A Public Service Message

One of the more enduring "misnomers"(as Coach Johnson would put it) of the Paul Johnson era has been that he possesses some kind of magical ability to judge talent which is fortuitously not owned by any other coach in the major collegiate ranks.

For you see, Paul Johnson knows football. He really knows it. While Superman has X-Ray Vision, and Spiderman his "Spidey Sense," Coach Johnson, with what we can only speculate to be some kind of tingling or burning sensation in his ample busom, can deftly recognize unheralded future All-Americans to whom only FCS and mid-major schools have offered scholarships.

Case in point: 2011 commit Broderick Snoddy, who of course projects to the program's dingy utility closet, the "A-back" position. Amidst what was surely a throwdown on the recruiting trail, Mr. Snoddy chose Georgia Tech over Sun Belt titan Middle Tennessee and FCS schools Delaware, Georgia Southern, and Jacksonville State. It goes without saying then that he must be a late-blooming Diamond in the Rough with super measurables and impressive high school stats whom the elite schools were "just starting" to recruit. I mean, who cares if other FBS schools didn't see fit to offer Broddy Snoddy a scholarship? They aren't coached by The Man With the Magical Blubbery Bust. In CPJ We Trust.

In all seriousness however, Snoddy, like other such luminaries as "The Z-Man" Tony Zenon and Marvelous Marcus Wright before him, faces an uphill battle towards superstardom. The unfortunate reality of the "A-back" position at Georgia Tech is that it is like being assigned to the witness protection program. You might average a couple of carries a game... Hell, Coach Johnson might even develop a creepy fixation on you for one Saturday, resulting in your lone career 100 yard day, but you will generally be indistinguishable among a rotating fleet of similarly skilled players. In fact according to Johnson himself, he's not even going to come looking for his A-backs on the sidelines-- they must be standing around him to get into the game. Altogether this is hardly a surprising revelation-- if I had A-backs like these I wouldn't go looking for them either.

With this in mind, the future at A-back, as with so many offensive positions under Paul Johnson, is anything but bright. No top-tier prospect wants to attend Georgia Tech so he can play at the most forgettable skill position in college football. Much like last year, Johnson has been left scrambling for sloppy seconds at the tail end of the recruiting period. And as badly as one must feel for Tech fans, you have to feel even worse for young Broderick. He could have been a Big Man on Campus at some FCS program, but now his playing days will be relegated to arc blocking, running play calls into the huddle, and diving on errant pitches from his QB.

So Tech fans, for the sake of his family, commit Broderick Snoddy's name and image to memory now. It is entirely conceivable that the diminutive back might well be misplaced behind a desk in the offseason, or wedged underneath an equipment cart during a game, and forgotten about for weeks at a time. Remember Broddy as you would your own child, so you may help prevent the tragic loss of a happy and productive young man to the negligence of Coach Paul Johnson and his "Spread Option" offense.