Shows a receiver can excel in Johnson’s scheme
By Coley Harvey
charvey@ledger -enquirer.com
ATLANTA — Whenever Paul Johnson needs a good chuckle, he thinks back nearly two years ago.
That was when Georgia Tech hired him as head coach, days after the Yellow Jackets had dropped a seventh consecutive game to rival Georgia. It was also when, with the red clay still fresh on his shoes, he became inundated by a national media guessing game he contends still persists.
“It won’t work there; not quickly at least,” national talk radio gurus said then about his unique spread option offensive system that he ran at Navy.
“It’s a running, high school offense that can’t possibly have success at the BCS level,” others said.
And the kicker that gives Johnson side-splitting laughs to this day:
“No NFL-caliber receiver can emerge from an offense like this.”
Enter junior Demaryius Thomas, Georgia Tech’s big-bodied wideout who was named two weeks ago a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award. The honor is given yearly to the country’s top college receiver.
“We laugh about that all the time now,” Johnson said. “He was told by a lot of people, ‘You need to bolt. You’re going to be in a three-point stance every play, blocking. You’re never going to see the ball; you’re never going to do anything.’
“And he had enough about him to say, ‘I’m going to give this a chance. I’m going to see what it is.’”
Thomas leads the ACC in receiving at 91.4 yards per game and has 34 receptions.
Earlier this week, Johnson spoke about his pride in players such as Thomas, who stuck with him and his rare system. With the Yellow Jackets averaging 440 yards of total offense per game, it is a system which seems to have confounded opponents the past two years.
By quickly buying into a scheme that seemed idealistic to some and impossible to others, the Yellow Jackets have helped Johnson lead their storied program to its best start in 19 seasons. After what many called an unexpected 9-4 finish last year, the Yellow Jackets are already 8-1 this season entering today’s game against Wake Forest and sit two wins away from an ACC championship game berth.
“Probably the hardest thing we fought the first year was probably getting everybody to give us a chance to get started,” Johnson said. “Because you had so many people telling these (players) it wasn’t going to work, or you need to get out of here because it’s not going to fit you, and you need to go somewhere else. That includes some of the guys coaching them.”
In all, Tech lost four players from its roster: a tight end who is now at Alabama; an offensive lineman who is now at one of Johnson’s former schools; and a receiver and a pocket-passing quarterback. Tech also lost a couple of recruits that offseason who felt they would not fit in Johnson’s run-based scheme.
Johnson had conversations with each of the departed players, some of whom felt the coaching change would hinder their opportunities at getting drafted, he said.
That’s fine, Johnson said. He wants players with different interests anyway.
“If guys are more worried about their individual stats than winning, yeah, I don’t care, go on. We’ll find somebody that wants to win the games,” Johnson said. “(But) the point being, I think you can do both, but you’ve got to give it a chance.”
As with Thomas, linebacker Sedric Griffin could not be happier.
“He’s got such a winner’s attitude,” Griffin said earlier this season, “and when you see that and his presence, you want to be part of that. It really pulls you in, that winner’s attitude of his.”
Johnson has been asked whether he anticipated his team to be this strong, this soon. He claims to never have entertained the thought and has been focused on only one task at a time.
“I never said, ‘If we can be x-x by our second year, then that’s good,’” Johnson said. “We can still be a lot better.”
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