Paul Johnson's offense no longer unproven, just unappreciated
MACON - Paul Johnson initially thought the doubters simply clueless, uneducated.
Just because no other major college football team ran the option - at least from under center - didn't mean it wouldn't work.
Then the clueless and uneducated became ridiculous when they criticized Johnson's offense for failing to produce 20 points in Georgia Tech's first two Atlantic Coast Conference games.
Then the ridiculous became absurd when they pointed to the Yellow Jackets' humiliation in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl as a harbinger of the future. Never mind the nine wins and the eye-popping yardage numbers Tech produced during the regular season.
And now, after several months of booster club functions and charity outings, what is Johnson's opinion of his naysayers?
"They're hilarious to me," Johnson said Tuesday during the Peach State Pigskin Preview, a gathering of the state's college football coaches and media at the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.
"People don't understand, and people who don't understand things are never going to accept it," he said. "So you just move on."
He's got a fat, long-term contract. He returns 17 starters this fall, including one of the best skill player combinations - quarterback Josh Nesbitt, fullback Jonathan Dwyer, halfback Roddy Jones and wide receiver Demaryius Thomas - in the country.
Tech will start the season in the polls and will be a popular alternative pick as ACC champion for those less than enamored with Virginia Tech.
None of that will be good enough for vocal critics. They will hold on to the 35-3 bowl loss to LSU like a hungry baby to a bottle, poised to throw a tantrum at the first sign of vulnerability.
Johnson, for his part, pantomimes them well.
"Oh, opponents have another year of film now; they'll be on it this year," Johnson cackles in his best analyst's voice. "Hell, we've been doing it for 25 years. There's 25 years of film out there. No team is ever going to line up in a way we haven't seen in the last 25 years."
Misread labels
Johnson isn't reinventing the wheel route with his offense.
He isn't even the only major college coach to run it.
Florida, Michigan, West Virginia and Mississippi State all run versions of the option. Nobody questions what Urban Meyer's Gators are doing anymore. Rich Rodriguez's spread is hailed as something that will drag the Big 10 out of football's stone ages.
But at Georgia Tech, where Johnson won as many games in his first year as Meyer did in his with the Gators and triple the number of victories Rodriguez posted last fall in Ann Arbor, the option is still viewed as a gimmick.
"They said Urban couldn't win with it at Florida," Johnson said. "You'd think with his success people would have learned something."
Meyer learned, incidentally, from Johnson. Meyer called Johnson at Navy "two or three times a week" back when the two-time national champion coach was modifying his offense for Alex Smith at Utah.
Johnson blames semantics for pundits' preferences for Meyer and Rodriguez's offense over his own.
"We're under center, so everybody labels it the wishbone; they're in the gun, so it's the spread," Johnson said. "But you know what? If we were to jump back in the shotgun and call for the snap, it would be the same thing."
Don't expect Johnson to move his quarterback into the backfield just to appease the masses, though. Remember they're "hilarious."
And Johnson enjoys a good laugh.
