Another recruit gone, "Contrarian" makes no apologies

Thursday we spoke of Paul Johnson's struggling program as being akin to a soup kitchen for players who have nowhere else to go. Well it looks like another one of those vagabonds has found himself a home.

Georgia Tech astoundingly lost its fourth committed defensive prospect in two weeks Sunday, as Huntsville, AL DE Trey Flowers switched allegiances to the University of Arkansas. Flowers's defection comes a scant four days after he had announced his Tech commitment. As a matter of fact, according to message board chatter, Flowers was on a secret visit to an Arkansas recruiting event no more than TWO days after pledging to Coach Johnson. How's that "no visit" policy working out for you now Coach?

It's a risky move to be sure for a last-minute reach like Flowers, as Arkansas is oversigned this season at 29 players, raising the very real possibly that he could be cut from the program at some future date in order to keep it below NCAA scholarship limits. The switch is also puzzling from an academic perspective, as Flowers is a 4.0 student who had been grandly voicing his intention only days earlier to major in engineering at Tech. Given this continued attrition, the uninitiated might wonder if Tech wasn't going through some kind of staff upheaval or similar turmoil, but it appears that this is nothing more than business as usual under Coach Johnson.

In fact to hear Johnson tell it, things couldn't be more hunky-dory. An interview published Saturday with the AJC's Mark Bradley on the very topic of recruiting saw him peddle little else than his usual schtick, namely "It's kind of been blown out of proportion a little" and the classic standby, “I think [recruiting is] going well." We can only assume that "It is what it is" was left on the cutting room floor.

As Bradley observes:

[Johnson is] a pragmatist of the first rank, and a bit of a contrarian. When asked a question, he often begins his response with, “Oh, I don’t know …” or “Not really.” He’s a football lifer who has seen pretty much everything...

You forgot the word arrogant, Mr. Bradley-- as in "arrogant enough to think he's seen pretty much everything." Or how about "arrogant enough to think he can win national titles with Sun Belt talent." The reality is that Georgia Tech is Johnson's FIRST major conference experience in ANY capacity, and he has most certainly NOT seen everything there is to see. His clumsiness in the management of team morale and recruiting at a major college football program has been thoroughly exposed this season as the talent and leadership of Chan Gailey's players have filtered out of the program.

Coach Johnson talks recruiting with the AJC's Mark Bradley

Johnson further uses the interview as a platform to reject the significance of sheer talent in recruiting, claiming instead that what's important is "how hard a guy is going to work." While that's all fine and well, I'm sure that many lower division players work just as hard as their peers in the BCS conferences, yet I doubt anyone would take a team of "hardworking" FCS or Sun Belt "champions" over a team of even the most shiftless 4 and 5 star athletes from the SEC. Johnson's attitude is yet another one of those philosophical holdovers from the lower divisions which he so stubbornly refuses to change-- he believes his "genius" system alone is enough to win football games, and that a roster of talented players is a mere luxury as long as it exhibits obedience and "work ethic." This Pop Warner outlook will ultimately lead Tech's program to disaster.

Johnson later commands Bradley to "ask [him] again in three years" about this recruiting class. “You want to judge recruiting?” he says, “How many games did you win? That’s the best bottom line.” Well you've been here three years already Coach, and its been two years since your first full recruiting class. Where are the budding playmakers? Where are the players fans can get excited about? Johnson even admits that his team didn't "make [its] breaks" last year. And as much as he wants to push Orwin Smith and redshirted offensive linemen as proof of his recruiting acumen, six wins, a crumbling 2011 class, and unflattering prospects for next season beg to the contrary.

But then again, Johnson would seem to be right in his element... is he not the consummate contrarian? I'm sure he'll find plenty of opportunity in the coming years to unspool trademark catchphrases like "Oh, I don't know" and "Not really" as his program continues its free fall toward irrelevance.