Unfazed, Johnson reloads with top F(C)S talent

Coach Paul Johnson filled two urgent needs Sunday night, securing the commitments of Sean Tobin, one of the nation's finest longsnapping prospects, and "under-the-radar" DE Kyle Travis out of South Forsyth. In fact Travis was so far off the radar that he did not have a page dedicated to him on either Scout or Rivals until shortly after his commitment. How resourceful of Coach Johnson!

Tobin should come right in and assist with longsnapping immediately, much to the relief and cheers of Tech fans across the globe, while Travis will likely redshirt and then fit deftly into the gap created by the heathenous decommits of worthless rabble such as Darrius Caldwell and Stephon Tuitt.

By the way, Travis's "other" scholarship offer per his brand-spanking new Rivals.com page was from none other than Jeff Monken's high-flying Eagles of Georgia Southern! It should be noted that while Johnson is 0 for 28 head-to-head in recruiting versus UGA this season, he has now spirited several promising young men from the clutches of hated Southern, adroitly tightening Tech's stranglehold on the #2 position in-state.

But let's be serious here for a moment: the Tech Rivals site has (hilariously) framed Tobin's commitment as "addressing" the special teams problems! After all, how many big games did we lose this season because of incompetent longsnapping?

Even we didn't think Johnson had become so desperate.

Alternate realities

In defense of this season's disaster, some Tech fans have found it necessary to apply dubious tactics in shielding their beloved Coach Johnson from criticism. Among the more ridiculous has been their illustration of the fact that Tech finished with the same 6-7 record as rival UGA, despite not having the same "4 and 5 star" talent. This has also been used somehow as evidence that Tech doesn't "need" that kind of talent to be a great program, despite UGA's 9 wins over Tech in the last 10.

Obviously such claims ignore the reality that UGA plays in arguably the nation's toughest conference, while Tech plays in a second-rate league comprised mostly of "academic" and "basketball" schools. To this effect have I argued that Tech's "average" 6-7 record in the ACC is akin to a 3-9 debacle playing in a "real" conference.

I thought it would be interesting then to examine how Tech may have fared playing UGA's schedule. The following results were ascertained by using the "predictor" rating published by Jeff Sagarin. Let's take a look:

Opponent	Predictor	Margin	Result
Louisiana-Lafayette	50.52	+21.86	W
@South Carolina	83.35	-16.97	L
Arkansas	87.09	-14.71	L
@Mississippi St	83.00	-16.62	L
@Colorado	66.84	-0.46	L
Tennessee	74.31	-1.93	L
Vanderbilt	58.06	+14.32	W
@Kentucky	69.45	-3.07	L
Florida*	82.38	-13	L
Idaho St	40.15	+32.13	W
@Auburn	93.56	-27.18	L
@Georgia	N/A	-8	L
Central Florida*	77.57	-8.19	L

*neutral site game
Georgia Tech's predictor rating = 69.38
3 points added for home field advantage


So 3-10, with wins over La-Lafayette, Vandy, and Idaho State. Sounds about right. By the way, Georgia Southern gained a spot on Tech in the final Sagarin ratings but failed to overtake the Jackets, placing two notches behind at 72nd.

Better luck next year Coach Monken!

Unranked, unrated new buzzwords as Tech lands trio

For the first time in over three months, Coach Paul Johnson has obtained a commitment from a prospect of any note.

Three-star offensive lineman Errin Joe out of Lakeland, FL pledged for Tech on Sunday, toting behind a respectable list of offers which included Miami(FL) and West Virginia. Tech was reportedly Joe's second choice, but the committable offer from his first pick, FSU, was not forthcoming.

Much like with the Simple Option offense however, there's always a little bit of bad sprinkled in with the good.

Go Army, Beat Navy!

The unfounded hero-worship of Coach Paul Johnson has indeed become a nauseating phenomenon. Every insignificant word or gesture offered by this dumpy, belligerent mass of cliches and arrogance is seemingly another reason for a certain segment of Tech fandom to erupt in goosebumps while shrieking in womanly delight, "I love our coach!" This cult-like fanaticism has managed even to entail a strange reverence of Johnson's previous coaching stops, with Tech fans overnight emerging as "Wal-Mart" supporters of Georgia Southern and US Naval Academy athletics.

And while the latter circumstance may appear harmless on its surface, in reality the Johnson slurper-lemmings, through their support of other teams that run the Cheese-Ball Offense, actively root against the fortunes of Georgia Tech football. Simply put, the more teams that have success using the "Spread Option," the more teams we will see adopting it, and so will this compromise Tech's distinct advantage in running an offense no one ever sees.