PJ not a fan of Atlanta opener
posted by LW, Wednesday, June 10, 2009
He's singing the same tune this year, saying the 2009 opener between Alabama and Virginia Tech has zero benefit for the Jackets or Athens-based Bulldogs.
PJ's prime quibble is the theoretical recruiting advantage gained by participating teams, though I'm guessing Clemson didn't get much of a leg up on the ATL area with last year's embarrassment at the hands of Alabama.
Augusta Chronicle columnist Scott Michaux was at yesterday's Peach State Pigskin Preview in Macon, and he chronicles another Johnson defense of the option offense.
Down the road, Johnson isn't convinced that he shut up the critics of his option-oriented offense with a 9-4 inaugural campaign and tie for first in his ACC division. As he says, "we threw some clunkers in there" which served as food for his detractors.
"I don't think it will ever shut them up," he said. "It's almost childish. We'll play a poor game like our bowl game against LSU. 'Well, that's the game plan. It's over now. LSU showed everybody how to beat us.' It's like there's some magic wand you wave and that's the way you make it go away. I mean, it's idiotic. I think people always look for ways to dismiss anything that's not the status quo."
And here's more.
“There’s no special secret way to line up and say ‘Oh my god, now they can’t run.’ They’ll put nine people in the box. OK, go ahead. You’re not going to line up something we haven’t seen in 26 years. You might beat us, but I highly doubt it’s because of the way you line up.”
Looks like Billy Curry is a fan of PJ's option.
Caution: If you're prone to vomiting at the sight of profuse praise for Paul Johnson, clicking on the previous link or reading further will place your keyboard in imminent danger.
“I give credit to my (ESPN) broadcast buddy, Eric Collins,” said Curry, a former college football analyst and Georgia Tech head coach. “I was his analyst for several games, and we covered a lot of Paul Johnson’s games when he was at Navy. Every time we talked about Paul Johnson, Eric said the same thing, and he said it on air. ‘The rest of the coaches are playing checkers, Paul Johnson is playing chess.’ Eric came up with that. And he’s right.”
Creator of a unique option-style offense, Johnson — the Yellow Jackets’ current head coach entering his second year — began drawing praise from commentators while at Navy several seasons ago. That praise resulted from the success his offense was enjoying as it routinely attacked opposing defenses.
Not to mention, Curry added, Johnson had a finesse for employing key, unexpected in-game adjustments that countered varying looks defenses presented his team.
“If you have a flaw,” Curry said, with a laugh, “Paul’s going to find it, and then he’s going to beat you to death until you correct it. And when you correct it, then he’s got a counter for that, and it’s all in his head. He does not have a play sheet, he doesn’t always have a card in his hand, he doesn’t look at notes. He stands there, and it’s all upstairs.”
Non-conference scheduling is getting a lot of attention these days, and this story in the Athens Banner-Herald documents the apparent tension between Mark Richt and AD Damon Evans.
Essentially, Richt doesn't share his boss' ambition for scheduling attractive cross-sectional matchups with foes like Oklahoma State and Arizona State.
It's an interesting dynamic, because these days coaches know that the stronger the non-conference competition, the more opportunity for their rear ends to be placed on the hot seat.
I'm guessing Tommy Bowden wasn't all that enamored of the scheduling of last year's opener against Alabama.
It's fascinating, by the way, to wonder how things would've unfolded had that game not been scheduled. What if the Tigers had beaten up on some tomato can in the opener instead? Would the sentiment have been corrosive enough to lead to Bowden resigning after back-to-back losses to Maryland and Wake Forest?
A better question might be: Would the Tigers have lost to Maryland and Wake Forest? I'm not suggesting everything would've been hunky-dory and they'd have started 6-0 had the Alabama debacle not happened -- there's this thing called an offensive line, and Clemson's was going to be bad regardless -- but there's no doubt the loss in the opener inflicted an emotional hangover that lingered for a long time.
If Alabama doesn't happen, maybe Clemson splits Maryland-Wake Forest instead of losing both. Maybe the Tigers find a way to win the Atlantic Division.
Or (and perhaps more likely), the Tigers again are narrowly denied a division title and Bowden is fired at season's end. TDP thus doesn't have the luxury of a six-game stretch to audition his presumed star-in-the-making, and someone other than Dabo Swinney is probably Clemson's coach right now.
Anyway, it's all fascinating to think about...
Olin Buchanan of Rivals wonders if Tim Tebow isn't only the greatest QB in college football, but the greatest QB in college football history.
Andy Staples of SI.com explores the latest front in college football's arms race: humongous support staffs.
The number -- and qualifications -- of people who coach on the field in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision was a hot topic at conference meetings this year. The NCAA's recruiting and personnel issues cabinet discussed the issue this week at a meeting in Newport Beach, Calif., and it likely will remain a discussion point through the next NCAA legislative cycle. In addition to the graduate assistant conundrum, coaches and administrators also worry richer programs can bloat their staffs with interns and other personnel. This, some fear, will further widen the gap between the haves and have-nots. And the bigger the staff, the greater the risk of violating the NCAA rule that allows only the head coach, nine salaried assistant coaches and two graduate assistants to coach players on the field.
"Some have the resources to do whatever they want in terms of video guys, trainers and strength coaches, and that's fine," ACC associate commissioner Michael Kelly said. "More power to them. ... Really, the field is what we want to zero in on the most."
And later:
At Tennessee, former NFL defensive tackle Chester McGlockton works as an intern. At Florida, former NFL tailback Terry Jackson serves as director of player and community relations. At South Florida, Stephen Bird, who has worked as an assistant at Pittsburgh, Kent State, Tulane, Middle Tennessee State, West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky and Bowling Green, recently joined the Bulls' staff as an offensive graduate assistant. In addition to two on-field graduate assistants, Michigan's 2008 media guide lists two defensive quality control positions, two offensive quality control positions, a special teams quality control position, a recruiting coordinator and a recruiting operations assistant.
No one has accused the above programs of breaking any rules. However, many coaches and athletic directors -- particularly at schools that can't afford to hire specialized staff members and multiple interns -- view those positions with suspicion.
In other words, everyone outside the SEC probably has an interest in this stuff being regulated. Because it's going to be awfully hard to keep up with the Alabamas, Georgias and Floridas in this kind of race.
Speaking of trends, this can't be a good one: A ninth-grader receiving a scholarship offer?
Paul Strelow of The State has the rundown on the baseball draft and says Tigers coach Jack Leggett has to feel good about having just one player (junior first baseman Ben Paulsen) being taken in the first three rounds.
Three players with eligibility remaining were considered possibilities to go in the opening three rounds, which would have all but ensured their departure.
But freshman left-hander Chris Dwyer and a pair of signees — righty Madison Younginer of Mauldin, and third baseman/pitcher Richie Shaffer of Charlotte — were not chosen on Day 1.
Any of those players could be taken today during rounds four-30, but barring a huge signing bonus, all three are good bets to be on campus next season.
In the cases of Dwyer and Younginer, both are believed to have stuck to their signing bonus price tags, which have so far discouraged teams from selecting them.
Bart Wright of The Greenville News laments the coming extinction of media guides and wonders whether athletics departments are squandering a potential revenue stream.
Also in the GN, Ed McGranahan enlightens us on the track team's trip to the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
LW
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Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
Last year, Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson voiced his objections to the much-ballyhooed Clemson-Alabama opener a few miles from the Yellow Jackets' campus.
He's singing the same tune this year, saying the 2009 opener between Alabama and Virginia Tech has zero benefit for the Jackets or Athens-based Bulldogs.
PJ's prime quibble is the theoretical recruiting advantage gained by participating teams, though I'm guessing Clemson didn't get much of a leg up on the ATL area with last year's embarrassment at the hands of Alabama.
Augusta Chronicle columnist Scott Michaux was at yesterday's Peach State Pigskin Preview in Macon, and he chronicles another Johnson defense of the option offense.
Down the road, Johnson isn't convinced that he shut up the critics of his option-oriented offense with a 9-4 inaugural campaign and tie for first in his ACC division. As he says, "we threw some clunkers in there" which served as food for his detractors.
"I don't think it will ever shut them up," he said. "It's almost childish. We'll play a poor game like our bowl game against LSU. 'Well, that's the game plan. It's over now. LSU showed everybody how to beat us.' It's like there's some magic wand you wave and that's the way you make it go away. I mean, it's idiotic. I think people always look for ways to dismiss anything that's not the status quo."
And here's more.
“There’s no special secret way to line up and say ‘Oh my god, now they can’t run.’ They’ll put nine people in the box. OK, go ahead. You’re not going to line up something we haven’t seen in 26 years. You might beat us, but I highly doubt it’s because of the way you line up.”
Looks like Billy Curry is a fan of PJ's option.
Caution: If you're prone to vomiting at the sight of profuse praise for Paul Johnson, clicking on the previous link or reading further will place your keyboard in imminent danger.
“I give credit to my (ESPN) broadcast buddy, Eric Collins,” said Curry, a former college football analyst and Georgia Tech head coach. “I was his analyst for several games, and we covered a lot of Paul Johnson’s games when he was at Navy. Every time we talked about Paul Johnson, Eric said the same thing, and he said it on air. ‘The rest of the coaches are playing checkers, Paul Johnson is playing chess.’ Eric came up with that. And he’s right.”
Creator of a unique option-style offense, Johnson — the Yellow Jackets’ current head coach entering his second year — began drawing praise from commentators while at Navy several seasons ago. That praise resulted from the success his offense was enjoying as it routinely attacked opposing defenses.
Not to mention, Curry added, Johnson had a finesse for employing key, unexpected in-game adjustments that countered varying looks defenses presented his team.
“If you have a flaw,” Curry said, with a laugh, “Paul’s going to find it, and then he’s going to beat you to death until you correct it. And when you correct it, then he’s got a counter for that, and it’s all in his head. He does not have a play sheet, he doesn’t always have a card in his hand, he doesn’t look at notes. He stands there, and it’s all upstairs.”
Non-conference scheduling is getting a lot of attention these days, and this story in the Athens Banner-Herald documents the apparent tension between Mark Richt and AD Damon Evans.
Essentially, Richt doesn't share his boss' ambition for scheduling attractive cross-sectional matchups with foes like Oklahoma State and Arizona State.
It's an interesting dynamic, because these days coaches know that the stronger the non-conference competition, the more opportunity for their rear ends to be placed on the hot seat.
I'm guessing Tommy Bowden wasn't all that enamored of the scheduling of last year's opener against Alabama.
It's fascinating, by the way, to wonder how things would've unfolded had that game not been scheduled. What if the Tigers had beaten up on some tomato can in the opener instead? Would the sentiment have been corrosive enough to lead to Bowden resigning after back-to-back losses to Maryland and Wake Forest?
A better question might be: Would the Tigers have lost to Maryland and Wake Forest? I'm not suggesting everything would've been hunky-dory and they'd have started 6-0 had the Alabama debacle not happened -- there's this thing called an offensive line, and Clemson's was going to be bad regardless -- but there's no doubt the loss in the opener inflicted an emotional hangover that lingered for a long time.
If Alabama doesn't happen, maybe Clemson splits Maryland-Wake Forest instead of losing both. Maybe the Tigers find a way to win the Atlantic Division.
Or (and perhaps more likely), the Tigers again are narrowly denied a division title and Bowden is fired at season's end. TDP thus doesn't have the luxury of a six-game stretch to audition his presumed star-in-the-making, and someone other than Dabo Swinney is probably Clemson's coach right now.
Anyway, it's all fascinating to think about...
Olin Buchanan of Rivals wonders if Tim Tebow isn't only the greatest QB in college football, but the greatest QB in college football history.
Andy Staples of SI.com explores the latest front in college football's arms race: humongous support staffs.
The number -- and qualifications -- of people who coach on the field in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision was a hot topic at conference meetings this year. The NCAA's recruiting and personnel issues cabinet discussed the issue this week at a meeting in Newport Beach, Calif., and it likely will remain a discussion point through the next NCAA legislative cycle. In addition to the graduate assistant conundrum, coaches and administrators also worry richer programs can bloat their staffs with interns and other personnel. This, some fear, will further widen the gap between the haves and have-nots. And the bigger the staff, the greater the risk of violating the NCAA rule that allows only the head coach, nine salaried assistant coaches and two graduate assistants to coach players on the field.
"Some have the resources to do whatever they want in terms of video guys, trainers and strength coaches, and that's fine," ACC associate commissioner Michael Kelly said. "More power to them. ... Really, the field is what we want to zero in on the most."
And later:
At Tennessee, former NFL defensive tackle Chester McGlockton works as an intern. At Florida, former NFL tailback Terry Jackson serves as director of player and community relations. At South Florida, Stephen Bird, who has worked as an assistant at Pittsburgh, Kent State, Tulane, Middle Tennessee State, West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky and Bowling Green, recently joined the Bulls' staff as an offensive graduate assistant. In addition to two on-field graduate assistants, Michigan's 2008 media guide lists two defensive quality control positions, two offensive quality control positions, a special teams quality control position, a recruiting coordinator and a recruiting operations assistant.
No one has accused the above programs of breaking any rules. However, many coaches and athletic directors -- particularly at schools that can't afford to hire specialized staff members and multiple interns -- view those positions with suspicion.
In other words, everyone outside the SEC probably has an interest in this stuff being regulated. Because it's going to be awfully hard to keep up with the Alabamas, Georgias and Floridas in this kind of race.
Speaking of trends, this can't be a good one: A ninth-grader receiving a scholarship offer?
Paul Strelow of The State has the rundown on the baseball draft and says Tigers coach Jack Leggett has to feel good about having just one player (junior first baseman Ben Paulsen) being taken in the first three rounds.
Three players with eligibility remaining were considered possibilities to go in the opening three rounds, which would have all but ensured their departure.
But freshman left-hander Chris Dwyer and a pair of signees — righty Madison Younginer of Mauldin, and third baseman/pitcher Richie Shaffer of Charlotte — were not chosen on Day 1.
Any of those players could be taken today during rounds four-30, but barring a huge signing bonus, all three are good bets to be on campus next season.
In the cases of Dwyer and Younginer, both are believed to have stuck to their signing bonus price tags, which have so far discouraged teams from selecting them.
Bart Wright of The Greenville News laments the coming extinction of media guides and wonders whether athletics departments are squandering a potential revenue stream.
Also in the GN, Ed McGranahan enlightens us on the track team's trip to the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
LW
For questions or comments on this blog entry, please visit The West Zone message board.
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
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