In eight seasons, Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson has won at a higher rate (.616) than any coach at the school in the post-Bobby Dodd era. He has been named ACC coach of the year three times and last year directed an offense that tied an NCAA record for third-down conversion rate.
Monday, he found himself in the unusual position of explaining how the Tech offense failed to produce at critical junctures in the Yellow Jackets’ 38-31 loss to North Carolina, their third consecutive defeat. The Jackets play at No. 6 Clemson Saturday, trying to avoid the team’s first four-game losing streak since 1996, coach George O’Leary’s second season.
“I second guess myself,” he said. “I stayed up all night Saturday thinking, What could I have done different to help? I watched the tape – maybe I could have called a pass on the goal line. Other than that, we were about doing what we needed to do.”
Johnson was referring to the Jackets’ inability to get into the end zone on third- and fourth-and-goal plays from the 1-yard line to start the fourth quarter, both times on quarterback sneaks by Justin Thomas. A touchdown would have put Tech ahead 35-24.
“There’s other stuff we might could have run, but with what we do, you feel like that’s what we needed to do,” he said.
Running the ball in from close to the goal line is what Tech does, usually with success. The shortest touchdown pass that Tech has scored in Johnson’s tenure was a 3-yard pass, from Vad Lee to David Sims in the 2012 Sun Bowl. (Tech’s opponents have also scored a large majority of their touchdowns from the 1- and 2-yard lines with run plays.) The Jackets have scored 70 touchdowns from the 1-yard line in Johnson’s tenure – quarterbacks or B-backs have had the ball on 60 of them.
Thomas had scored twice from the 1-yard line earlier in the game.
On both plays, UNC cornerback Des Lawrence abandoned wide receiver Brad Stewart to support the run, “so if you toss it (to an A-back), he’s going to get a mouthful of corner,” Johnson said. “We could have thrown the lob down there. People would have been really excited about that, if it was incomplete, on third-and-goal from the 1-yard line and fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line.”
Johnson made the comment about the lob pass sarcastically.
“In hindsight, it would have been better than what we did – it didn’t work,” he said. “But if we do what we did right … it’s the nature of the game. As a coach, a fan, you’re going to second guess if it doesn’t work.”
Johnson said that coaches will consider using backup quarterback Matthew Jordan in place of the slighter Thomas in goal-line situations– a ploy Tech has used with success with Tim Byerly, who is out for the season with a knee injury.
“That’s something we’ve got to consider. That’s not (Thomas’) thing,” Johnson said. “He’s really good and helps us win a lot of ways, but that’s not his thing.”
Johnson also addressed another series that missed the mark, when the Jackets took possession at their 25-yard line with 1:29 to play in the first half ahead 21-7. Tech went three-and-out, botched the punt snap and gave the Tar Heels the ball back on the Tech 44-yard line. Starting with 56 seconds left, North Carolina was in the end zone with four seconds to spare, setting the stage for its second-half comeback.
On first down, Thomas just missed A-back Clinton Lynch on a play-action pass that had him running downfield with no one between him and the goal line. On second down, a quarterback draw, Thomas tried to run outside instead of up the middle and ended up with a four-yard loss. On third-and-14, Thomas threw incomplete to wide receiver Ricky Jeune, again stopping the clock.
“I can run the ball and take a knee three times if that’s what you want and let them waste their timeouts,” Johnson said. “(Heck), sooner or later, you’ve got to stop somebody sometime. Now, if we run the ball up the middle three times and they take three timeouts and then we punt it 23 yards – it’s also pretty good to have the hindsight to know we were going to punt it 23 yards and drop the (snap) – but it’s like, I’m trying to score, dude.”
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