Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Paul Johnson: Endangering the jobs of coaches everywhere, including Mark Richt... and Bobby Johnson?


Been reading some crap on chat rooms in which so-called Vandy fans say we should just fire Bobby Johnson and try to hire Georgia Tech's Paul Johnson and when that doesn't happen hire the disciple he left behind at Navy who's still running his triple Lindy offense.

Paul Johnson has a way of making opposing fans stark-raving nuts. Just ask Georgia fans. The last thing on earth the Georgia Bulldogs — or their best player, A.J. Green — wants to do is run the triple option. Well, actually the last thing on earth they want to do is lose to Tech.

I don't believe Paul Johnson will ever be the head coach in Athens, but he just may play a big role in removing the guy who's there right now. Sure, Mark Richt wants to beat Florida, but he's already proven he can lose consistently to the Gators and keep his job. He dang sure can't lose consistently to the Yellow Jackets and keep his job.

What does this have to do with Bobby Johnson? Well, Vandy fans are thinking perhaps when their school fired Woody it should have hired P. Johnson instead B. Johnson.

You know how many D-1 schools whiffed on Paul Johnson? Hundreds. The guy's a genius, and geniuses don't always have fluffy hair and Italian suits and a great resumé. In other words, they don't always look like Nick Saban.

Hey Vandy fans, take a reality check. Sure, Paul Johnson uses a lot of trickery and maybe he doesn't have the athletes that, say, Florida and Georgia have. But he's got better athletes than Vandy. And he doesn't play in the SEC.

Maybe Tech goes 11-1 this year. But no way Paul Johnson goes 11-1 playing Vanderbilt's schedule.

The guy is smart, no doubt. And only one team can have him.

So let's stop throwing our coach under the bus.

And do you really want him to install another new offense next spring?

8 comments:

even more anonymous said...

The issue has always been, not whether Vanderbilt should keep Bobby Johnson, but whether Bobby will stay put at Vanderbilt when other schools come calling, as they surely will, again and again.

Everyone with any football savvy knows that the Commies have been riddled with injuries to key players this season. And yet they still went deep into the 4th quarter with the chance to beat a top 25 team on the road last week.

As for Georgia Tech, they're giving up almost 24 points a game. They allowed 31 to a Miss. State team that could only score 15 on Vanderbilt. This could be the week the Commie offense gets well.

Greg M said...

Doubt it.

Anything but Gatorade said...

"And do you really want him to install another new offense next spring?"

/looks at current offense
//looks at last year's offense

Yes.

DIMON KENDRICK-HOLMES said...

Good point about Tech's defense. It's not great, so Paul Johnson uses his offense like a defense, launching long, slow drives that involve repeatedly converting on fourth and short, eat up the clock, keep opposing defenses on the field, and generally demoralize the other team.

I think everybody agrees that Vanderbilt has a solid defense. Now the Commies need a serviceable offense.

DIMON KENDRICK-HOLMES said...

Loblaw, I don't think we keep changing the offense every year. We definitely need to make adjustments to the spread, but look at all the redshirts and recruits we've got lined up to run the spread: quarterbacks Charlie Goro and Nash Nance, and skill guys like Jerrell Priester, Jonathan Krause and Bradley Roby. Throw in extremely promising frosh running backs Norman and Stacy and you've got a bunch of quick, elusive little guys.

We've built a spread team with our last two classes.

Vandy-Montana said...

I was one that did NOT want Bobby when he came from Furman in '02 (I mean he did just lose the Nat'l Title to my Griz).

I do like his recruiting, he does very well for Vandy in that regard.

However, between the lines, I don't think he is the coach we need (nor his staff). I don't know who we could actually get to improve both on and off the field, however. Being Vandy, it's tough.

Looking back on Bobby, he's probably as good as we can get with our academic standards and such. Would Paul Johnson improve Vanderbilt? No...I think 2008 was the peak of Vandy footall, sadly...

DIMON KENDRICK-HOLMES said...

Interesting that the peak of Vandy football usually coincides with the nadir of established SEC programs. How did we win four SEC games last season? Outside of a victory over Kentucky, the team with which we're most competitive, we caught Auburn and South Carolina in down years and Ole Miss right before the Rebels exploded into a Top 10 team.

So I don't think we can say that Vandy's hit its peak, because we don't know which programs might be having down years when we're at our best and happen to play them.

Greg M said...

Hoping to find someone who will let me take Tech minus the points. I think they beat us by 20+.

I am giving our offense a vote of no confidence.

Sorry guys, I have lost my optimism and become a realist.