Mark and Nancy Hodges spent their Thursday evening listening to the future of Georgia Tech football.

They think it's a good one, and they've got the experience to judge.

"I like him," Mark Hodges, 81, said of new coach Paul Johnson. "He's a straight arrow. I like the choice."

That was hardly a minority opinion at the Cobb Galleria, the first stop on Tech's Spring Coaches Caravan, a five-site May speaking tour for Johnson and basketball coaches Paul Hewitt and MaChelle Joseph.

Johnson said his goal was: "Beat Jacksonville State, beat Georgia and everybody in between." That 12-0 ambition drew a loud ovation from the crowd of 200, but the fans also were receptive to the rest of his speech, which was long on optimism but short on promises of immediate success.

"I think you'll see a football team that's going to get better each week," Johnson said, adding that the spring was "up and down" and admitting that, on offense at least, the spring game was one of the down parts.

"After watching it, I'm amazed that there are that many people here," he said to laughs from the crowd.

The fans in the room had clearly bought in, and so have, Johnson said, the players on his roster heading into the fall. That, he said, is a reason to feel good about the future, despite the gargantuan task of installing Johnson's offense and the daunting road schedule that includes Boston College, Virginia Tech, Clemson, North Carolina and Georgia.

"When you get guys who are all in and they're committed, we can do some good things," said Johnson, looking at ease in blue blazer and khakis with a yellow (or was that gold?) shirt.

His players, by the way, will wear a home uniform with white shirts and gold pants, a bow to Tech tradition that was well received Thursday night.

Johnson, 50, didn't do speaking tours in his six seasons as coach at Navy, but he said he appeared at about "a zillion" events while at Georgia Southern.

He plans to stay busy at Tech. Johnson isn't allowed to hit the road in search of players at this spot on the recruiting calendar, but the NCAA puts no limit on his efforts at recruiting fans.

Tech already has sold 1,000 new season tickets, assistant athletics director Scott McLaren said, adding the pace has exceeded even the high set two years ago, when the home season opened against Notre Dame.

The fans Johnson spoke to Thursday night were among Tech's most loyal. Mark Hodges, for example, has held season tickets since he graduated from the institute in 1950. One key measure of Johnson's success will be how many people join Hodges on fall Saturdays at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

"I think," Hodges said, "they'll come."