Paul Johnson and retirement

bonham said:
I got about halfway through that and got bored just reading it. PJ has got to be bored out of his mind actually living it. Going from head coach at a Power 5 school to doing nothing has got to be tough.
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You missed the good parts. He’s doing consulting work from middle school to NFL. Lots of golf, too.
 
wesleyd21 said:
Paul Johnson had a great run at Georgia Tech during his time here. Could’ve been even better with a stronger fundraising-oriented Athletic Director.
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so true... or, perhaps some of the woes we’re experiencing now are closely tied to said Athletic Director.
 
wesleyd21 said:
Paul Johnson had a great run at Georgia Tech during his time here. Could’ve been even better with a stronger fundraising-oriented Athletic Director.
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He needed better PR too. We did very little to shake the "high school offense" tag. Players were convinced they couldn't make the NFL playing in our offense. Even elite tailbacks, almost guaranteed to be 1,000 yard rushers, didn't show up. As the years went by, we got less and less talented. OL and DL suffered. We needed someone who could go into a home of a 4* and convince him to play our option. It didn't happen. Recruiting was really falling off.
 
JJacket said:
He needed better PR too. We did very little to shake the "high school offense" tag. Players were convinced they couldn't make the NFL playing in our offense. Even elite tailbacks, almost guaranteed to be 1,000 yard rushers, didn't show up. As the years went by, we got less and less talented. OL and DL suffered. We needed someone who could go into a home of a 4* and convince him to play our option. It didn't happen. Recruiting was really falling off.
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Yes this was the unintended consequence - we never fought hard enough to dispel this.
We were getting worse on recruiting.
 
coit said:
Doing nothing? Doesn't really sound like you read it. Dude is living the life.
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agreed. and sounds like the family is happy too
not surprised to read about his stock trading. didn't know he'd be that open about. used to check his stocks with him in his office back in the day. along with telling each other a bunch of jokes you don't tell in Sunday school
 
JJacket said:
He needed better PR too. We did very little to shake the "high school offense" tag. Players were convinced they couldn't make the NFL playing in our offense. Even elite tailbacks, almost guaranteed to be 1,000 yard rushers, didn't show up. As the years went by, we got less and less talented. OL and DL suffered. We needed someone who could go into a home of a 4* and convince him to play our option. It didn't happen. Recruiting was really falling off.
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Paul Johnson also hired people who only had triple option experience. That’s drastically limiting your coaching search....assuming he wanted offensive coaches who could actually recruit. Exhibit A... Sewak was an awful recruiter.
 
RamblinWreck92 said:
He went from coaching a high-school offense to a middle-school defense.
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Yeah but is the middle school defense practicing against a high school offense? Wait a minute....

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Am I the only one who caught this?
When coaching search firms inquired about his interest before this year’s hiring cycle, Johnson said he told them it would have to be a “special situation, and I don’t want to get into another situation where you’re fighting with one hand tied behind your back.”
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johncu said:
I saw it. He's been pretty clear that he was not supported by MBob while at GT.
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Yes, but honestly even with DRad (and maybe Todd? the overlap was so brief) CPJ not infrequently noted the structural disadvantages against him. Sometimes he referred to funding, plain and simple, but other times he would be a lot more ambiguous about what he was referring to. "[Clemson's] just a whole 'nother deal. You're comparing apples to oranges." or "I mean, nobody's going to confuse the way we do it here and they way they do it there [in Tuscaloosa]."

In those moments he gave the impression that he was hamstrung not just by inadequate fundraising and poor administration, but by the entire culture of Tech football – smaller stadium or smaller fanbase or urban campus or fewer hot co-eds or who knows.

I've definitely gotten the impression that CPJ thought that his success at Navy – which in some respects has a lot of the limitations of Tech football without many of its advantages – would mean he would do even better at Tech. Then he was frustrated and surprised when he started turning in mediocre performances. And his explanations for the mediocrity (things like: "Recruiting is a two way street. They have to want to come here.") began to sound very resigned and Braine-like.
 
You guys make it sound like he has something to apologize for. He does not. He had a good to great career at Ga Tech, won a lot of games, won big games but at times was a bit frustrated he couldn't do more and felt like money held him back and didn't love all his bosses along the way. But he ain't apologizing for anything. He is now in his 60's and had grown tired of the day-to-day battles for 40 years. Sounds normal to me and he is happy now taking it easy. Pretty much sums up a lot of our careers, had good careers but wish we might have got this break or another along the way to even have done better but all-in-all our career was good and now ready to take care of Mom and the family. I think he is not bored and is done. I, like him, wish Tech could have given him more resources to work with like UGA and Clemson had available. We will never know if it would have helped recruiting - oh well.
 
I found interesting he watches all the Tech games. Would love to hear his comments but understand why he won't do that.
 
18in32 said:
Yes, but honestly even with DRad (and maybe Todd? the overlap was so brief) CPJ not infrequently noted the structural disadvantages against him. Sometimes he referred to funding, plain and simple, but other times he would be a lot more ambiguous about what he was referring to. "[Clemson's] just a whole 'nother deal. You're comparing apples to oranges." or "I mean, nobody's going to confuse the way we do it here and they way they do it there [in Tuscaloosa]."

In those moments he gave the impression that he was hamstrung not just by inadequate fundraising and poor administration, but by the entire culture of Tech football – smaller stadium or smaller fanbase or urban campus or fewer hot co-eds or who knows.

I've definitely gotten the impression that CPJ thought that his success at Navy – which in some respects has a lot of the limitations of Tech football without many of its advantages – would mean he would do even better at Tech. Then he was frustrated and surprised when he started turning in mediocre performances. And his explanations for the mediocrity (things like: "Recruiting is a two way street. They have to want to come here.") began to sound very resigned and Braine-like.
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He’s quick to point out the obvious, which is GT is a tougher gig to win because of academics and budget limitations. But I’ve never heard him admit that the TO system hurt his ability to recruit better players— which is just as obvious.
 
Tampa Jacket said:
He’s quick to point out the obvious, which is GT is a tougher gig to win because of academics and budget limitations. But I’ve never heard him admit that the TO system hurt his ability to recruit better players— which is just as obvious.
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The argument about the system hurting recruiting is probably valid to an extent. He would probably argue that the trade off is that you sign some really good athletes that don't fit into other schools' systems. A while back, CPJ made some comment about Tech's current recruiting that indicated he was offended by the notion that he didn't work hard to recruit. I think he and his staff worked as hard as anybody; they just weren't very good at it. Salesmanship is a talent that not everyone has, and CGC has it.
 
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