What is your current opinion of CPJ?

[Squints]

Well, that still doesn't mean that the quality of the scout players and quality of the scout team offense they see will be as good at GT as it is at other schools. So, either way, the recruiting gap (no matter the star ratings) looks to be increasing at least by the "eye test".

Yea our offense really hurt our three defensive draft picks last week. This idea of our defense being hurt by our scout team is completely overblown. It's unsubstantiated opinion and speculation.

 

[daBuzz]

I wonder how many of you who "like Paul Johnson as a person" actually know the man in real life?

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Yea our offense really hurt our three defensive draft picks last week. This idea of our defense being hurt by our scout team is completely overblown. It's tired and wornout attempts to dig on the coach and his offense.

fify.

Sometimes I think we're our own worse enemies.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

I wonder how many of you who "like Paul Johnson as a person" actually know the man in real life?

and you do?

 

[Animal02]

Well, that still doesn't mean that the quality of the scout players and quality of the scout team offense they see will be as good at GT as it is at other schools. So, either way, the recruiting gap (no matter the star ratings) looks to be increasing at least by the "eye test".

I can accept that point......just not the "you will always get blocked low and you won't see NFL offense alignments.....HuH? you will see whatever the opposing team throws at you.

 

[Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau]

In Johnson's case, we succeeded early with some small linemen. I believe that this led him to believe that he could win with more small linemen. The smaller linemen are disadvantaged in pass pro. He was criticized for not recruiting bigger linemen. Well now he has adjusted and this year will be the 1st year that the larger OL recruits are on the depth chart.

Our offense plays a very physical game and the lack of size and depth is really exposed when we play physical DLs in successive weeks (or short weeks ). This was also true with the defensive scheme that Groh tried. When we get in tight games, it is natural for coaches to play only the guys they trust to win the battles. This leads to a lack of development for players down the depth chart and increased wear and tear on the regulars. in 2000, O'Leary gave his coordinators a minimum required number to play in the first half of each game.

For the 2007 class, it appeared that Gailey had changed who and how we recruited. He followed that class with a strong following class of commitments. But we ran him off before he had half a chance to see the fruit of his labor.

I am concerned that some are hell bent to repeat the mistake.

I would say if anyone knows what kind of players make for success in the OBS, it would be Paul Johnson. If smaller, more agile, quick linemen spell success for our running game, do you think the larger, less nimble behemoths such as Shamire Devine, might hurt our running game?

 

[SidewalkJacket]

I wonder how many of you who "like Paul Johnson as a person" actually know the man in real life?

Not sure I saw any post that said WTTE of "I like him as a person." I saw posts praising his integrity and commitment to student-athletes. As I said in my post, he can be a jerk. He also has an enormous ego. I know a kid who he ran off the field screaming in his earhole and told him not to come back, who doesn't think he's a very nice guy. But would he be fair to my son, if he was given the opportunity to play for him? I think so. Would he demand excellence from my son, and expect total commitment? Yes. Would he do all in his power to ensure my son graduated? Yes. I think those are admirable qualities for a GT coach.

 

[Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau]

I heard an interesting stat while rewatching Elon game (they got it wrong), and I thought I'd post a yearly comparison.
Points per Game vs ACC:
2008: 22.5
2009: 33.3
2010: 23.6
2011: 28.0
2012: 37.2
2013: 31.2

Throw out 56-0 against Syracuse and what have you got?

 

[dressedcheeseside]

I would say if anyone knows what kind of players make for success in the OBS, it would be Paul Johnson. If smaller, more agile, quick linemen spell success for our running game, do you think the larger, less nimble behemoths such as Shamire Devine, might hurt our running game?

I think it has more to do with who we can get. CPJ has said several times "big and fast is bettern' small and fast" when it comes to OL's.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

I don't buy the negative recruiting angle WRT to our offense. Anyone that has played ball with with a decent size team (as in more than 30) should know that the 1st team offense and 1st team defense rarely practice against each. If they do not know that....they probably could not hack Tech's academics anyway.

But that IS used against us over and over again. If the individual recruits don't fall for it, their mothers often do, and that's part of the recruiting process too.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Throw out 56-0 against Syracuse and what have you got?

Why? Every team in college football needs to throw out the stats they racked up against patsies, too.

 

[SidewalkJacket]

Throw out 56-0 against Syracuse and what have you got?

Good grief with these posts. I respect your opinion, JBR, but every conference has stat-skewing opponents. Does Alabama edit its defensive stats to not include Arkansas?

 

[Animal02]

To use the old presidential debate line: "Is GT football better off now than it was at the end of 2007?" I don't see any compelling arguments that it is.

It sure is a helluva a lot better than it was in '80-82

 

[daBuzz]

and you do?

I do.

 

[Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau]

In Johnson's case, we succeeded early with some small linemen. I believe that this led him to believe that he could win with more small linemen. The smaller linemen are disadvantaged in pass pro. He was criticized for not recruiting bigger linemen. Well now he has adjusted and this year will be the 1st year that the larger OL recruits are on the depth chart.

Our offense plays a very physical game and the lack of size and depth is really exposed when we play physical DLs in successive weeks (or short weeks ). This was also true with the defensive scheme that Groh tried. When we get in tight games, it is natural for coaches to play only the guys they trust to win the battles. This leads to a lack of development for players down the depth chart and increased wear and tear on the regulars. in 2000, O'Leary gave his coordinators a minimum required number to play in the first half of each game.

For the 2007 class, it appeared that Gailey had changed who and how we recruited. He followed that class with a strong following class of commitments. But we ran him off before he had half a chance to see the fruit of his labor.

I am concerned that some are hell bent to repeat the mistake.

There is always the possibilty that we throw the baby out with the bathwater. Such is life. I personally have seen enough to feel Paul Johnson, as great of a guy as he well may be, is not going to have us back in the hunt for a division title, is not going to consistently win two games out of our big 4 or five rivals, and is not going to win again versus the University of Georgia even if he has a dozen more oportunities. I don't feel he has performed well enough to have earned the privilege to continue to try.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

I do.

Serving him fries doesn't count. Sorry man, couldn't resist. Just yanking your chain and totally kidding.

 

[MidtownJacket]

CPJ graduates his players. That is not just a side note. It is a MAJOR factor imho. Let's start right there. He is holding kids accountable, teaching them life lessons, and beating the entitlement mentality out of them, all while producing a quality football product on the field. Some may argue that we are paying him to coach football and win games, not to be some academic mentor or advisor. I beg to differ. We are paying him to do all of that. I steadfastly resist the temptation to go down the road of the SEC and endorse the idea using kids for my entertainment.

With all of that said, there have been some poor decisions made on his part, in terms of coaching hires, that have hurt the program to a certain degree. He owns that. Hopefully we will soon be seeing the fruits of his most recent hiring decisions. I could care less about his attitude with the media. I am glad he is passionate, determined, and animated with the kids when they screw up. They need to share his passion and hold each other accountable too. If he alienates many of today's elite athletes, I say so be it. They aren't all prima-donnas. We can get the ones who fit. I would rather we bring a whole slew of Roddy Jones types anyway, who will benefit from the entirety of the TECH experience, than Isaiah Crowell types, who won't.

I strongly disagree that this offense is incapable of carrying us to the promised land. Whether it hurts or helps recruiting, on the whole, on either side of the ball, I don't think has been proven or disproved either way. Over time, that should become evident. At this point, I see us as having recruited about the same as we always have. Obviously, we need to do better and that will take a developing strategy and possibly greater resources to get that done.

I think many people characterize him as stubborn and inflexible based on his outward media persona rather than his actions. He has let people go when need be, added staff, rearranged staff, altered recruiting strategies and tweaked offensive strategies for certain players. All in the effort to improve end results. I see a guy who is always looking for ways to improve. Ornery and inflexible are two different things.

Stability and integrity are two very important things in any program that I want to be associated with. Retaining him provides both. I am not satisfied with the results on the field, but at the same time, I don't feel like we are far away either. My vote is to stay the course for the time being. Every team CPJ has fielded since he got here has been competitive. Many of the mediocre records produced were pretty close to being good records the way the games actually played out. If we start looking like we are not competitive on a consistent basis, then I may change my vote. Not until then.

Seriously wish I could buy you a whiskey, cause hot d@mn I couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[iceeater1969]

CPJ graduates his

With all of that said, there have been some poor decisions .

I strongly disagree that this offense is incapable of carrying us to the promised land. Whether it hurts or helps recruiting, on the whole, on either side of the ball, I don't think has been proven or disproved either way. Over time, that should become evident. At this point, I see us as having recruited about the same as we always have. Obviously, we need to do better and that will take a developing strategy and possibly greater resources to get that done.

I think many people characterize him as stubborn and inflexible based on his outward media persona rather than his actions. He has let people go when need be, added staff, rearranged staff, altered recruiting strategies and tweaked offensive strategies for certain players. All in the effort to improve end results. I see a guy who is always looking for ways to improve. Ornery and inflexible are two different things.

Stability and integrity are two very important things in any program that I want to be associated with. Retaining him provides both. I am not satisfied with the results on the field, but at the same time, I don't feel like we are far away either. My vote is to stay the course for the time being. Every team CPJ has fielded since he got here has been competitive. Many of the mediocre records produced were pretty close to being good records the way the games actually played out. If we start looking like we are not competitive on a consistent basis, then I may change my vote. Not until then.

Only differences
Coach seems to think his job is delegate and forget too much - not ornery but to slow to identify and take action.

Groh was hired to run the defense and it took MTSU to finally change that mid season and we had to use kelly till end of year and then he quit. Lagging leadership by coach.

In 2009 my son who is a Texas football coach and I contacted Todd spencer with a good running back from 3a . Todd called and sent letter but recruiters from the Purdue and others came. My son said would speak highly of gt if they had come but they could not because they were focused on winning the recruiting battle in ga. Kid went to Purdue, another kid son coached went to New Mexico then nfl, now we are trying to recruit outside ga, but don't try Texas where there are 5000 tech grads.

Regardless of the past, we are where we are. Coach has adjusted and while we have a few hiccups recently with academics and stud athletes, this could be a very good year . On another thread I agreed we should not change coach in 2014 , but need to run through 2015 when we have tough schedule to get everyone on the same page.

 

[augustabuzz]

I would say if anyone knows what kind of players make for success in the OBS, it would be Paul Johnson. If smaller, more agile, quick linemen spell success for our running game, do you think the larger, less nimble behemoths such as Shamire Devine, might hurt our running game?

It depends on degrees of each. Can you be too small? Yes!
Can you be too stiff? Absolutely!

Paul Johnson has obviously decided to recruit bigger frames for the OL. We will begin gathering data this season to form an opinion on size bias.

 

[foggy]

My neighbor and friend a former player at Alabama under The Bear says this and I believe him correct: "I've never seen Tech so under coached in my life". He goes on to say "they lack the fundamentals of good football", "they miss blocks, they don't wrap up, "they are out of position", "all in all lack discipline" and more. This from as I said a former Alabama player under The Bear. Contrary to what some may think and will say aw he's just someone who dislikes Tech. However knowing him he actually likes Tech and watches games with me and cheers Tech. My friend says the things I see as well. Do I wish him (pj) success YES I do, he succeeds Tech and the SA's succeed. I like my friend just do not feel pj has the where with all to be successful at Tech.