AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2007 > December > 07
Friday, December 7, 2007
Coaching Search Over
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Well…its finally over…and it looks like we got the best available coach possible…even if we paid a little more that expected.
Paul Johnson was really the only candidate that turned my head.
Consider:
Will Muschamp? There was no way we could hire a UGA guy (lacking head coach experience) after firing a winning coach because he couldn’t beat UGA.
Chris Hatcher? There was no way we could roll the dice and gamble on a guy without any D-1 coaching experience…same as Muschamp.
Charlie Strong? Again…no head coaching experience and bringing a defensive minded head coach in would completely flush any chance of keeping Tenuta on staff.
Rick Nuheisel? You can’t gamble on a guy with that much NCAA baggage when you are coming off probation.
So…really…Paul Johnson was the only valid option out there for us.
He won at Georgia Southern…and he won BIG. The Eagles dominated when he was there…DOMINATED. (My mom is a GSU grad, so we followed them a bit as I grew up.)
He won at Navy…turning around a program that doesn’t recruit blue chip talent and which has stringent academic requirements. Navy is a TOUGH place to coach…and Johnson WON there.
And he’ll win at Georgia Tech…the only real question is how? What sort of offense are we going to see next season?
Spread/Option… I’ll be honest with you…my favorite football motto is “Run the Ball, Stop the Run, Control the Clock, WIN”.
So if Paul Johnson can put together an option/spread offense using Josh Nesbitt, Jonathan Dwyer, Roddy Jones, and the rest of our offensive weapons…well, that sounds like my kind of offense.
Johnson runs the type of offense that pummels opponents and keeps their defense on the field. I like that…it means you control the clock, tempo, and ultimately the game.
Staff Changes? With Johnson obviously being an offensive guy…does it mean we’ll keep Tenuta?
Johnson’s style of offense would seem to play to Tenuta’s strengths. Just imagine how much better our defense would be if our offense were able to grind out first downs and give them breathers? Tenuta’s guys come come out blitzing and attacking on every down of every possession…because when the offense got the ball back the odds would be very good that they’d hold it for a good long while.
So which coaches should Johnson consider keeping? The following three coaches are critical components that I would like to see retained.
I want to keep Giff Smith. Giff has ties to Johnson from their Georgia Southern days and he is critical to our recruiting efforts. He’s a “must keep” guy on the defensive staff.
I want to keep Brian Jean-Mary. He’s done an ASTOUNDING job with our linebackers since joining this staff. We ALWAYS have very good linebackers and Coach BJ is responsible for much of that success.
I want to keep Charles Kelly on Special Teams. We had one of the best special teams units in the country this past year. Coach Kelly did an incredible job, repairing our issues from last season.
Beating UGA I think the new Coach gets it…he’s been engaged in one of the biggest rivalries in American sports the past several years. Army vs Navy is huge and Johnson never lost that game…going 6-0 during his tenure at Navy.
Our new coach understands rivalry games and that may be the most important change of all for our program.
Go Jackets!
THWG
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