Paul Johnson is way ahead of the game. Georgia Tech won’t play a real opponent for another 132 days — the Yellow Jackets face Boston College on Sept. 3 in Dublin — and he’s already displeased. After Tech’s spring game Saturday, he complimented the weather and the 9,300 (or so) folks who came to watch. Then he got to grousing.
“I didn’t think it looked like (the offense) wanted to be out there,” Johnson said. “That was disappointing.”
Final score: White 13, Gold 3. Justin Thomas’ precise throw to Ricky Jeune on the penultimate play of the first half yielded the day’s touchdown. Thomas is Tech’s best player by three miles. If the Jackets are to climb back above .500 after last season’s 3-9, he’ll have to be both good and inspirational.
“The quarterback’s got to be a leader,” Johnson said.
Was this a suggestion that Thomas’ motivational skills hadn’t been on display?
Johnson: “Well, there wasn’t any (leadership).”
Thomas followed Johnson to the interview table. He was asked if the first-team offense had lacked “energy.” The quarterback’s response: “I guess you could say yes or no. There was some energy, and there wasn’t some energy at times.”
As we know, Johnson’s default mode is irritated — ranging from mildly ticked to massively disgusted. By no means was this a full-blown snit. Neither was it a clap on anyone’s back. “I was a little surprised the way it went,” he said.
Even when the crowd is 93,000 and Ludacris is getting $65,000 and a box of condoms to perform a 13-minute set, these are still practices. They don’t count. Anyone who says he/she can know anything for sure about a team’s worth after a spring game is lying.
That said, Tech did look flat. That can happen: Teams hit each other for four weeks, but know they won’t be hitting anybody in a different jersey for another four months. They see the spring game for what it is — a last practice.
Johnson: “I saw the energy in the (offensive) huddle, and it was like, ‘Let’s get through this.’”
As is his custom, Johnson worked the faux game standing in the middle of the field behind his offense. He threw up his hands when Antonio Messick dropped what would have been a 50-yard completion if not a touchdown. (Tech quarterbacks completed only 12 of 29 passes, so the frustration had been building.) Afterward, someone asked if Johnson would prefer to work real games from such a vantage point.
“I wouldn’t want to watch what I did today,” he said. “I’d rather be on the sideline.”
The offensive line, forever a source of Johnson dyspepsia, was again found wanting. (There’s a bit of an excuse this time. Tech’s O-line is mostly new. Last season’s was experienced, but unaccountably lousy.)
On the second-string offensive line: “I don’t know if they were any worse than the first group.”
Also this: “I’m frustrated the second group doesn’t know who to block.”
And this: “It’s hard to play offensive line in this offense and never get on the ground.”
Neither was Johnson overly enamored with his designated play-callers. “I fired them after the first quarter,” he said. “But I didn’t do much better. We only scored one touchdown. Bill Belichick could have called plays today, and it wouldn’t have made a difference.”
(For the record, Johnson called the Thomas-to-Jeune touchdown.)
In all, it was a typical Tech spring game — minus the rain. It poured on the last several of these exercises. Saturday was all sunshine, even if Tech’s coach wasn’t Mr. Sunshine when it was done. But can you blame him?
He just presided over a season that fell apart so completely as to make us wonder if the 11-3 Orange Bowl run of 2014 had been a mirage. Johnson has vowed that things will be different this time around. But the only part about Saturday that seemed in midseason form was the Tech coach’s indignation.
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