I agree with you. But the bottom line is those guys never helped GT win a game for whatever reason. Losing guys like Marshall and Mills also hurt. I loved Johnson because I’ve followed him since Southern and I saw the explosiveness of his system. But in 11 years, it never reached the level it did at Southern. Outside of Thomas, the QB’s we had never threatened the defense thru the air, thus we never ran the true triple option because without the passing game defenses learned to stop it. We’ll never know about those injured players and probably Yates. I would love to see Johnson run his system in the NFL where the talent is more even. I think he’d do well.
I totally disagree about the talent Gailey left us with. He left us great talent. On the defensive line alone he left Johnson four players better than any d lineman we have now - Derrick Morgan, Michael Johnson, Darryl Richard, Vance Walker. These four guys were studs. Dwyer is the best GT RB in the past 20 years if not 30. We have no one like Bebe although Browns speed makes him special. We do not have 1 offensive lineman better than what Johnson inherited- Andrew Gardner, Cord Howard, David Brown, Joseph Gilbert, Dan Voss, Austin Barrick, and Nick Claytor. All those guys are better than anyone but Lee. Scott Blair is waaaay better than any kicker we have right now. As for linebackers, I love Charlie Thomas and Knight, but that’s about all we have right now. Johnson was left with Sed Griffin, Kyle Jackson, Brad Jefferson, and Anthony Barnes. DB’s, I would agree that Collins was given solid players just like Johnson inherited Morgan Burnett and Mario Butler. The biggest problem Gailey had was he never found a true P5 quarterback. If he had found one we would have been top 10 several seasons. Collins was here during that time so he’s going to find a QB.