Only one BCS conference team has averaged over 300 yards per game on the ground in the past five years. In 2006, West Virginia snuck past with 303 yards per. Of course, Navy -- coached by Paul Johnson -- hit the 300-plus mark
three times in that span.
Now in his second season at Georgia Tech, Johnson commands a team poised to eclipse West Virginia's total. When a triple-option attack boasts three dangerous options -- and Tech does -- that is what happens. Last year, Johnson moved a Tech squad that already knew how to run an additional 80 yards per game on the ground than the year before. And because of who he has back, it should get better. Heck, even the head coach isn't playing coy about the potential.
"We're way better offensively than we were last year," Johnson says.
Asked about the reported
nine starters he has back on offense for a team that averaged over 273 yards per game rushing during last season's 9-4 campaign, Johnson is quick to set the record straight.
"Actually, we have 11 back."
That's because, he explains, last year the Yellow Jackets lost a pair of starting offensive linemen halfway through the season, and with both players and their replacements returning, Georgia Tech doesn't have a single offensive defection.
You might think after Tech snuck up on everybody last year Johnson would want to stay under the radar instead of boasting of his gridiron riches.
You'd be wrong.
This is, after all, a man who annually taps an offensive style nearly extinct in the Top 25. When Frank Solich couldn't keep his job at Nebraska after going 58-19 over six seasons, most observers were ready to pronounce the non-spread, run-only approach dead. But it isn't. And after Johnson ran through the ACC last year, he's not about to worry how his opponents are preparing for him this season. He trusts his system.
"I forgot a long time ago about how teams are going to prepare for us," Johnson says. "We've been doing it this way for 26 years, so I have to stick to my belief that if we can execute it, they can't stop it. There's no secret to how we're going to line up. It's not like those guys can't find the tape on me in terms of what we're going to do."
What he should do is put the ball in the hands of star tailback
Jonathan Dwyer. As a sophomore, Dwyer finished 12th in the nation in rushing with 1,395 yards, but it was what he did on first down that was telling. At home, on 54 attempts, he
averaged 11.1 yards per carry, moving from first down to first down.
Tech's offense -- under the leadership of returning junior quarterback
Josh Nesbitt -- isn't a complete one-trick pony. It can run in a lot of directions and get a lot of people involved. Consider that Dwyer's 6.98 yards per carry was over a yard less than freshman
Roddy Jones. The kid from Stone Mountain, Ga., went for 8.5 yards whenever he carried the ball.
But it's not just early first downs that moved Tech forward. The team was second in the country in second-half rushing last year, at nearly 2,000 yards. The Jackets averaged nearly 6 yards per carry in the third and fourth quarters.
The bottom line: Tech is set up to be the best rushing team in the country, and even if the team has to deal with some injuries on the O-line, Johnson says, "All the added reps for other guys will add a lot."
Now on to the concerns.
Despite the offensive plaudits, Tech simply wasn't dominating on the scoreboard. They outscored opponents by only 4.1 points a game (24.4 to 20.3) for the year, and on those rare occasions when the running game needed a boost from a little passing, it got ugly.
Last year, Tech was 116th of 119 D-1 teams in passing. You can shrug it off, as Johnson tends to, but having even a hint of an aerial threat would help. Terrible passing teams that make an effort to improve usually gain a W or two. To that end, Tech did land Jeremy Moore and Stephen Hill in their 2009 haul, two receivers rated at the bottom end of the top 100 in their class.
As the caretaker of the program, Johnson knows that he earned praise last year not because Tech was so good, but because so little was expected of them. That's not the case anymore. Last year many looked at the underclassmen dotting the starting lineups and penciled in the team for 3-9. This year, the team returns 19 players who've made starts. So much for low expectations sneaking up on them again.
Still, the team will need to improve their sixth-place standing in the ACC in both total defense and points allowed, though an even better offense might offset that. Johnson says defensive end Derrick Morgan might have been the unit's best all-around player last year, and he'll return, along with seven or eight other starters
Tech "has always been good," the coach insists, again, not trying to soak expectations, "The challenge is taking it to the next level -- becoming elite." If that happens, it won't be through gimmicks. "The No. 1 thing we always concern ourselves with is how to create a hunger," he says. If the coach is hungry enough to diversify his system -- even just a little -- the results could say even more.
will be crapping all over themselves in disbelief when GT swarms through this season!! ALL THE WAY TO THE BIG SHOW!!! 