As a captain in the U.S. Marines and as an assistant coach under Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech secondary coach Joe Speed is familiar with high standards.
Speed recognizes the process unfolding across August on Alexander-Rose Bowl Field. A team that exceeded all expectations but its own last season and then lost several key leaders has been driven through this preseason by its uncompromising coach.
“We need to set the new standard,” Speed said. “Keep the standard high, but even push it further because I think some of us have a short memory at how close some of those games were last year. And that other side of the coin is not pretty.”
The glow that envelops the Yellow Jackets this August might be matched only by the stifling warmth that has accompanied their practices. Following their 11-win seasons in 2014, they are No. 17 in the preseason coaches poll, the first time that Tech has been in the preseason Top 25 since 2010. They were picked to win the ACC Coastal Division for the first time since the league adopted a two-division format in 2005. Season-ticket sales have been brisk. The pessimism and angst that many Tech fans carried into recent seasons, wondering if the Jackets could finally beat the likes of Virginia Tech, Miami and Georgia, has vanished.
Such good feeling evidently has not aided in the mission of conducting crisp, energy-filled practices in the Georgia summer heat, however. Johnson has been largely unimpressed with the proceedings. On Wednesday, Johnson was asked if his veteran offensive line had responded to his challenge to provide more leadership.
“That’d be a negative,” he said.
Was that across the entire line?
“Pretty much.”
The previous day, Johnson was asked what had encouraged him thus far. Johnson paused and smirked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “The quarterback’s a good player. Most days.”
It was not the highest praise All-ACC quarterback Justin Thomas has ever received. Johnson was asked if that was it. He answered, agitated.
“Guys, you have anointed this team as national champs,” he told assembled news media. “You ought to watch them practice.”
Johnson failing to gush about his team hardly rates as unusual. But his tone has drawn a contrast with numerous comments he made last season regarding the players’ dedication, unwillingness to give in and his pleasure in coaching them. It was a year ago Wednesday that Johnson made a post-practice observation that “I thought the enthusiasm was pretty good, actually.”
The energy was borne of a string of underwhelming seasons, former Tech A-back Charles Perkins said, and set the stage for the run to the Orange Bowl championship.
“I think last year, it was just a group of guys that had been on the negative side of things the previous few years and weren’t satisfied,” Perkins said this week.
Further, the offense in particular was loaded with seniors, familiar not only with the scheme, but also Johnson’s standards.
“You don’t want to be on coach Johnson’s bad side,” Perkins said. “It’s not a place you want to be.”
By contrast, the wide receivers and running backs on this team are stocked with inexperience. On Wednesday, Johnson said that no one at A-back was standing out and there weren’t any good blockers in the group. Given the difficulty in learning and committing to the body-sacrificing technique of blocking on the perimeter, it’s not a surprise.
Johnson, though, is not one for patience and, further, is trying to forge the mental strength that propelled the 2014 Jackets to eight come-from-behind wins. One message that Johnson has hit often, center Freddie Burden said, is the necessity to hold up under the heat, soreness and fatigue.
“That’s his big thing — pushing through, pushing through,” Burden said. “You never know in game situations, you never know when you’re going to be in overtime and you have to push through.”
On Saturday, in the final practice of the Jackets’ camp, Johnson saw more of what he wanted. The play of B-back Patrick Skov, a graduate transfer from Stanford, was particularly pleasing. It was praise earned.
“I want them to be good,” Johnson said. “I can be a Pollyanna and (say), “We’re going to be great and we’re going to win every game,’ but that’s not me. I’m going to call it like I see it.”
Johnson was asked if perhaps the external praise might be an impediment.
“Not for me,” he said. “I hope it doesn’t for them. If it is, they’ll screw it up.”
At Bobby Dodd Stadium, a new standard has a rallying cry.
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