In his fourth season at Georgia Tech, coach Paul Johnson is an ACC veteran. Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer, Wake Forest’s Jim Grobe and N.C. State’s Tom O’Brien are the only coaches in the conference who have been at their schools longer than Johnson.
As they were before his first season in 2008, the Yellow Jackets were picked to finish fourth in the Coastal Division. That year, they won a share of the division title with Virginia Tech. What destiny awaits the Jackets?
In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Johnson answered questions from the effects of turnovers on his team to what makes linebacker Julian Burnett such a good player.
Q: What are one or two things that will have a big influence on how the season turns out?
A: If we can score more than the other team. [Laughs] I think turnovers will be huge. We’ve got to do a better job of taking care of the ball, and we’ve got to get it more. And I think if we do that, we’ve got a chance to be OK. We would have won a lot more games last year if we’d have done that. And be better in special teams. We can be better in every aspect.
Q: What do you think were the main reasons for the turnovers last season?
A: It’s a little of all of it. You’ve got to take care of the ball. Some of it’s fundamentals, some of it’s maturity, sometimes it just bounces that way. But we’ve got to make sure that we take care of everything.
Q: Do you feel like people are underrating your team?
A: I would hope. I’ve never gone into a game that I didn’t think we were going to win. My expectation is to win ’em all. How realistic that is, we’ll see.
Q: You said in the spring that linebacker Julian Burnett was probably the best player on the team. Does that still hold true?
A: Very well could be. He’s a really good football player.
Q: What is it that makes Burnett effective?
A: Julian, he’s kind of a leader and he loves to play. He flies around. [Playing in] shorts is not really Julian’s game. He’s not going to scare anybody when they look at him, but he’s a real solid hitter with a nose for the ball. When you start playing the games, he starts to shine.
Q: Would you say he’s not a practice player?
A: He practices hard. I’m just saying he’s not physically imposing. If he walks in here, he’s going to be 5-10, maybe 220 [pounds], and he’s one of the strongest kids on the team. But if you had all the guys lined up and you were trying to pick out who was the toughest, baddest cat, you probably wouldn’t pick him, and you might be wrong because he might be when you put the pads on.
Q: How do you feel like [preseason] camp went?
A: I think it went well. I think we had some positives. The attitude was great. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I think there were some real positives.
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