Johnson's recruiting tactics exposed?

"Our Staff does not negative recruit (...) Paul Johnson has stated it several times." - gt23eric, Stingtalk insider

The Colorado Springs Gazette Saturday published a fascinating story on the assemblage of Troy Calhoun's first recruiting class at the Air Force Academy in 2007. It goes without saying that the service academies often find themselves in pursuit of many of the same athletes, and Calhoun had quite a yarn to tell about two he courted while Paul Johnson was still head coach at the Naval Academy. Recruits Paul Weatheroy and Tim Jefferson were targeted by both Navy and Air Force at the time, and Calhoun's recollection of their respective recruitments is an eye-opener for those Tech fans who would continue to promote the myth of Paul Johnson's sanctity.

On Weatheroy's recruitment:

"On a recruiting trip to another service academy, [Weatheroy's father] said that school spoke negatively about Air Force. He said the coaches claimed the Falcons were going to use [his son] as a fullback, that Calhoun had lied about him being their top tailback recruit, that Calhoun was going to run a pro-style offense. [Air Force assistant Charlton] Warren said he heard other schools showed recruits film of the NFL’s Broncos and Texans, to convince them that would be Calhoun’s offense at Air Force."

Neither Navy nor Paul Johnson are specifically mentioned, but the dots are easily connected. At the time, Army ran a pro-style offense itself, leaving Navy as the only other service academy of the option mold. If "another service academy" negatively recruited against Air Force by suggesting it would run a pro-style attack, then that would isolate Paul Johnson and Navy as the only possible source of such disinformation.

The article continues on the recruitment of QB Tim Jefferson:

"More negative recruiting was happening on the other side of the country with Jefferson. Jefferson had told Air Force he was coming, but he wasn’t so sure now that he was hearing Calhoun wouldn’t run the option. Jefferson said his commitment wavered for about two weeks. During that time Jefferson said he told Navy he would go there. Jefferson’s father and high school coach wanted him to go to Annapolis, because there was no uncertainty about that staff."

Again, a competing school "on the other side of the country" negatively recruited against Air Force on the basis that it would not be utilizing the option. Furthermore, the school Jefferson had "wavered" in the direction of "for about two weeks" was none other than the Naval Academy. There is frankly no way then that the "negative recruiting" mentioned could NOT have been emanating from the forked tongues of Coach Paul Johnson and his henchmen in Annapolis.

Don't get us wrong. It's not that we see anything particularly wrong with certain kinds of negative recruiting-- it's all part of the game, and has been for decades. But it certainly casts a darker pallor upon Coach Johnson than the pearly-white gleam championed by your average Georgia Tech football Kool Aid slurper. And if insider gt23eric's statement on Johnson's explicit denial of negative recruiting is true, then it is yet another example of the selfish, lumbering hypocrisy practiced by that oh-so-blessed purveyor of the highest integrity, so perfect for Georgia Tech, Coach Paul Johnson.