Four years ago, Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson broke from his own convention by hiring a special-teams coach to improve the Yellow Jackets’ kicking game. Four years and two special-teams coordinators later, he returned to convention.
By mutual agreement, Tech parted ways Monday with special-teams coordinator Ray Rychleski after two seasons. Rychleski, who also assisted with the offensive line, had replaced Dave Walkosky, the first coach Johnson had ever employed to specifically coach special teams.
“After four years of having a special-teams coach, I didn’t see any real differences,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he will hire a second offensive line coach, which was his practice until the 2012 season. He also said he doesn’t plan to make any other changes to his staff.
“Having done it for a long time, I just feel more comfortable with having two guys up there,” he said. “If we were top 25 in special teams, you would say, ‘Hey, the tradeoff is good.’ But the production wasn’t there for whatever reason.”
In four years with a special-teams coach, Tech’s kickoff return team’s average ranking was 58th. In Johnson’s first four years, it was 91st. The team’s average rank in net punting between 2012 and 2015 was 84th. Between 2008 and 2012, buoyed by a 17th-place finish in 2009 — the team’s best season finish in Johnson’s tenure by 28 places — the Jackets’ average was 70th.
The Jackets’ 3-9 season, their poorest since 1994, was a multi-faceted failure, but special teams underperformance played a role. Tech’s kickoff return game ranked 106th at 19.03 yards per return.
Punter Ryan Rodwell also lacked consistency; he was 95th in the country in punt average at 39.3 yards per punt.
The unit was at its weakest against Duke, when the Jackets surrendered a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and a 69-yard punt return and also had a punt play fouled by an errant snap on a wet afternoon.
Tech kicker Harrison Butker did have the best season of his career, making 7-of-11 field-goal tries and recording touchbacks on 66.1 percent of his kickoffs, 12th in the country. The single biggest highlight of the season was also courtesy of special teams, the blocked field-goal attempt and game-ending touchdown return against Florida State.
The 2014 team tied for first in the country with six blocked kicks. Special teams contributed to the Jackets’ 11-win season and Orange Bowl championship memorably with Butker’s game-winner against Virginia Tech and the 53-yard kick against Georgia that forced overtime. Monday, Rychleski thanked everyone from school president G.P. “Bud” Peterson to coaches to support staff “because they were wonderful to me. It was a great two years. It was a privilege to work at the Institute.”
Johnson said with two offensive line coaches, special-teams coaching duties will be divided among the staff, as it had previously been, with one assistant serving as the coordinator. Typically, one coach has been assigned to one special-teams unit, such as kickoff, kickoff return, field goal or field-goal block.
Adding an assistant to work solely with offensive line coach Mike Sewak is timely. Johnson said his top priority going into spring practice will be improving pass protection, which was shoddy during the season. Often fleeing pass rushers, quarterback Justin Thomas completed 41.7 percent of his attempts, almost 10 points lower than his 2014 average.
“It wasn’t very good,” he said. “We’ve got to look at all of it. You’ve got to look at the scheme, the way we were teaching it, everything about it.”
Johnson said he doesn’t have a timeline to make the hire, although it would be helpful for Tech to have the new coach in place when the recruiting “dead” period — when coaches may not make face-to-face contact with prospects or their parents — ends Jan. 13. National signing day is Feb. 3. Johnson does not appear wed to hiring a coach with experience in his system, nor a coach with any particular amount of experience.
“Just somebody that’s going to fit and help,” he said. “I think that it’s hard for one guy in any system to coach five guys with what we do and watch them during the games and that kind of thing and help out.”
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