“I’m not going to just go on them (the players) just like that,” said Johnson, who concludes his first year at Georgia Tech with Dec. 31’s Chick-fil-A Bowl. “We’ve laid a good foundation here. We’re excited about the future. I’ve got a great relationship with (athletics director) Dan (Radakovich) and the athletics association and the administration.”
Upon entering a ballroom at downtown Atlanta’s Marriott Marquis, Johnson shared his thoughts on the supposed Auburn coaching search, reiterating the fact that he was pleased to be with the Yellow Jackets.
“Every job I’ve ever taken felt like that would be the job I’d be at forever,” Johnson said. “An old coach once told me one time, ‘You don’t always have to take every job that comes your way.’ I always thought that was sage advice.”
The 51-year-old head coach said he often remembers the words of former older coaches and credited that piece of advice to the late Erk Russell, the former Georgia Southern head coach under whom he was an assistant.
In addition to wanting to stay at Georgia Tech for football reasons, he has other familial obligations which he felt kept him in Atlanta, he said.
“This is the place where we — my wife and I — wanted to be. We wanted to live back in the South,” Johnson said. “So there’s a zillion reasons why you don’t move besides the welfare of the players on your team.”
