The face of motivation (AP photo)
It’s not nice to make Paul Johnson grumpy.
… Meanwhile, roughly 12 feet away, sat Georgia Tech’s Johnson, growing more irritable with each question concerning his program’s recent run-in with the NCAA.
Poor baby. And the media wouldn’t stop.
… As for Johnson taking responsibility, eh, not so much.
“We just need to move on,” he said. “You can beat it to death. It is what it is. Everybody is going to have an opinion and certainly I’ve got mine, but no one asked me.”
Actually, though, his opinion was asked quite often Monday. And he didn’t appreciate it.
There was:
“We’re going to put it behind us and move forward.”
And:
“I’ve never been involved in this process before and I hope I’m never involved in another. And, really, honestly, I wasn’t involved in this one. Hardly. This one had nothing to do with the coaching staff. It was more the administrators.”
But what about the player allegations?
“Did they ever prove it [impermissible benefits]? You’d have to look at the report.”
Lessons learned?
“I take away from this that I’m going to move on. How about you?”
And when asked if it taught him anything about how to deal with players or agents, Johnson responded, “Evidently not.”
Finally, a rattled Johnson barked “next question,” and a Georgia Tech official mercifully stepped in to declare it was time for a different topic.
If this is Tech’s idea of using the sanctions as a motivational tool, it’s gonna be a long year on the Flats. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Get The Picture 
They’ll always have DragonCon and nobody can take that away from them. Except Sauron. And maybe Gandalf if he ever turned evil.
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Couldn’t happen to a better bunch of losers…Had dinner with a couple of techies last night. They were gloating in the fact that at least they didn’t have to vacate their victory over us in ’08…when that is what you see as a silver lining life is pretty grim
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Not that I don’t understand Johnson’s frustration — it’s gotta suck to lose pretty much your sole tangible accomplishment in three years at Tech — but what’d he think they were going to ask him about? Tech’s dazzling passing attack? Their wealth of returning talent?
Johnson makes for an interesting contrast with Gene Chizik, whom I saw at SEC Media Days last week. Chizik was bombarded with questions about his run-in with Julie Roe Lach in Destin a few months back, not to mention a couple leading questions about Cam Newton’s various controversies, but he just repeated the same PR-approved lines about how the thing in Destin was merely “a question of process.” Say what you will about the guy, and I have, but he kept his cool.
Johnson, on the other hand, sounds like he was about five minutes away from knocking over the mike and stomping back up to his hotel room to sulk. And this is why I don’t get Techies fawning over their coach for being some old-school hardass. There’s a fine line between “stoic indifference” and “pouting,” and PJ seems to be on the wrong side of it more often than not.
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Johnson may a have a little Donnan in him.
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What this “Johnson” doesn’t seem to get is the “I don’t have time for this shit” schtick only has charm when you actually win and win big like Saban, Parcells, Belicheck, et al. Otherwise, you just come off as a bitter and unsympathetic prick.
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I’d say Belicheck and company still come off as pricks, only the fanbase doesn’t care.
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+100 He is Donnan without the personality. They both had huge chips on their shoulders because of FCB in Donnan’s case and the Triple Option in the case of the Mini-Skipper. Over reaction is the recurring theme.
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Most people, even CFB fans, can’t name a single Tech player. What else are they going to talk about? Another 4 Cokes / 4 Hot Dog deal? WR blocking fundamentals?
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Well, I don’t know how motivational he is, but he certainly is a tool.
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Chizik would have reacted the exact same way as Johnson if he hadn’t already been put in his place by that NCAA official recently. He was told to watch his mouth because the investigation was still ongoing and that’s what he did.
As for Johnson, I don’t understand where the arrogance comes from. Whipping up on Army? Winning a couple of FCS national titles? Sorry Ga Southern fans, but who cares outside 5 or 10 very small fan bases spread around the country? Wofford, App State, Montana, Eastern Washington, Villanova…yawn.
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Johnson would have punched the media in the face, except he had bigger fish to fry.
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It’s going to end badly for the Mini Skipper at GTU. They loved Pepper Rodgers and his quirky personality and his non-passing offense, too….right up to the point where, 4 or 5 years after they first embraced him, he wasn’t dominating the world. If you recall, Pepper had to sue the cheap SOBs after he got fired, because they refused to pay the balance of his contract (he won, too). Pepper was one of theirs. The Mini-Skipper is just a testy, awkward little know-it-all; that may make him the perfect icon for their testy, awkward, know-it-all fan base, but it wont save him from the Turk. Especially if he rings up another mediocre year, ending with yet another loss to UGA.
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What is GTU?
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It’s a thermal unit of measurement used to determine heating capacity.
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Another name for the North Avenue Trade School
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Heh. Ask Navy fans if Mini-Skipper likes to shoulder blame.
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“The Mini-Skipper is just a testy, awkward little know-it-all; that may make him the perfect icon for their testy, awkward, know-it-all fan base”
20
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Should read ” 20″
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Damn you iPhone. Plus 20.
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I hope he remains their coach for as long as he lives.
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Hee hee hee
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Jowls Johnson….
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When Johnson says nobody asked him his opinion, what he really meant was nobody asked him about his opinion in Klingon. If they would have done that, he would have cheerfully gone on record with them.
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I can’t see this guy having a long career on the Flats or with any major program. If he doesn’t win 9-10 games a year, then all he is is an unmanageable prick.
That said, the guy who hired him (Radacovic) is just got anchored on North Avenue by the NCAA sanctions. If he’d jumped to Tennessee, I’m pretty certain his successor would have had Johnson on a too-short leash and it’d be over in two years, max. As it is, the gnats might be stuck with these idiots for awhile.
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Hmm. Well, I’ll give you that he’s a little testy right now, but a lot of the Tech fan base is too. The NCAA crap is pure bush league, and a lot of non-dawgs out there agree.
I think what you’re seeing is simply that Johnson doesn’t do coachspeak. No complaints here- I’d rather him tell it like he sees it. And frankly, the fact that Dawgs don’t like him isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.
Of course, he has to win for it all to work, but isn’t that always the case? How far would Richt’s likeableness take him after another 6-7 season?
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I’ll go out on a limb and say that I think a lot (if not most) Dawgs appreciate his blunt honesty. I also believe you have misread us; it isn’t that we don’t like him, we just find him laughable.
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All the double entendres and sexual innuendoes about Tech’s “Johnson” are outrageous. So are the claims:
Jim @ 7:02–claims he had dinner with all of the Tech fans.
Doug@7:16–“oldschool hardass” (more than we really wanted to know)
AHD@ 7:34–(Tech’s) “Johnson may have a little bit of Donnan in him”- Oh, yeah? And how are you aware of these juicy tidbits?
Chi Dawg@ 8:02–“unsympathetic prick”–Like in sexual domination?
Scott@ 8:01– “a tool”–What else would a Tech Johnson be? Duhh!
TP@ 10:39–“unmanageable prick”–As opposed to a manageable Tech prick?
If these innuendoes continue, you will have Dr. Marcus Bachmann on this site like stink on ….Whoa! Now you have me doing it.
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The title to this thread is wrong. It was supposed to be: “Ask Me About My Pissing Game.”
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Correct. That’s what a johnson does.
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“There’s a fine line between “stoic indifference” and “pouting,” and PJ seems to be on the wrong side of it more often than not.”
Agreed. You can call guys like Johnson, Belicheck, or Meyer “No-Nonsense” all you want, that doesn’t make any of them any less of an asshole.
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“Did they ever prove it [impermissible benefits]? You’d have to look at the report.”
So, the whole point of the punishment was lost on him wasn’t it? It would be overly harsh for a few hundred bucks of goodies (hell, a 4 game suspension is too much); but that isn’t what earned the probation.
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The guy apparently can’t read–or won’t.
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