Johnson hired as new football head coach

by Hahnming Lee, Advertising Manager

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Paul Johnson was named the 12th head coach in Tech history last December. He leaves the Naval Academy after six years.

“I do not think there is another program I would have left the Naval Academy for. When we coach, we search for a school or football program that you can compete on a national level for championships and certainly I feel that way about [Tech],” Johnson said.

Johnson compiled a 45-29 record in his tenure at Navy. While Tech has struggled against rival Georgia the past few years, Navy has won six in a row against Army in their annual game.

“I have some experience in rivalry games. I’m not going to shy away from that, that’s a game that Tech needs to win,” Johnson said.

Athletic Director Dan Radakovich promised a swift and thorough search and completed the process in ten days. Numerous candidates were rumored to be in the run for the job before the Athletic Association selected Johnson.

“Whether it is as an assistant coach at Hawaii or a head coach at Georgia Southern or Navy, he flat out figured out how to be successful. Passing, running, special teams, it does not matter. He does what it takes to win games,” Radakovich said.

One of the things Radakovich discussed in his press conference after Chan Gailey was fired was the need for a coach to be able to take on the business aspect of the game on top of his football duties. Johnson feels as though he meets these qualifications.

“I think that as the head football coach that you’re involved in every aspect of the program. The best way to achieve [success]? Win games. It’s been through my experience in my years of coaching that if you win, most people leave excited. It’s a great elixir,” Johnson said.

While Johnson has coached several different types of offenses, he created his own version of the triple-offense at Navy. This led him to such great success despite little recruiting and without the budget of many other larger schools. Navy’s high academic standards made the job of finding student-athletes that would fit into his system and be admitted into the school even tougher.

“In my mind, we want to emphasize student-athlete. We want to recruit the best student athletes here for [Tech]. We’re not looking for someone who doesn’t want to go to school and doesn’t want to get a great education,” Johnson said.

There have been several criticisms of the option offense, including one that it will not work at the larger football programs in the form that Johnson has run it.

“I was telling someone during the interview process that during the past six years at Navy, I think we played 29 BCS teams and I believe a large part were in the ACC conference and if I am not mistaken, we averaged over 30 points against them. It’s been a good offense,” Johnson said.

The new coach cited Illinois, Florida and West Virginia as some of the larger schools which run a variant of the offense he plans to implement at Tech.

“I think that common sense would tend to dictate that if you have undersized guys and they are not as big or fast as some of the guys you are playing and you’re still having a lot of success, that bigger and faster guys doing the same thing will have a lot more success,” Johnson said.

Still, despite his previous accomplishments, he will adjust to best fit Tech’s players and coaching staff.

“We’re not going to try and put a square peg in a round hole. We’ll take the system and try and mold it to the type of young men we have in the program,” Johnson said.

Johnson was a highly coveted coach during this offseason with several other colleges contacting him and interviewing him for their vacancies. Despite the interest, he found Tech to be the best fit for him and his family.

“It did come down to taking a job here at Tech or taking a job at the Naval Academy. If I thought there was a ceiling here and we couldn’t compete for championships, I wouldn’t be standing here,” Johnson said.

Johnson’s arrival comes at a time when Tech fans are trying to erase the memory of another mediocre season. The team lost six games and was largely considered a disappointment by many whom expected Tech to contend for an ACC title.