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Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2008 > September > 30
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Johnson better than Gailey for Tech
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Under Chan Gailey, Georgia Tech loses on Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium against a significantly improved Duke team that nevertheless shouldn’t beat this group of Yellow Jackets.
Under Paul Johnson, well, let’s just say his streaking players will continue their rise in his first season at Tech with a 4-1 record by the end of the evening.
You can feel it.
You can hear it.
You also can see it.
That’s because Johnson is the epitome of whatever “it” is that gives the Yellow Jacket Nation the confidence that one of his teams won’t get smacked into embarrassment by a foe that should just get smacked.
It’s the little things that make Johnson better than Gailey in these types of games. Take, for instance, Johnson’s thoughts on Tuesday at the Edge Center regarding Duke playing his Navy teams for six years before joining Tech. “Those kids [on Duke] have seen this [triple-option] offense a lot, so it’s going to help them,” said Johnson, easing into a quick smile. “I’ve also seen them, so I think it will help me.”
It will. Despite new philosophies on offense and defense, Johnson has watched his young Jackets manage victories against Jacksonville State, Boston College (on the road) and Mississippi State. They also dropped a close game in Blacksburg against surging Virginia Tech.
Whether Gailey does all of that and then beats Duke is questionable.
Now don’t get me wrong. Contrary to the opinions of Gailey’s slew of detractors, he wasn’t overmatched during his six years at Tech through the 2007 season. He was a decent-to-good college football coach. It’s just that Johnson is a good-to-great college football coach. That means his Jackets usually will have the focus they need for these types of games instead of whatever they had under Gailey.
“The difference is, Paul wills them to win, and he won’t tolerate them not playing to perfection,” said Dorsey Watson, 68, a Tech fan since the late 1950s. He drives to games with his wife in a 1976 Dodge RV that he calls “The Buzz Mobile.” Added Watson, shaking his head over the clunkers for Gailey in these types of games, “There were thousands of them. Well, maybe not that many, but it seems that way.”
How about Gailey’s first season in 2002, when the Jackets fell to that Wake Forest of awfulness before it became this Wake Forest of significance? There was the Duke fiasco two years later when that Duke was the antithesis of this one. No way the Jackets should get hammered at North Carolina in 2004 after surviving Clemson in Death Valley the week before. In subsequent years, there were silly losses for the Jackets to underdog teams from North Carolina State and Virginia.
Plus, although Boston College entered last year’s game with Matt Ryan, the Falcons’ eventual No. 3 pick in the NFL draft, Tech was ranked 15th in the nation at the time to Boston College’s 21.
Tech lost by 17 — at home.
We’re back to Johnson, who was asked about whether he discussed goals with his Jackets during their just-completed off-week. “My big picture is the Duke game. That’s the only picture [Tech players] need to worry about right now,” Johnson said. “You better take care of your business at home. It’s a conference game. It’s a team that’s 3-1 that’s coming in. That’s more than enough for us to worry about.
“When you start looking ahead, you’ll be looking back in misery.”
Ask Gailey’s Jackets.
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