Tech absent from earliest preseason 2011 rankings

It appears that writers around the country are finally starting to catch on to "The Man Who Wins Everywhere He Coaches."

Paul Johnson and Georgia Tech have been shut out in the five earliest preseason rankings released by major outlets for the 2011 season. Tech indeed failed to make an appearance in any of the top 25 listings, and even managed to avoid being named among the top 30 of Sports Illustrated and the top 50 of Nationalchamps.net!

Examining further, the Nationalchamps.net ranking showed Tech behind several traditional powers who are very likely to be overrated, such as Southern Miss, Baylor, and Miami(of Ohio), as well as behind two of its fellow service academies Navy and Air Force. Though Army did not appear in the top 50, it is unclear at this point as to how the site evaluates them in relation to the Yellow Jackets.

Just give Coach Johnson time though! Once he gets his players in, surely he'll bring The Trophy back home to North Avenue!

ESPN.com

SI.com - Not among 30 teams listed

Nationalchamps.net - Not among top 50 teams!

Orlando Sentinel

San Jose Mercury News

Five-peat!

Much is spoken about Paul Johnson's dominance in the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy series, where he won the annual competition among the three service academies five years running from 2003-2007. What is less frequently mentioned is the record of the teams Johnson beat to achieve this distinction. With the unique opportunity now afforded America's newly-ordained "fourth" service academy this bowl season, Johnson's previous successes merit a closer examination:

Year	Army	Air Force
2003	0-13	7-5
2004	2-9	5-6
2005	4-7	4-7
2006	3-9	4-8
2007	3-9	9-4
TOTAL	12-47	29-30

The first thing one notices: Johnson enjoyed a veritable gravy train of miserable Army teams-- in fact his tenure at Navy paralleled one of the losingest six-year stretches in the history of Army football. Further was Johnson the beneficiary of an Air Force program which compiled three consecutive losing seasons for the first time in twenty-five years, and which finished with fewer than five losses only once in Johnson's six seasons. All told, across Johnson's streak, he faced only two teams from either academy that even finished the season with a winning record.

Yes, Navy football was quite bad when Johnson arrived. And yes he should be afforded every accolade due a coach who annually cobbled together winning seasons out of the 110th ranked schedule. But it's not like he was conquering a pair of credible opponents on a yearly basis in some heroic struggle for service academy pre-eminence.

Of course the myth of Johnson's infallibility in rivalry games has already been thoroughly discredited against five-loss UGA, and six-loss UGA again, illustrating all the more poignantly that Navy football is a far, far cry from the rigors inherent in piloting a major conference program, even if it does play in the "Almost Competitive" ACC.

What Air Force fans are saying...

WanderingFalcon: Not particularly excited about playing a more athletic Navy in a bowl..."

AFAfan: Don't worry...this years GT team isn't[more athletic]. I'm actually a bit disappointed after looking at their record and stats. We will be favored to win. (...) They'll probably promote the game as the #1 and #2 rushing teams, like it will be some kind of offensive fireworks show...but it will more likely be like a low pitchers duel.

FledglingFalcon: What AF has going for them compared to GT is discipline. GT will have slightly bigger & faster players, but as we've seen time and time again, that means squat compared to heart.

BirdBorneIED: IMO: Least entertaining matchup we could have received. I will not fly out for this one. I would have loved to see us play Clemson, Miami or BC and would not have missed being there"

FlyZoomie08: GT is a yawn. I really wanted Clemson or Miami.

ProudoftheFalcons: We will absolutely demolish Georgia Tech.

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Turns out even service academy fans are bored to tears by the "Spread Option."

And imagine how ESPN2 must feel about having to broadcast this stinker. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they moved it to the more lightly-regarded ESPNU, perhaps in favor of poker or some kind of cheerleading competition.

Note how the Air Force fans are actually more confident about beating GT than they are about beating Navy! But I thought this thing would take off with the "better athletes" Coach Johnson would be recruiting to Georgia Tech?

Bottom line: We need to send Coach Johnson and his chickencrap offense back to Annapolis where they belong! Hire a hungry young coach who will upgrade our recruiting, reintroduce the concepts of defense and special teams, and most importantly bring our offense back into the 21st century!

Do it NOW or do it later. Your choice D-Rad. You're already pushing discounted tickets to the Weedwhacker Bowl. This isn't like firing your average coach-- it will take many years to repair the damage which "Spread Option" football will do to our roster and national identity. The longer you wait, the more extensive this reclamation project will be.

Major programs knew this about Johnson, which is why the only other job offers "The Man Who Wins Everywhere He Coaches" had coming were Duke and SMU. Consider yourself warned!

Another kind of championship

A year ago Coach Paul Johnson made the statement that he didn't come to GT to win an ACC championship-- he came to win "another" kind of championship. Who could have known this was what he meant?

In other news: The GTAA is selling discounted $14 tickets in, um, "commemoration" of our 14th consecutive bowl appearance. What generosity in these difficult times!