JAILBREAK 2011: Tarrant to Draft, Young to transfer?

According to a Thursday press release, Georgia Tech RS-junior safety and punt returner Jerrard Tarrant will skip his senior season and declare for the NFL draft. He was the second Tech player in as many days to make the decision, joining fellow 2007 recruit Nick Claytor who announced on Wednesday. Since neither Claytor nor Tarrant appears to be regarded as a top NFL prospect, the situation has become yet another damning indictment of the control, or lack thereof, that Coach Paul Johnson has over his football program.

Tarrant was one of the few identifiable playmakers that remained on the roster following the defection of the four juniors to the NFL following the 2009 season. He captured the imagination of Tech fans from the beginning of his brief two-year career, as he returned punts for touchdowns in each of his first two games as a Yellow Jacket. Tarrant also had two critical interception returns for touchdowns, one in the 2010 Orange Bowl and another against NC State this past season, which frankly kept Johnson's team from being humiliated in both games. Tarrant's penchant for the big play also led him to force and recover three fumbles after being moved to the safety position in 2010. His absence from the lineup will be particularly worrisome in 2011, as Tech will now be starting new players at all four defensive back positions.

Further, is it not an ominous sign that the substitute at returner for the injured Tarrant in the Weedeater Bowl muffed two punts?

And just as with Claytor, some vindictive Tech fans have immediately seized this opportunity to turn on Tarrant. Talk has already begun of his being another "bad apple" who was poisonous to the program. And as Tarrant was likewise another (playmaking) Gailey recruit, speculation has surfaced that there must have been a division on the team between Gailey and Johnson players(three years in), completely independent from Johnson's control(naturally). According to some allegations, this conflict perhaps even involved one of the team's leaders, "Mr. Heisman" himself, starting quarterback Josh Nesbitt.

But is this the end of the attrition? Rumor has circulated already that the "jailbreak" is far from complete: Defensive back Louis Young, one of Johnson's more heralded recruits in his time at Tech, is apparently considering a transfer, and others are rumored to follow.

At the pace it's going, "Annapolis South" may indeed arrive faster than anyone ever could have imagined.

Johnson losing control of team?

On Thursday four Georgia Tech football players were deemed academically ineligible for Monday's Weedwhacker Bowl in Shreveport. Starting receiver Stephen Hill, starting safety Mario Edwards, reserve linebacker Anthony Barnes, and woman-beating defensive lineman Robert Hall will not be suiting up for the illustrious game. This incident joins the abundance of evidence in the face of a miserable 6-6 season which has betrayed the fractures apparent throughout Johnson's crumbling program.

Only last Friday in fact were Tech fans faced with similarly distressing news, when WR Quentin Sims, a former two-star "CPJ special," revealed his transfer, presumably to the FCS where he belongs. In classic Johnson fashion, the reasons for this action "were not immediately [made] available" to the media. Sims's defection is the latest in what's been a virtual Conga line of departures in the last year, among them the dismissal of touted A-back Chris Jackson for a "violation of team rules," as well as the transfers of ballyhooed 4-star QB Jordan Luallen and backup QB Jaybo Shaw. Most puzzling of all was the bizarre transfer in early December of former starting safety Cooper Taylor, a Tech legacy and a once promising defender, who succumbed to mysterious "heat-related symptoms" in the opener versus SC State, never to be heard from again.

This attrition only underscores Johnson's growing lack of control over his team, something he freely admitted to in late November. Then, in a statement reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Johnson lamented his inability "to find the hot button on this team":

"When asked what motivated last year’s ACC championship team, [Johnson] said, 'If I knew I would use it this year. I don’t know. It just happens.'"

You heard it straight from the coach, folks! No teaching or motivation necessary. Apparently inspired play on the gridiron is merely some nebulous, uncertain thing-a-majig that just sort of "happens." As it turns out, Johnson doesn't really even understand how his team became motivated enough last year to win a championship, even if it was only the ACC and they still managed to lose to 6-5 UGA. Maybe it was dumb luck? Perhaps fueled by the most talented foursome ever on the same roster at Georgia Tech? None of which were recruited by Coach Johnson? Do you think?

Hall

The disruptions haven't been limited to transfers and academic casualties either. Last November, B-back and "high character" Johnson recruit Daniel Drummond was the recipient of a mandatory 12 month NCAA suspension of eligibility for... shh, don't tell anyone!... steroid use. And as previously mentioned, lineman Robert Hall was arrested and charged in June with battery for his brutalization of a young woman, an offense which the harsh disciplinarian Johnson greeted with a rigorous one game suspension for the opener versus prolific South Carolina State.

Even the rule-abiding members of the team have been finding ways to run afoul of the standard modes of decorum. Weeks ago, Tech fans were incensed when a seemingly-innocent exchange on Jonathan Dwyer's Twitter account belied current players Will Jackson and Roderick Sweeting turning on their own supporters and openly criticizing the loyalty of Tech fans.

And so the saga continues. Academic failure, attrition, discontent, rule-breaking, and now losses abound, and "The Man Who Wins Everywhere He Coaches" finds himself square in the middle. Surely now is where all that hard-won experience acquired at the Naval Academy and in Division 1-AA really pays off. At the rate things are going however, Johnson may not even need to draw on such a skill set, as he may soon enough find himself out of players left to coach.