more difficult. My mother was a teacher and while I never taught I was a tutor and taught some grad school test prep classes, and I learned that anytime you have a pattern of so many of your pupils struggling with the same fundamentals it's not likely that 90% of them are dumb it's more likely that you aren't doing your job as a teacher.

We need to see how we are spending our time in practice, especially in the off season. Spend a week just teaching these kids how to use proper tackling form and take proper angles. Make sure they know their ABC's before handing them Shakespeare.

 

[takethepoints]

Now...I’ve always supported the guy, but I’ll play devil’s advocate here, since he’s begging the question. If we’ve historically averaged six wins, and that’s what we should expect, then why the hell do we need him? Couldn’t we get someone less expensive and accomplish the same thing and use that money elsewhere?

I think you missed his point. He didn't come out and say it, but Coach's teams have consistently over performed what we have done on average in the last 40 years. I think what he sees is that most tantalizing of images: what we could do with a slightly greater effort. He's frustrated by this year's results, as we all are, but he wants to win an NC at Tech and I bet he sees a way clear to do it with more resources.

Whether he's right or not is another story and winning an NC consistently is something only one school - Bammer - has done recently. I think Coach believes we can be in the hunt, however, and, with a little luck and more resources, could make it happen.

 

[bke1984]

I think you missed his point. He didn't come out and say it, but Coach's teams have consistently over performed what we have done on average in the last 40 years. I think what he sees is that most tantalizing of images: what we could do with a slightly greater effort. He's frustrated by this year's results, as we all are, but he wants to win an NC at Tech and I bet he sees a way clear to do it with more resources.

Whether he's right or not is another story and winning an NC consistently is something only one school - Bammer - has done recently. I think Coach believes we can be in the hunt, however, and, with a little luck and more resources, could make it happen.

As I said initially, I didn't listen to it last night. Just listening to it now. Now that I've listened to it, I think people (including myself) probably took his comments a bit out of context. He was directly answering a question about becoming more consistent. He even stated in the comment that going from 9 wins to 5 is not what you want to have happen.

That being said, I do still think that he needs to be careful what message he sends to the team. Again...setting a goal of winning the division every year and then stating that 6 wins is our average and sometimes we'll be better or worse isn't consistent. 9 or 10 every year is probably reaching a bit, but I think saying hovering around 6 is not what we should be shooting for. If you win 6 games you aren't competing for the division consistently.

 

[jgtengineer]

I wonder then if GT misrepresented itself during the hiring process or was not entirely forthcoming. Or did CPJ perhaps assume, like most of us with extremely large egos, that he could overcome the obstacles on his own through force of will? Seems like that the coaching fraternity is rather small and there are tons of guys who have passed through the coaching ranks here that any coach looking to come here could do the appropriate due diligence and walk into this situation with eyes wide open. I also would like to hear from CPJ how the challenges here differ from those of the USNA (aside from schedule of course).

On the naval academy, here is the difference. The acadamies are not beholden to the recruiting limitations as no one is technically a scholarship athlete. So they get classes fo 37 to 40 players every year. Because of the nature of this offense repetition and assignment makes it work. Often CPJ's teams at navy were basically starting players who were 3 or 4 years in system. The amount of players he had to work with meant he got to train up 2 star recruits and because he basically was signing half a team every year he always had upperclassmen. This is why when he left for tech Coach ken just kept on rolling. A 2 star player with 3 years of collegiate weight lifting and prep is going to be a better player than a 4 star freshman. Monken is starting to do the same thing at army.

At tech we've actually seen what a team looks like when we have this in 2014. The problem is there is no way to keep reloading the classes due to the way scholarship limits shake out.

 

[takethepoints]

What worries me though after listening to the radio show, and this could be the case this week is that as CPJ said they practice all of this, put in the hours coaching and prepping the team and then the product on the field flops. Missed assignments, tackles, busted plays that were practiced over and over. CPJ doesn't seem to have an answer to that. I just hope whatever the team did to prep for VT they do for UGA

Well … I bet if you asked him he'd point to two offensive problems for this year.

First, we have struggled to put a consistent group of OLs on the field game after game. Due to career ending injuries and career decisions, we lost four OTs - Griffin, Whitley, Klock, and Fromayen - and one OG - Brown in the last three years. Losing Fromayen before this season was a wrench, but losing Griffin and Brown, who had all-ACC written all over them was a real problem. If we had Griffin and Fromayen or Klock at OT, the assignment problem would be lot less of a concern. As it is, we've had to play Will out of position for most of the year and hold the rest of the OL together with spit and duct tape. Everybody talked about how good the OL was at the first of the year. They were right. Then the injuries began to hurt us. I think Coach made the right decision to not blow the redshirts of our frosh OLs - except Hanson - but I sure do hope we can get around these OL problems (at OT, in particular) going forward.

The second factor has been inexperience. We started a new QB and BB this year. Both have performed better then expected, imho, but I sure do wish that Matthew hadn't hurt his foot and that Mills hadn't been dismissed. Having a lot of read problems is nothing new; there's a reason why Coach likes to start experienced skill players, QBs in particular. In an O that uses options, one of the things you can pretty much depend on is that it takes a year or so on the field to begin to make consistent reads. This lost us the UT game, imho, and sure hasn't helped in some others. TM and Benson have done yeoman duty this year and that'll pay off in the future, but right now it has it's drawbacks.

Tackling is another story. Everybody knows how to do it, but it takes confidence to make it work. In the VT game, you could see that our D thought that they could bring down any RB that the Turkies put on the field and they did. In the Duke game, not so much. This also depends on how fresh you are and how the score is going. In short, this is something that varies game by game for every team with very few exceptions.

 

[first&ten]

I agree with that, but CPJ has done this in the past. I think he's just getting sick and tired of the way things are and it wouldn't surprise if he quit if things don't change soon. Really, for the school to handle things the way they do really isn't fair to a coach imo.

It wouldn't matter if tomorrow, johnson had everything he asked for.Top recruits do not like the TO and do not want to play for johnson. The man is a 6-7 win per season coach and will throw his coaches under the bus to save his job. Just watch what happens after his end of season interview with Stansbury.

 

[takethepoints]

On the naval academy, here is the difference. The acadamies are not beholden to the recruiting limitations as no one is technically a scholarship athlete. So they get classes fo 37 to 40 players every year. Because of the nature of this offense repetition and assignment makes it work. Often CPJ's teams at navy were basically starting players who were 3 or 4 years in system. The amount of players he had to work with meant he got to train up 2 star recruits and because he basically was signing half a team every year he always had upperclassmen. This is why when he left for tech Coach ken just kept on rolling. A 2 star player with 3 years of collegiate weight lifting and prep is going to be a better player than a 4 star freshman. Monken is starting to do the same thing at army.

At tech we've actually seen what a team looks like when we have this in 2014. The problem is there is no way to keep reloading the classes due to the way scholarship limits shake out.

You left out the other elephant in the living room.

Most of the players at the academies are products of the prep high schools that are attached to them. The prospective plebe, middle, airman who the coaches like get invited to attend the prep school and there spend two years (usually) running - wait for it - the O that the academy runs. And, sure enough, when they hit the field, they know what they are doing and it's a matter of adjusting to college speed. Combine this with bringing in 80 or so recruits a year (yes, 80) and you can see why the talent level is higher then expected and the exception smoother.

We have a school like that - Marist - but those kids can go pretty much anywhere. Too bad, that.

 

[takethepoints]

It wouldn't matter if tomorrow, johnson had everything he asked for.Top recruits do not like the TO and do not want to play for johnson. The man is a 6-7 win per season coach and will throw his coaches under the bus to save his job. Just watch what happens after his end of season interview with Stansbury.

Hmmmmm. Hibernated during 2015 and 2016, did you?

 

[heyhellowhatsup]

It wouldn't matter if tomorrow, johnson had everything he asked for.Top recruits do not like the TO and do not want to play for johnson. The man is a 6-7 win per season coach and will throw his coaches under the bus to save his job. Just watch what happens after his end of season interview with Stansbury.

The evidence doesn’t support that at all. GT has had much less staff turnover than comparable schools.

 

[sidewalkGTfan]

It wouldn't matter if tomorrow, johnson had everything he asked for.Top recruits do not like the TO and do not want to play for johnson. The man is a 6-7 win per season coach and will throw his coaches under the bus to save his job. Just watch what happens after his end of season interview with Stansbury.

The ol' tried and true argument that we are one magical HC hire away from being a consistent top 25 team. I love it.

When are some of our fans going to realize that our football program is a helluva lot closer to the Wake Forest, Syracuse and UVAs of the the world than we are the Clemson, FSUs and Miamis??? And that statement has ZERO to do with Paul Johnson or whoever the Head Coach may be.

 

[NorthGeorgiaJacket]

Hey everyone. To Hell With georgia.

 

[tech_wreck47]

It wouldn't matter if tomorrow, johnson had everything he asked for.Top recruits do not like the TO and do not want to play for johnson. The man is a 6-7 win per season coach and will throw his coaches under the bus to save his job. Just watch what happens after his end of season interview with Stansbury.

When has he ever thrown coaches under the bus lol? And you don't think if he had more staff, money, better facilities ect he wouldn't get better recruits lol? Even if it was just better recruits on D it would make a major difference. Who cares if kids don't want to play in a TO offense when he can have a top 25 offense with the recruits he does get. I just don't buy that he couldn't get better guys on offense with more things available to him, even if it was just 2 studs a year on the OL, that in itself would make a huge difference.

 

[MacJacket]

It wouldn't matter if tomorrow, johnson had everything he asked for.Top recruits do not like the TO and do not want to play for johnson. The man is a 6-7 win per season coach and will throw his coaches under the bus to save his job. Just watch what happens after his end of season interview with Stansbury.

Not really sure what coach you are referring to. Outside of the fossil DC and Wommack, CPJ has been (overly)loyal to his staff. Like most people agree, CPJ is simply lobbying to keep up with the Joneses. I'm sure he would like a more aggressive defensive, but I also believe he wishes he didn't lose all the OL the past 2 years. He isn't going to throw anyone but himself under the bus at the end of the year.

 

[augustabuzz]

QUIT !!!!!!!!

That's what Bobby Ross did. I don't believe Johnson is a quitter.

 

[JorgeJonas]

If anybody listened to the radio show holy crap this coach is getting on my nerves!!!! Went on a whole rant about why we suck. You're the damn head coach!

Some people can’t handle straight talk.

 

[JorgeJonas]

It wouldn't matter if tomorrow, johnson had everything he asked for.Top recruits do not like the TO and do not want to play for johnson. The man is a 6-7 win per season coach and will throw his coaches under the bus to save his job. Just watch what happens after his end of season interview with Stansbury.

This strikes me as an interesting observation when one of the biggest criticisms of him has been that he won’t make changes on the staff.

 

[JorgeJonas]

And after that spill name me a coach that would come to Tech. Reading through this thread it sounds like CPJ is telling us the fans accept mediocrity or go elsewhere. That is why I said our alumni need to hold some feet to the fire that’s the only way anything will change. I’ll be cheering and waiting I guess.

Sure as hell sounds like the person holding people’s feet to the fire is Johnson. And the people who are griping need to hear it.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

It's how they are teaching it. For example lots of us alums are really bright and hard working, but we struggled with classes at tech where the professor was confusing or not clear about the material. Compounded with the 'drinking from a fire hose' analogy, stuff that should not be super hard becomes way more difficult. My mother was a teacher and while I never taught I was a tutor and taught some grad school test prep classes, and I learned that anytime you have a pattern of so many of your pupils struggling with the same fundamentals it's not likely that 90% of them are dumb it's more likely that you aren't doing your job as a teacher.

We need to see how we are spending our time in practice, especially in the off season. Spend a week just teaching these kids how to use proper tackling form and take proper angles. Make sure they know their ABC's before handing them Shakespeare.

Remember our guys have to divide their time and mental resources between school and football. It’s not all football all day all week like at Uga.