CPJ Retires

Last Saturday the SEC Network announcers, including Atlanta’s own Tom Hart, mentioned the possibility that Paul Johnson might consider stepping down after this season – “if it’s no longer fun.” I hadn’t heard that from any other source. What will be fun is watching Tobias Oliver run the Tech offense next year. No reason to think Tech won’t be improved next year. Could go 9-3 or 10-2. Thought that would keep Johnson around for two or three more years. 

 

Johnson retires as Tech’s 4th-winningest coach, as well as the fourth longest tenured coach. He was the winningest coach in the past 50 years.

 

….YR…YR…yrs…W - L - T

1903-1903 01 003-05 Oliver Jones Huie

1904-1919 17 102-29-07 John Heisman

1920-1944 25 134-95-15 William Alexander

1945-1966 22 165-64-08 Bobby Dodd

1967-1971 05 27-27 Bud Carson

1972-1973 02 12-10-1 Bill Fulcher

1974-1979 05 34-31-2 Pepper Rodgers

1980-1986 07 31-43-4 Bill Curry

1987-1991 05 31-26-1 Bobby Ross

1992-1994 03 11-19 Bill Lewis

1994-2001 08 52-33 George O’Leary

2002-2007 06 44-32 Chan Gailey

2008-2018 11 82-59 Paul Johnson

 

Fun fact: Heisman had a record of 163-97-5 as Tech’s baseball coach and 9-14 as Tech’s basketball coach.

 

Would be good if Tech could get a young and dynamic head coach. Not sure how real of a prospect the Clemson offensive coordinator would be, but he’d be younger than Whisenhunt (who will be interviewing for the job). Heard Chuck & Chernoff’s interview with GT AD Todd Stansbury. Learned that the former GT linebacker played junior hockey against Wayne Gretzky.

 

Chuck & Chernoff had agreed with my prediction that Johnson’s Jackets might’ve gone 10-2 next year, but it’s doubtful a new coach installing a new offense will be able to do so well in his first season.  

 

This morning 680’s Steak Shapiro had nothing nice to say about departing coach Paul Johnson. Shapiro was probably mad that he didn’t get an exclusive interview. Ever the hype master, Steak hoped Tech would hire someone more interested in promoting his team” (as if that was the most important thing). Of course 680 spent most of the 6:30-7:30 time slot talking pro football – the Browns and Redskins and the like.

 

Stumbled across an interesting web GT site https://www.fromtherumbleseat.com where fans interested in GT sports discuss the issues of the day. What’s funny and unique is that they approach these sports topics not like the rabid UGA fanbase but in a more analytical and methodical way. Much more civilized. A recent poster implored his fellow Techsters to not put down the much more talented and accomplished Bulldogs, as it makes Tech fans look bad. Like most places, not everything on Rumble Seat is 100% accurate (CPJ had nothing to do with the switch to adidas).

 

Who could Tech get who could win as much as Johnson? Every team in their division has upgraded their head coach. Not sure Tech could keep up. Would be great if Tech could strike gold with a young unknown like Clemson did with Dabo, but I doubt even the great Dabo could turn Tech around like he did Clemson.

 

Speaking of Swinney, the young ball coach wasn’t happy with some fans complaining that his #2 ranked undefeated team wasn’t winning by big enough margins. Saturday night Clemson built up a huge lead, then put in the second and third string. The backups allowed rival South Carolina to climb back within two touchdowns. SC had been driving to climb within 14 points when Dabo had enough, finished putting in the first team again when SC went for it on 4th down. SC threw a bomb to score. Clemson kept the ball on the ground to run clock, but SC’s Muschamp kept calling time out to stop the clock. Clemson called another run up the middle. The SC defense couldn’t tackle the running back, and he scored: 56-35. SC fans thought Dabo was running up the score. I guess some Clemson fans thought Dabo should’ve kept the first string in the entire game at the risk of injury, instead of giving the backups valuable experience in case they’re needed in a key situation.    

 

More Steak:  “this game (the 2018 SEC championship game) is bigger for Georgia than last year’s Rose Bowl, bigger than last year’s national championship game.” Huh?

 

While Finneran said UGA had a chance to win if they could do certain things, Steak said UGA could not win. Shapiro was more concerned with the 13-1/2 point spread being so high, considering how good UGA is. Evidently there’s a rift between the two morning co-hosts (with Sandra trying to play peacemaker), though the former Falcon receiver knows he’s got a good thing going, so he won’t be ruffling too many feathers.