CPJ Brought ..............To The Table

floridajacket said:
Toughness to overcome adversity was the big addition. I particularly remember the BC game. Offense had a number of fumbles in that game and the defense stepped up every time.

"Instill Winning." Heh, that makes it sound easy. Winning was "instilled" starting from their 6 AM spring workouts. At every step of the way, he made sure that every player understood what they needed to do and that every player would put everything they had into every workout, drill, meeting, or play. Anything less and that player would get promptly replaced. Not a whole lot more to it than that.
Click to expand...

And according to Morgan Burnett, to Paul Johnson 6 AM better be 5:45 AM to the players. :D
 
Ish said:
I was an equipment manager for 3 years during Gailey's regime (fall '05- spring '08). We hired CPJ in December of 07, so I got one whole spring semester with him. The difference was literally night and day.

In the very first spring conditioning practice, he was challenging our players. He told them that we weren't playing at the right level, "his" level, and I remember this specifically...he said: "You're going to come up to my level. I'm not going down to yours!"

He was met with resistance, which was to be expected during a period of change. But he was persistent. He seriously did not give a shit who you were, how good you were, if you were a starter or not.

On that first day of conditioning (btw- 5:00 in the morning in the freezing January rain, running combine drills for 2 hours...yeah, it sucked for managers too), players were half-assing it, because they were allowed to under the previous coach. People were quitting, going half-speed, etc. But by the 3rd day, he had our guys competing with each other to be the last group standing. People went from dogging it and quitting to wanting to do the drills. It was embarassing if your group quit. People got pissed. Michael Johnson's group won (but yeah, he has no heart, right Mayock?).

Paul Johnson instilled accountability. Something our previous coach never did. EVER. I witnissed it for 3 years. It was a joke.

It's not the triple option. He could have installed the west coast offense and been successful, because his players wanted to fight for him.

It's that simple.
Click to expand...

great post. thanks for sharing.
 
Bottom Line is--we are truly blessed with CPJ--I've been smiling since since 12-1. I've got a golfing Bud who has not been able to make our foursome since the win!(the one with the nadlicker headcover!!)
 
Wreck02 said:
Heck yeah! Man, that gets me fired up :FIREdevil:
Click to expand...

JoltinJacket said:
I'll second that. Thanks Ish for that first hand report.
Click to expand...

The Jacket said:
Thirded. Anyone know how to repair holes in sheet rock?
Click to expand...

gojkts said:
great post. thanks for sharing.
Click to expand...

heh, no problem. I still don't think people truly understand how amazing Coach Johnson is, and how D-Rad absolutely nailed the hire. Well most people here do, but college football fans in general are in for a huge surprise.
 
D-Rad and CPJ both are total opposites from what we had. CPJ brought a toughness and tenacity that was clearly lacking. Aggressiveness is something that is necessary in todays NCAA football world and CPJ exudes it.
 
I knew CPJ from his days at Georgia Southern and everything Ish said is right in character with the coach I knew in Statesboro.
He doesn't like winning. He loves winning. Losing makes his skin crawl.
The coaches get in early, get their work done and their home at night (mostly) with their families. They don't burn the midnight oil because they do more before noon than everybody else.
I remember vividly a practice, the first one, after a particular bad loss when he was at Georgia Southern. And there weren't many (bad losses, that is, or losses of any kind). The end of practice conditioning drill usually lasted 15 minutes — wind sprints of varying lengths.
This day, it went on. And on. And on (kinda like this post!). Until it got dark. And it kept going.
The practice field didn't have lights. But he kept running them.
They didn't lose for the next two months.
 
That halftime speech/motivation session was key to our coming out in the 3rd Quarter with a punch.

Paul said the speech was nothing out of the ordinary - He simply convinced the players as long as we make the assignments, we put mega points on the Board.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top