A Tale of Two Johnsons

I am a Vandy alum and former student athlete, and a huge fan of Georgia Tech's football coach Paul Johnson.

My brother and dad both attended Georgia Tech, so I have followed GT's football program very closely since Paul Johnson was hired two years ago.

What lies below is what I will call A Tale of Two Johnsons:

GT's Paul Johnson on the recent firing of Defensive Coordinator Dave Wommack:

“It was kind of a gradual process really throughout the last year-and-a-half,” Johnson said. “There are going to be times where — just like offensively, we played horrendous in the bowl game — there’s going to be some of that. But there’s not going to be a long pattern of it. And what happened was, I just felt like when we played the better offensive teams, we struggled.”

Johnson went on to add that he realized there were several issues that unexpectedly affected the defense’s performance this season, but that they should not be the only sources of evaluation.

“We’ve got some personnel issues, and we’ve got some other things to address, so it certainly wasn’t all Dave,” Johnson said. “But there comes a point where you have to make a decision, and you have to choose to make a decision or stay status quo, and I just felt like, to get where we want to go, I just need to change direction.”

Vandy's Bobby Johnson on refusing to make any changes to his staff after one of the worst offensive campaigns in the history of college football:

"We're going to look at what the cause is for our season," Johnson said. "But I'm not changing coaches because I hear a few fans talking. I'm not afraid to make changes. I've made them before."

Would another rough season in 2010 force Johnson to make some changes?

"That's kind of hard to say," Johnson answered. "What caused the rough year?"

Who cares about a few fans talking? How about the fact that since 2003 Vandy has an average ranking of 10 (out of 12 SEC teams) in points per game? How about the fact that Vandy has lost 66 games in 8 seasons and had four 2 win seasons? How about the fact that we are 0-3 vs. Service Academies and 0-2 vs. MTSU?

Maybe the facts described above, not that a "few fans" are talking, should be what prompts Vandy to change something.

Paul Johnson may not hire the best DC ever to replace Wommack, and the next DC may have some struggles as well. However, at least he acknowledges that if you have even a shred of competitive fire in you, you can't for one second settle for anything less than excellence or, at the bare minimum, the constant pursuit of it.

Boy did Vandy screw up when we picked up the wrong Johnson.