Johnson says Tech offense good, can be better

By Doug Roberson

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson isn't worried about his spread-option offense, even if fans and foes have expressed their opinions after the season's first three games.

The familiar insults of "high school offense" popped up on message boards before the first half was even over in Miami. It's been a common refrain since the lackluster second half in the season-opener against Jacksonville State.

But Johnson is not defending the offense because he invented it, has been running it as a head coach for the past 12 seasons and calls all the plays.

He is defending it because he's right.

Despite Miami limiting the Yellow Jackets to 95 yards rushing and 228 yards total — the second lowest total during Johnson's time at Tech — the Yellow Jackets (2-1) are ahead of last year's season averages in almost every category but one (rushing) as they prepare to host North Carolina (3-0) Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium in an important ACC Coastal Division game.

So, all the offseason talk from players and coaches about how much better the offense was going to be wasn't just talk. The results are there. They haven't come with some of the drama of last year.

"That's [offense] the least of my worries right now," Johnson said. "We've got far bigger concerns than that."

Johnson uses the results against Clemson, which Tech defeated 30-27, compared to what happened to Boston College a week later, to illustrate.

"I don't know if anybody caught the Boston College-Clemson game," the coach asked. "How many first downs did they [BC] make? Four. They had 50 yards of total offense. We had 418 yards and there's something wrong with us."

That hardly mean that Johnson or his team are satisfied. Center Sean Bedford was so disappointed after the 33-17 loss to Miami that he apologized to the Yellow Jackets' following  for the way the offense has performed.

The biggest difference between the offense last year and this year is this year there have been fewer big plays (runs or passes of 20 yards or more). Last year through three games, the Jackets had 13 rushing plays and six plays covering that distance.

This year Josh Nesbitt — with help from placekicker Scott Blair 's one TD pass— has equaled last year's passing quota. The ground game, however, is averaging 29.5 yards less a game than it did last year and has just five big plays, eight fewer than at this point last season.

That, says coaches and players, comes down to execution. A-back Roddy Jones had a 32-yard touchdown called back against Miami because Kevin Cone was flagged for blocking in the back. Johnson said the penalty was the result of the player using a technique so poor that Johnson couldn't even tell you what Cone was trying to do. The result: one less touchdown and one less big play.

B-back Jonathan Dwyer tripped over a lineman's feet against Clemson when he had an open field in front of him because, he said, he didn't make the cut properly.

Another facet of execution is reading defenses, something which Tech's quarterbacks have to do every play, as they decide whether to hand the ball to the B-back, and then determine if they should pitch it to the A-back or keep it.

Nesbitt said that sometimes he has made the wrong read. Johnson said that when Nesbitt has made the right read, a block is missed. Bad blocking on the perimeter plagued the Jackets numerous times in the Miami game, particularly on pitches to the A-back.

Combine mental mistakes with physical errors and the result can be the difference between a 3-yard loss and a 30-yard gain.

"I think this has the potential to be a high-flying, high-scoring offense that's tremendously better than we were last year. But we haven't played like that," Bedford said. "That's on us to go out and execute."

Johnson said that while the offense is better, he admits he thought it would be more efficient at this point. That responsibility falls on him and his staff, he said, who need to do a better job of communicating and teaching during practices. This week, for at least one practice, Nesbitt said the coaches went back to the basic fundamentals of the offense — who lines up where, how deep the A-backs run on plays, snap counts, etc.

"I thought we would be better in every area than when this season started. I think we can," Johnson said. "We just got to get some things fixed and we've got to play better, bottom line."

CHART

Season averages from 2008, compared with averages from the first three games of 2009, with differences in the third column:

2008 2009 Difference

Scoring 24.4 28 3.6

First downs 15.3 16 .7

Net Rushing 273.2 243.7 -29.5

Rushing attempts 45.7 46 .3

Per carry average 5.6 5.3 -.3

Net Passing 99.2 137.3 38.1

Per comp. average 17.4 24.2 6.8

Total Offense 372.5 381 8.5

Average per play 6.0 6.35 .35

3rd down % 37 42 5

Red zone % 77 73 -4

Big plays (r/p) 4.8 (3.35/1.45) 3.7 (1.7/2) -1.1 (-1.65/.55)