By: Matt Laws (matt.laws@averyjournal.com)
Avery County native Paul Johnson is making waves in the ACC as his Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets claimed the ACC Championship. However, Johnson didn’t always see himself as a coach when he was growing up in Newland.
“I don’t know if I ever really thought about it,” Johnson said on if he thought of being a coach when he was a child. “That is something that you don’t really ever think about. I think when you’re growing up and you’re smaller, you probably just think about playing all the
time, because that is what you want to think about as opposed to coaching. As I got older and progressed, I realized I wanted to be a coach.”
That transition to coaching couldn’t have gone any better for Johnson. After stops at Avery County High School, Lees-McRae College, Georgia Southern, Hawaii, and Navy as an assistant coach, Johnson finally got his chance to be a head coach in 1997 when he went to Georgia Southern. There, the Eagles marched to a 62-10 record in Johnson’s tenure that included two straight national titles as well as five straight Southern Conference titles. In 2002, Johnson took over a Navy program where his reign saw the Midshipmen beat Notre Dame for the first time since 1963 as well as five straight bowl bids and Commander-in-Chief’s trophies. The success along the way led to Johnson being selected just the 12th coach in Georgia Tech history.
“Once my coaching career started, I was fortunate to work around some good people and had some great players and had some success fairly early and moved up the ladder pretty quickly,” Johnson said. “So it worked out.”
At Georgia Tech, Johnson has led the Ramblin’ Wreck to two straight bowl games including an Orange Bowl berth this season as a result of an 11-2 season and being ACC champions. However, an ACC title was not unexpected for Johnson or his team.
“That is the ultimate goal,” Johnson said. “I think that is what you are shooting for. We were disappointed we tied for our division the first year with Virginia Tech and lost on the tie breaker. This year, we were fortunate enough to win the division and championship
game. Certainly, that is what you are trying to do when the season starts.”
In the Orange Bowl, Georgia Tech will face a stiff challenge from the Big 10 in Iowa. The Hawkeyes were in early national title contention until a couple of late season losses when quarterback Ricky Stanzi fell to injury. The Hawkeyes are currently ranked 10th in the AP poll, a spot behind the Ramblin’ Wreck.
“We know that they are going to be a good team,” Johnson said. “Anytime you play a team in the top ten, all of them are pretty good. We have to get ready to play and it will be a challenge to get ready for them.”
The Orange Bowl is on January 5th. As a winner of two national championships at Georgia Southern, Johnson has had experience on both sides of the BCS debate, and he made it clear which of the two systems he preferred.
“I’d like to have a playoff system if they could figure out how to do it,” Johnson said. “I think that is the best way to do it. We are the only sport in the NCAA that doesn’t have one so I think they will eventually have one rather it be a plus-one or a four or eight team playoff. I think they will eventually have one. It’s coming; it’s just a matter of time.”
Overall, Johnson looks to the build the Yellow Jackets into a national champion, regardless of what playoff system is used.
“We are just in the progress of trying to build a program that can compete for a national championship,” Johnson said. “We still got some work to do, but we have made a lot of progress in year two. Hopefully we can remain consistent and keep getting better.”
Despite the coaching success, Johnson hasn’t forgotten his hometown roots. The Georgia Tech coaching staff hosted Avery High School’s football coaches.
“It’s always fun,” Johnson said. “They came down to a clinic and came down to practice. You want to try and help them anyway you can, and certainly they are welcome to come here and we will share whatever we got.
You always pull for your hometown school and I hope they do well.”
In addition to the Avery staff, Georgia Tech also hosted Appalachian coach Jerry Moore and staff for a couple of days in the spring. Even though Johnson is coaching in a BCS conference, it doesn’t mean he has forgotten about Avery County.
“I think you always have a soft spot for the place that you grew up,” Johnson said. “There are a lot of great people there, and we enjoy getting back there whenever we can.”
The Avery Journal-Times would like to thank Coach Johnson for granting us a phone interview as well as Dean Buchan in the Georgia Tech Sports Information for all of his assistance.
