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Friday, December 7, 2007
Johnson will get it done at Georgia Tech
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Paul Johnson is a low-key country boy from Western North Carolina who tells you exactly what he thinks—even if it stings a little bit. As a result, people have underestimated Johnson for most of his adult life.
If you play Georgia Tech in football, to underestimate Johnson would be a mistake. A big mistake.
Johnson took over as Georgia Tech’s head football coach at 5:30 p.m. on Friday and this much I can promise you. There will be no doubt about who is in charge on The Flats. Johnson is a very good football coach who has simply won everywhere he has ever been and has been waiting a long time for this opportunity. And he is going to make the most of it.
Johnson will be well paid at Georgia Tech but it’s not about the money. If it was about the money, he could have gone to SMU and made more. The big money boys in Dallas made it clear they would give him basically whatever he wanted to come to Big D and take the SMU program back to prominence.
But Johnson took the Georgia Tech job because he knew this. If he goes 13-0 at SMU he MIGHT get into a BCS bowl. If he goes 13-0 at Georgia Tech there is a pretty good chance he’ll play for the national championship.
Johnson knows there are some issues to deal with at Georgia Tech. The academic folks on The Hill can be hard to deal with from time to time. The athletic association isn’t exactly swimming in money. There is always freshman calculus, which every player must take, and a limited curriculum.
And there is the big state university in Athens whose football program is clicking on all cylinders right now. Recruiting against them is never easy but here’s a hint: Move Heaven and Earth to keep Giff Smith on the staff. Smith has helped to build a recruiting apparatus that should be maintained.
But Paul Johnson, you should know, is a man who does not lack for confidence. We’re talking about a guy who has won 43 games in the last five years at NAVY! We’re talking about a guy who broke a 43-game losing streak to Notre Dame. He’s a good coach and he knows he’s a good coach.
He’ll assemble a strong staff. Will defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta stay? It’s hard to say. But if he does, the combination of Johnson’s offense and Tenuta’s defense will be very hard to beat.
Johnson will also start the process of installing an offense that will look more like West Virginia and Oregon that what you saw at Navy. He ran the triple option at Navy because, with the athletes he could get, it gave Johnson the best opportunity to win. With ACC-caliber athletes he can do more. Josh Nesbitt, start watching film of Pat White (West Virginia) and Dennis Dixon (Oregon). That is your future.
Is Georgia Tech going to beat Georgia right out of the gate under Johnson? Probably not. But this guy knows how to coach and he knows how to win. Paul Johnson will get it done at Georgia Tech. The only variable, as Howard Schnellenberger once said, is time.
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These youngsters should have won the Heisman
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Saturday in New York a sophomore may win the Heisman Trophy for the first time ever as Florida quarterback Tim Tebow is a co-favorite with Arkansas running back Darren McFadden, a junior. There has always been some hesitancy to give the Heisman to a freshman or sophomore, but there have been many over the years who were deserving of the award. Here are just five:
1. Herschel Walker, freshman, RB, Georgia, 1980: In his rookie year at Georgia, Herschel was the best football player I have ever seen. He ran for 1,616 yards (5.9 average) and 15 touchdowns. He was a human highlight film who led Georgia to the national championship. George Rogers of South Carolina led the nation in rushing with 1,781 yards on a pretty good team but lost the head to head match-up with Walker in Athens. Walker finished third as a freshman, second to Marcus Allen of Southern Cal as a sophomore, and won the Heisman as a junior in 1982.
2. Darren McFadden, sophomore, RB, Arkansas, 2006: He finished second last season as a sophomore and should have won it after rushing for 1,647 yards on a team that had ANOTHER 1,000-yard rusher in Felix Jones. He averaged 5.8 yards per carry. Ohio State QB Troy Smith won and had the edge because he played on the nation’s No. 1 team. The fact that McFadden was on so many of the 900-plus ballots last year may give him an edge over Tebow in this year’s voting.
3. Rex Grossman, sophomore, QB, Florida, 2001: Grossman had a monster year in what turned out to be Steve Spurrier’s last season as coach. He set a Florida single game record when he threw for 464 yards against LSU. Grossman finished second to Nebraska quarterback Eric Crouch and was, at the time, only the fifth sophomore to finish in the top two for the award. Completed 259 of 395 passes (65.6 percent) for 3,896 yards and 34 touchdowns. Grossman was the Associated Press national player of the year.
4. Emmitt Smith, freshman, RB, Florida, 1987: In 1987 Smith led the SEC in rushing with 1,341 yards, which was also the Florida record for a freshman. Played sparingly in Florida’s first two games of the 1987 season and then, in his first college start, ran for 224 yards against Alabama. He went over 1,000 yards in only seven games, which was faster than Herschel Walker or Tony Dorsett. Tim Brown of Notre Dame won and Smith finished 9th. Smith went on to become the leading rusher in NFL history.
5. Marshall Faulk, sophomore, RB, San Diego State, 1992: Faulk led the nation in rushing as a freshman (1,429) and as a sophomore (1,630). He is one of only a handful of players to rush for over 3,000 yards in their first two seasons of college football. He finished second Miami quarterback Gino Torretta in the Heisman voting.
