Honest Thoughts on Tech Football

[18in32]

Good post, one question.

And what are their records? Are they head-scratcher free?

Edit, guess that was two questions

I'm not sure I understand your question. Schools like UF and FSU and UTenn and UTex are all having poor to mediocre years, despite budgets and academics and stadiums and fan support we envy.

My point was that we can know that we're achieving at or near the peak of our potential when we've minimized those head-scratchers. There will be plenty of games when we're outmanned because the other team is full of five-stars, or has a genius coach, or what-have-you. But we'll know we've found a good coach, one who *coaches* to the nth degree of his and our potential, when we can *understand* our losses. (Did CPJ explain the Duke loss by saying 'physical superiority cancels all theories'? No.)

What happened at Duke wasn't that Duke athletes are simply bigger, stronger and faster than us. What happened at Duke wasn't that Duke coaches are paid better and manipulate the x's and o's better than us. What happened at Duke was some kind of psychological failure — a failure of our coaches to understand, appreciate and teach — the minds of college kids. There are no academic, budgetary, recruiting, etc. limitations that created that problem for us.

But the coaches have to own up to it, dissect it, and plan for it. CPJ can't just say 'they gotta motivate themselves'. It may not be a matter of rah-rah speeches — but there is something that goes on in the locker room, in the weight room, on the practice field, etc. that creates an atmosphere of intentionality, achievement, effort, success.

Compare all the coaches that went between Spurrier and Cutcliffe at Duke. Do you really think the difference was x's and o's or recruits or whatever? The difference was that ineffable thing called leadership that separates an outstanding manager or politician or coach or whatever from a merely decent one. And that's the only part of CPJ — not his effort, not his system, not whatever else — that worries me. Does he *inspire* his employees and players?

 

[LeonardWood]

It's been 10 years - do you see any reason to think CPJ is going to make changes to anything?

He's fired two defensive coordinators. Hired ST coaches.

He installed a brand new package for a passing QB, who ended up pussing out. The following year we went back to basics and put together one of the greatest offenses that college football has ever seen.

"He's stubborn" is mostly a myth. The only time it might be true is in some of the play calling, where he insists on making the correct calls and expecting wavering players to make the plays.

 

[18in32]

To answer 18in 32, I do think the Coach Johnson is working very hard and very long hours. I just wonder if he isn't spending those long hours working primarily as an offensive coordinator, and not as a traditional head coach, who supervises the offense, defense, special teams and recruiting coordinators. I have the feeling that his solution to recruiting is to have such total mastery of a unique offensive scheme, that he can win without stronger recruiting. And he's done that a lot, and always pointed it out when he did it.

As for comparing our trajectory under Coach Ross and Coach Johnson, I'd say this. Coach Ross went 2-9 (0-6), 3-8 (0-7), 7-4 (4-3), 11-0-1 (6-0), & 8-5 (5-2). To me, that's an upward trajectory. In 1991, he lost to #8 Penn State by 12, to #5 Clemson by 2, to #17 NC State by 7, to South Carolina by 9, & to Georgia by 3. He finished that season by beating #17 Stanford 18-17 in the Aloha Bowl. To me, that's a pretty solid season.

The trajectory under Coach Johnson is more troubling. It seems like we are getting physically weaker and losing to worse teams (that we should beat) more. It feels like our offense is working less and our defense and special teams are inconsistent at best and unsound at worst. I think that we are sliding back, not moving forward. In short, I think the 10 year experiment is beginning to show signs of not working.

I think you're just heavily influenced by the Duke loss. I'm less taken with the idea that we're "trending down" and more worried that we're not trending any direction at all. We're up, we're down, we're going in circles. I want to sense progression from year to year, instead of the dice roll that we seem to get now.

BTW, in 1991 we started the season ranked #8, with serious hopes of another NC championship run. We brought a lot of firepower back. We ended up finishing unranked. We lost to UGA and beat Stanford in a pretty minor bowl. In the abstract, that was an OK season... but coming after 1990, it was quite disappointing.

 

[LeonardWood]

I'm not sure I understand your question. Schools like UF and FSU and UTenn and UTex are all having poor to mediocre years, despite budgets and academics and stadiums and fan support we envy.

My point was that we can know that we're achieving at or near the peak of our potential when we've minimized those head-scratchers. There will be plenty of games when we're outmanned because the other team is full of five-stars, or has a genius coach, or what-have-you. But we'll know we've found a good coach, one who *coaches* to the nth degree of his and our potential, when we can *understand* our losses. (Did CPJ explain the Duke loss by saying 'physical superiority cancels all theories'? No.)

What happened at Duke wasn't that Duke athletes are simply bigger, stronger and faster than us. What happened at Duke wasn't that Duke coaches are paid better and manipulate the x's and o's better than us. What happened at Duke was some kind of psychological failure — a failure of our coaches to understand, appreciate and teach — the minds of college kids. There are no academic, budgetary, recruiting, etc. limitations that created that problem for us.

But the coaches have to own up to it, dissect it, and plan for it. CPJ can't just say 'they gotta motivate themselves'. It may not be a matter of rah-rah speeches — but there is something that goes on in the locker room, in the weight room, on the practice field, etc. that creates an atmosphere of intentionality, achievement, effort, success.

Compare all the coaches that went between Spurrier and Cutcliffe at Duke. Do you really think the difference was x's and o's or recruits or whatever? The difference was that ineffable thing called leadership that separates an outstanding manager or politician or coach or whatever from a merely decent one. And that's the only part of CPJ — not his effort, not his system, not whatever else — that worries me. Does he *inspire* his employees and players?

Yeah, I just reread it. Dumb question, was walking and typing and misread it, which is pretty dumb considering that I quoted it.

 

[RamblinWreck92]

He's fired two defensive coordinators. Hired ST coaches.

He installed a brand new package for a passing QB, who ended up pussing out. The following year we went back to basics and put together one of the greatest offenses that college football has ever seen.

"He's stubborn" is mostly a myth. The only time it might be true is in some of the play calling, where he insists on making the correct calls and expecting wavering players to make the plays.

Our O is the same as it was in 2008, sans the talent. We still don't have short-passing routes and, with the exception of Butker's years here, our STs have been mostly terrible. As has the D.

The idea that he's some sort of agent of change is a complete myth.

 

[LeonardWood]

The idea that he's some sort of agent of change is a complete myth.

At some point you need to take the training wheels off and start arguing against stuff other people actually say rather than things out just make up

 

[yellowbritchies]

Excuses,excuses,excuses. That's all most of the johnson believers can come up with to explain his coaching inabilities. As the disappointing seasons continue to roll, they will only come up with other excuses to defend him.

 

[Dirty Jacket]

He's fired two defensive coordinators. Hired ST coaches.

He installed a brand new package for a passing QB, who ended up pussing out. The following year we went back to basics and put together one of the greatest offenses that college football has ever seen.

"He's stubborn" is mostly a myth. The only time it might be true is in some of the play calling, where he insists on making the correct calls and expecting wavering players to make the plays.

I side with you on this argument, I think your points are all valid and level headed and not emotionally charged, and most importantly factually based. But I do think Paul is stubborn and is not able to accept the blame and spreads the blame a little too often. It is not always poor execution, sometimes it is actually a bad play call. No attack on you, again, I basically agree with everything you say. For all the CPJ haters, name a coach who is better suited to lead Tech and I will list 10 schools that will offer him more money and a friendlier athletic atmosphere in 2 years if he succeeds.

 

[LeonardWood]

Excuses,excuses,excuses. That's all most of the johnson believers can come up with to explain his coaching inabilities. As the disappointing seasons continue to roll, they will only come up with other excuses to defend him.

Dumb post.

 

[TechRush]

Speaking of inspiration... It is what it is inspires no one.

 

[RamblinWreck92]

Speaking of inspiration... It is what it is inspires no one.

It's a milk-toast statement made by people who don't think they can change the situation.

 

[RamblinWreck92]

At some point you need to take the training wheels off and start arguing against stuff other people actually say rather than things out just make up

The guy doesn't change. Installing that diamond formation for a few games isn't really changing things up - more of an experiment than change. Like you said, we 'went back to basics' immediately thereafter.

 

[LeonardWood]

Like you said, we 'went back to basics', beat UGA and won an Orange Bowl immediately thereafter.

Fixed

 

[RamblinWreck92]

Fixed

and have lost to Duke 3 times, 'back to basics'.

I know, I know: "IIWII".

 

[18in32]

It's a milk-toast statement made by people who don't think they can change the situation.

*milquetoast*

 

[18in32]

Excuses,excuses,excuses. That's all most of the johnson believers can come up with to explain his coaching inabilities. As the disappointing seasons continue to roll, they will only come up with other excuses to defend him.

If the CPJ defenders only come up with excuses to defend the failures... what do the CPJ deniers come up with to attack the successes? Did we beat UGA 2 of the past 3 seasons bc we had more talent? Did we beat Miss St pretty handily in the OB because they didn't have time to prepare for our scheme?

CPJ's record has been too mixed for 'either side' to have an obvious argument here. For every mediocre season that CPJ suffers, he seems to come up with a good one to get off the hot seat.

 

[LeonardWood]

and have lost to Duke 3 times, 'back to basics'.

I know, I know: "IIWII".

The CPJ hater arguments are so ööööing weak. It's pathetic.

 

[Rodzilla]

Miami lost to Pitt tonight. I guess they should try a different offense, they're trending downwards.

 

[donsue]

If the CPJ defenders only come up with excuses to defend the failures... what do the CPJ deniers come up with to attack the successes? Did we beat UGA 2 of the past 3 seasons bc we had more talent? Did we beat Miss St pretty handily in the OB because they didn't have time to prepare for our scheme?

CPJ's record has been too mixed for 'either side' to have an obvious argument here. For every mediocre season that CPJ suffers, he seems to come up with a good one to get off the hot seat.

There are a number of us who are neither "haters" nor "defenders". Paul Johnson has certainly had some successes, and has had Tech competitive in most games. But I will never concede that he and/or the triple option offense are the pinnacle for Tech. For every success, there is an equal amount of limitation.

 

[Keyser Soze]

It seems like with Johnson our highs are higher and lows are lower, but we beat UGA more. I’ll take that over 7-5 with a lose to UGA.