Matt’s Blog

So Georgia Tech’s football team has finally beat the Seminoles. Amazing considering both the length of our loosing streak and the abysmally low expectations that were made about GT and the beginning of the season.

Now I don’t usually write about football for two reasons. First, I know nothing about football. Well maybe not nothing, I do know how the game works and what penalties are bad and such. But when it comes to stats and strategy and all those other things I generally sit back and let those with the expert knowledge make fools of people like me who know nothing but unlike me don’t keep their mouths shut. The second reason is that for a long time there wasn’t much to talk about in the world of GT football save how much I hated Chan Gailey and his piss-poor coaching. Talking about that would have gotten really boring, because he sucked the same amount each time we played so there would have been no variation.

But as I’ve patiently watched our team this year I’ve come to some realizations that I wanted to share. I must admit, at the start of the season I wasn’t expecting much. Not that I didn’t have hope that things would go well, I just figured that it would take a while for Coach Johnson to get out team up to speed. Well… that and I was constantly told that it wasn’t just Chan’s fault that our team lost, it was the players too. So naturally I figured that having the same players would mean that we wouldn’t see major improvement until Coach Johnson was able to fill out the roster with guys that fit his program.

Even so I maintained a tentative hope throughout the early season starting with our first legitimate win against Boston College. A hope which was bolstered by subsequent wins against Mississippi State, Duke and Clemson. I realized that regardless of our performance this season, which has already far exceeded expectations, I believe that Coach Johnson is one of the best things to happen to Georgia Tech football in a long time.

I like Paul Johnson for a lot of reasons. He’s passionate (some might say mean), he’s driven and he’s old-school. I remember overhearing a conversation between an Athletic Association staffer and a campus police officer early this summer regarding Coach Johnson’s changes to the program. The staffer was detailing the military-inspired discipline and focus Coach Johnson brought to the program. Just the thing needed for a team that saw false starts and offsides penalties repeated every game like clockwork and suffered from a quarterback who couldn’t count the number of downs in a drive. I also heard rumors of changes to the practice schedule from easy and optional to grueling and mandatory. It warmed my heart every time I got up early to run before work to hear the shrill bark of coach’s whistles wafting over from the practice fields.

Perhaps the largest source of consternation for most fans was what is (now affectionately) known as the “Triple Option” or just “the Option.” Frankly when I heard people freaking out over Paul Johnson’s use of the TO at Navy I couldn’t understand what the big deal was. Maybe I didn’t understand things enough (a distinct possibility) but I figured that Dan Radakovich knew what he was doing. After all, he did can Chan. I figured that the Option couldn’t be all that bad or Johnson would have been run out of college football long ago. But as I’ve watched the Option in action over the last few weeks I began to realize something. Something that came to a head as I read post-game articles from the FSU victory this weekend.

I really like the Option.

While many regard the Triple Option as an outdated technique, I think it’s perfect for Tech. There are several reasons:

Weird... but Passionate

First, it’s not stylish. No one else is doing it, and some might even call the Option a little weird. But that’s ok because here at Tech we’re all a little weird. We’re all about pushing the envelope and trying new things (or old things in new ways). Just look at the wreck parade. We really like doing things that no one else is and we’re not always concerned with the best-looking thing just the most effective.

Which leads me to point number two, the Option is effective. Just ask Jacksonville State, Boston College, Clemson… you get the idea. Yes, we lost a couple already. Might even loose more. But this is year one, just imagine how things are going to be in year two, or three, or ten. Here at Tech we like our success, and so far the Option is a winner.

But the most important thing is that at Georgia Tech, we don’t quit. For students who are more than willing to pull an all-nigher (or two) to finish an assignment, we have little pity for a coach or players or a team that won’t express the same dedication on the field. To me the Option represents a hard-core, old-school approach that seeks to win at any cost. We’ll run the ball to the right or the left or up the middle or we might even throw it, but no matter what we will fight. And Coach Johnson exudes dedication on the field, both in his empassioned rebuking of mistakes and his masterful employment of an offensive system that many said was better suited for the scrap heap.

It would be foolish to expect to win all the time. Any good Georgia Tech student knows this. But what we do want is passionate dedication to fight, no matter what the odds. I had hoped to get through this post without resorting to the tired “Perfect Option” line, but the more I think about it the more I realize that Paul Johnson and his “antequated” systems couldn’t be any more perfect for Georgia Tech.

Go Jackets, to Hell with Georgia!