It’s been a disappointing year for Paul Johnson. Georgia Tech is not only out of contention to defend its ACC championship, it struggled last week against Duke simply to become bowl eligible. Johnson’s been complaining since the Kansas game about getting his troops motivated and focused to play well, so you’d think Tech’s rivalry game would be a godsend for him. I mean, playing your bitter enemy – could there be any better way to fire his players up?
Apparently there is.
… It didn’t take long during Tech’s post-game press conference for the Bulldogs to come up. Johnson said last year’s 30-24 loss in Atlanta wasn’t mentioned during the season and he didn’t plan on using revenge as a motivational tactic.
“I’m going to play up the ‘Let’s-get-ready-to-go-play-and-get-better’ card; that’s what we need to do,” said Johnson, noting a victory would guarantee a winning season for Tech…
“Let’s get better”? That’s some battle cry. The man is cementing his reputation as one of the great motivators in college football.
You get the impression that having made the case before that the Georgia game shouldn’t be that big a deal for Tech, Johnson finds it more important to stroke his ego than inspire his team. Whatever his faults, that’s one thing you can’t say about Mark Richt.
“When you get to this point where we are at, with no chance for an SEC championship game, when you play Georgia Tech I won’t have to scream very hard at all,” he said.
Get The Picture 
Let’s start hate week off on the right foot! We have one of those waterless urinals at work. For some reason, there is a bee emblazoned on the backsplash. My aim is always true NERDS!!
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CPJ is such a d-bag. Hope we play our best game of the year saturday and that Grantham has used the off week to teach us how to stop the option.
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Paul Johnson thinks he’s above such trivial things as motivation. His “perfect option” is so perfect, he should be able to run opponents off of the field in his sleep. He doesn’t understand how the rest of the mediocre ACC has caught on to how to stop his “perfect option”, but he just knows it has to do with the players failing and not him… so yeah, he’s not worried about motivation, he’s just worried about trying to find a way to better impart his inate perfection to his imperfect players.
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+1 Thanks for the laugh… I needed that.
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Nerds!
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That clip makes me think about GT and bust out laughing every time. Thank you sir!
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The truly sad thing is that Duke should have won that game. If not for a horrible third quarter they had that game. Cutcliffe made a horrible decision that completely turned the game around in that quarter too, i.e. bringing in his running QB and having him throw a pass that was picked and returned 85 yards for a score. It is amazing to me that none of Tech’s QBs can throw the ball worth a damn. With all of the high school kids in option offenses who won’t get shots at playing QB in college at most schools, you’d think Johnson could find one who was reasonably accurate.
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I was tracking it on my phone this weekend, and I thought the game came down to the play where Duke had a chance to tie them at 23 in the 4th quarter, but instead of kicking the ball, Duke threw it into the end zone incomplete on 4th and 1 from the 15. Tech broke a 79 yard TD pass a few plays later to open up a 10 point margin. I hate settling for field goals, but I think I would have either kicked it or tried to get the first down. I loved the gamble against Auburn where Bobo had Murray throw to Green in the end zone on 4th down, but I’m pretty sure Duke doesn’t have players of comparable talent to Aaron Murray and AJ Green. Of course, I guess you have to be bold to pull a road upset, especially when you’re Duke.
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They did try to kick it. Their kicker who had made something like 18 straight field goals pushed it badly to the right. He later missed a 54-yarder that would have cut it to 7, but that one was more understandable.
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Ah. My stupid score center app had it listed as an incomplete pass. Well, if you miss a chip shot, you’re probably not going to win the game.
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What’s with this guy constantly trying to downplay the game with us? You’re not fooling anybody, bro. Your fan base has been and always will be obsessed with winning this one. This is what makes or breaks your season. Those nifty rings you came up with a few years back after your fluke win told us everything we needed to know.
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Precisely. When your bowl ring doesn’t mention your bowl win, but instead has the score from your field-goal victory over your in-state rival, that means the Georgia game WAS your bowl game that year. And, it is every year if you’re Tech. If a Tech fan is completely honest with you, and they won’t be, Chan Gailey’s division championship season and Johnson’s ACC Championship season were both marred badly with a loss to Georgia.
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Fake Juice?
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Anybody else think he is trying to downplay this rivalry so that he is not blamed as much when he can’t win it? He knows every year his record against UGA will get worse and worse. He is just hoping that every year his fanbase will care less and less. Anybody on either side of this rivalry that says this game is no big deal is either a liar or an idiot. Even when Tech is horrible this is a big game.
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Ol “fish fry” johnson is going to let that “bigger fish to fry” comment be the end of him.
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This reminds me of the mentality a team that gets dominated every year by another team. They can’t seem to get motivated to kick ass so they kind of ignore the game. What team am I thinking of…? Oh that’s right, its Georgia and the annual ass whipping we take down in the old Gator Bowl.
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Bottom Line: Just beat the Hell out of Tech….my Dad..a ’31 UGA grad…never in his 76 year life let a Tech game go by without a resounding ” to Hell with Tech”…and his Mom, my grandmother, would regal us kids each season with those stories of fire hoses, drunken gun weilding fans, and the cry, “to Hell with Tech”..a fitting form of history for all of kids who have never forgotten who the real rival is….Go Dawgs, GATA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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