Tech's Johnson calls allegations "a joke"

By Doug Roberson

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson said no one from the ACC office called to inform him his players made illegal blocks in his team's 28-23 defeat of Virginia Tech two weeks ago.

Virginia Tech safety Kam Chancellor told the Norfolk, Va., Virginian-Pilot on Sunday that he was blocked below the waist at least four times during the game. e Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said one of the blocks, which he termed “dangerous,” occurred on Josh Nesbitt’s touchdown run in the fourth quarter that sealed the win.

In videos of the play, it appears that Chancellor was cleanly blocked.

“That’s a joke,” Johnson said Monday. “Put the tape on and watch. Tyler Melton cracked the free safety. He doesn’t even block him. He shields him.

“They got out-schemed. So it’s illegal to out-scheme them, I guess.”

Over the summer, Chancellor said that he thought he had picked up some of Georgia Tech’s tendencies on film and could predetermine where the ball was going before the snap. ESPN singled him out after the game at Bobby Dodd Stadium on Oct. 17 and showed replays of several instances where Chancellor did not seem to know who had the ball.

“We blocked them the same way we blocked them a year ago and they weren’t complaining when they won,” Johnson said.

Had Tech done anything illegal during the game, Johnson said he would have heard from the conference the following week. After the Sept. 10 Clemson game, when the Yellow Jackets used a fake field goal call to score a touchdown, Johnson said the league called to notify him that play was illegal.

Each week, ACC supervisor of officials Doug Rhoads reviews every game, with special attention to the plays that coaches request for review. Beamer forwarded some of the disuputed blocks last week. Rhoads said he typically slots each play into one of three categories: those that were correct, those that were judgment calls and those they got wrong.

Rhoads would not specify where he slotted the four plays that Virginia Tech disputed. He also said conversation between him and coaches are supposed to remain confidential.

Johnson said he turned in at least 12 plays from the same game in which he said his defensive players were held. He said the ACC agreed on half of them.

"It’s part of the game,” Johnson said.