Georgia Tech’s offseason didn’t start as if the Yellow Jackets would play for an ACC title and outside shot in the college football playoff.
Almost from the time they returned from losing to Ole Miss in the Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn., the program seemed to have one piece of bad news follow another until the season kicked off Aug. 30. In all, the team lost one assistant coach and at least seven players — a few of them starters — because they wanted to either transfer, violated team rules or didn’t maintain their academic responsibilities.
But instead of letting the loss of a starting quarterback, defensive, or potential standouts at A-back and B-back create a negative vibe that would end the season, the opposite effect happened. Coach Paul Johnson throughout the season has referenced the team’s good attitude this season and how they play for each other.
“Sometimes it’s addition by subtraction, as I said at the time,” Johnson said. “Everybody has a different deal, but sometimes you get rid of a bad attitude or guys who don’t want to go by the rules and it helps everybody else.”
Still, it was a lot take in, enough that the constant stream of negative news contributed to the Jackets being picked to finish fifth in the ACC’s Coastal Division before the season.
“It brought us together by opening up guys and getting them to realize what’s at stake here,” linebacker Quayshawn Nealy said. “It brought us that much closer together. Guys aren’t selfish.”
But for most of the players who left, other stepped forward to play important roles.
Justin Thomas is running coach Johnson’s option offense with an efficiency that Vad Lee, who announced in January that he was transferring, rarely did. With DeAndre Smelter becoming the go-to receiver, Thomas has passed for 1,460 yards with 16 touchdowns to four interceptions. Lee had trouble doing running, but Thomas has rushed for 861 yards with five touchdowns. The team has averaged 37.2 points and 469.1 yards per game, both improvements upon last season’s averages.
“We had an idea Vad might be transferring, but I wasn’t too concerned seeing (Tim Byerly) and Justin playing every day,” B-back Zach Laskey said. “Anytime you lose a quarterback you have to make sure everyone understands that it’s not the end of the world. You have to band together.”
Laskey and Synjyn Days have held down B-back in place of Travis Custis, who was announced as academically ineligible in May, and combined for more than 1,300 rushing yards with 11 touchdowns.
A group of A-backs have stepped up at different times to provide an outside threat to compliment the B-backs inside.
“You can tell, this year compared to last year, there’s a lot more buy-in,” Laskey said. “Anytime you get that buy-in it’s huge. This offense, whether people want to believe it or not. As long as we have guys all pulling in the same direction, it’s going to have some success.”
That wanting to buy in and then putting for the effort to make the results happen are two of the reasons that Johnson said he enjoys coaching at Tech. He said it takes a different type of player, one in which the students have no choice but to be serious about school, to succeed.
Succeeding in the classroom isn’t always an indicator of succeeding on the field, but it can indicate a willingness to be coachable and a desire to please.
Those are two of the elements that helped Tech get through that offseason and on the precipice of an ACC title.
“No doubt kids will show up and play,” Johnson said. “I’m assured of that.”
About the Author
