Paul Johnson make some very pointed comments Tuesday about Georgia Tech’s apparent lack of commitment to winning football. The entire article is at yahoo.com. Here’s my take on what was said. These were some not so veiled shots at the previous AD Mike Bobinski. Can you name any major football facility upgrades at Georgia Tech under Bobinski? Previous AD Dan Radakovich over saw Georgia Tech’s indoor facility project at a time in the late 2000s, when many schools didn’t have an indoor facility.
Johnson hit the nail on the head when discussing the current state of the ACC.
“This is not the old ACC,” Johnson said. “Ten, 15, 20 years ago, there might be one ranked team. And now you have six. Every week there’s pretty good teams. People have committed, for whatever reason the other schools have committed to it. To have a good program.”
Just 5 short years ago in 2011, the ACC did not have a team finish in the top 20. In 2016, there are currently 3 in the top 10. Since 2011, FSU won a national title and Clemson had national title appearance. The ACC’s best teams are now, among the best in the country. A Florida State team that could start the ACC season 0-3, has a win over Ole Miss. A Duke team that is 0-2 in the ACC is good enough to win at Notre Dame. There is not a deeper conference in the country at the quarterback position than the ACC, and the possibility of 2 ACC teams making the playoffs is a realistic one.
The ACC is better, and I mean a lot better than what it was. The problem is while Georgia Tech is probably not a much worse team than they were in 2011-2012, much of the ACC is better.
You know the saying “If you’re not moving forward, you’re falling behind”. I think that is what has happened to Georgia Tech. In years past, coaching closed the talent gap differential. Georgia Tech simply can’t put together top 25 recruiting classes. When the rest of the ACC got better coaching that edge was lost.
Georgia Tech just hired new AD Todd Stansbury, a former Georgia Tech football player. Stansbury should understand the difficulties of navigating Georgia Tech athletics and academics. It seems like Johnson is publicly asking for a stronger commitment to the football program, and I can’t blame him.
The Jackets never will be able to recruit at an elite level. They are still paying off fired coaches Paul Hewitt and Brian Gregory, and Georgia Tech doesn’t have a huge donor base to pull from, but they can’t remain status quo either. Paul Johnson is just two years removed from an 11 win, top 10 season so we know winning big is possible at Georgia Tech. Barring a 3-5 win season, Johnson will certainly be back next year – so we’ll now find out if Todd Stansbury was listening for the call to make a bigger investment in the football program..
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