The original intent of an interview last Friday with Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson was to discuss the impact of changes within the program, such as changes in the coaching (notably the replacement of defensive coordinator Al Groh with Ted Roof) and recruiting staffs and a new athletic director in Mike Bobinski. As is often the case with the free-speaking coach, the conversation ventured into other topics as Johnson gave his perspective on his team, the season and his contract.
Questions and answers were edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: With a number of changes in the coaching staff, additions to the recruiting staff and a new athletic director, who, obviously isn’t around the team much, but influences things, does it feel like a breath of fresh air or anything like that?
A: Honestly, there's really no difference to me. I think Ted's personality is a little closer to mine than probably Al's was. But other than that, I deal with him the same way I dealt with Al. I pretty much give him some leeway to coach and let him do it. (Player personnel director) Matt (Griffin) came in for Liam (Klein). He has some new ideas, but a lot of it is what we've been doing.
And the biggest difference, I guess, AD-wise is (former AD) Dan (Radakovich) used to come up here probably three, four times a week and sat down where you are and we just (talked). He’d vent to me about things going on and we just talked. Mike and I don’t know each other well enough for that to happen. So Mike leaves me alone, lets me do my job. I don’t ever see him.
Q: Given that you and Ted Roof are more similar in personality, how does that impact the chemistry of the staff?
A: I don't think it alters the chemistry of the staff much. I think that he's outgoing. I think he coaches aggressively. He gets on guys, and he's a yeller. I think he expects them to play with effort; it's more a college mentality, I think. And I think all of our coaches are coaching. That's probably the biggest difference. He lets the guys coach.
There’s no question who’s in charge, but you’ve got to let guys coach. That’s kind of the way I’ve always tried to do it. It’d be real easy for me to go into every quarterback meeting and sit there, but for one, it’d be hard to keep a quarterback coach because nobody’d want to do it, and two, I wouldn’t want it to be that way if I was the quarterback coach.
Q: This is kind of an odd question, but how does it work when you decide, I want to talk to Ted Roof (about the opening). Do you have his number and call him?
A: He actually called me.
Q: Oh, really.
A: I've known Ted forever. We played. I was the head coach at Navy, Ted was the head coach at Duke. The first time he called, we just started talking. He goes, 'Do you know what you're going to do?' And I said, 'No, not really. I've got some thoughts.' And I said, 'Would you be interested?' He said, 'Yeah, I might be.' And we started talking.
Q: From that point until you actually completed the deal, how long did that take?
A: Oh, I don't know. Probably a week, three or four days. Five days.
Q: Were you at all surprised that he was calling?
A: No.
Q: Would you have called him?
A: I don't know. I might have. I didn't think about it. I hadn't thought about it. I had interviewed a couple guys and I had one guy I liked a lot and I was probably going to hire him, but I felt like (Roof) was a good fit. He'd been here, he'd played here, he wanted to get back to Atlanta for his boys. He wanted them to go to school here in Gwinnett where he went to school. And I've always respected him as a coach. I thought it was a good fit.
Q: It seems to me, because the division is so open with Miami, Virginia Tech, North Carolina and you, that you could win the division but just as easily finish third.
A: Everybody talks about an easy schedule. Our schedule is not easy. By no stretch of the imagination could it be easy.
Q: Because of the way it’s set up?
A: Because of the way it's set up. And you've got not only that (but) Duke was in a bowl game, North Carolina was bowl-qualified and could have gone. Virginia Tech. Miami could have been, BYU was. That's five. Syracuse (is) six, Pitt seven, Clemson eight, Georgia nine. You've got nine (expletive) bowl teams on that schedule. Everybody's (saying), 'Oh, well, with that schedule, you should win nine games.'
Really?
Q: Is this your most talented team, one through 85 (meaning the roster of scholarship players)?
A: I think as a group, 1 through 85, it's probably the most talented, but I don't know that 1 through 5 would be. It could be. I mean, who knows? (Quarterback) Vad Lee's a sophomore. Before he leaves, who knows? You don't know until you watch them play. (Linebacker) Jabari Hunt-Days is a sophomore. I think he's probably got NFL ability. But he's a sophomore. Now, who's to say that by the time he's a senior, he's not every bit as good as (2009 ACC defensive player of the year) Derrick Morgan? Right now he's not, but he might be. I'm sure Derrick wasn't that great as a sophomore, either.
That’s why I say it’s hard to gauge. Like the offensive line — hands down, not even close, this’ll be the best group we’ve ever had, if they’re all healthy. Now, if you’re missing three of them, you know, (it may not be).
Q: Did you get a sense that the players worked any harder this summer than in the past?
A: I think that they worked hard. You know, this time of year, playing devil's advocate, you can go find any football team and they've all worked hard, they've all rededicated. If they've got a new coach, the new coach is great. And then you start playing.
And then if it doesn’t go well, the excuses comes out. But it’s like, this time of year, everybody’s excited, everybody’s undefeated and they’ve all worked harder than the other crowd and this year we’ve got great leadership. I hope that’s the case, but you’ve got to play a few games. That’s why I say (preseason) polls are useless. Until you’ve played four games, you don’t know.
Q: Would you describe yourself as cynical?
A: I'd describe myself as a realist.
Q: I don’t like asking, but your contract ends in 2016.
A: I don't even know.
Q: So you’re not giving it a lot of thought.
A: Ain't never worried about it before. Ain't worried about it now.
Q: I kind of figured you might say something like that.
A: I mean, I've coached 34 years without ever worrying about it. My take on it has always been, if I'm not doing a good enough job, and you find somebody that you think can do better, by all means. When did you say it ended? That's good for me to know.
Q: Are you serious?
A: I don't know (when it ends).
Q: I believe it’s 2016.
A: OK, so that'd be four years. That's about what everybody's got, I would imagine. I'd doubt there's very many coaches with more than four years.
Q: There’s probably a few, but not many.
A: Well, they just took a job maybe. But most deals are four years, when you take the job. Five years. So I don't worry about it.
