GAME PREVIEW: GEORGIA TECH
BY LOU SOMOGYI
THE COACHING SIDE SHOW
Before Georgia Tech head coach Paul
Johnson achieved prominence at Navy
from 2002-07, including ending Notre
Dame's NCAA-record 43-game win-
ning streak against the Midshipmen
from 1964-2006, he made his coaching
bones at Georgia Southern.
In 1999 and 2000, he guided the Ea-
gles to Division I-AA — now known
as the Football Championship Subdi-
vision (FCS) — to national titles while
running his vaunted triple-option of-
fense. When Johnson was an offensive
coordinator in the 1990s, his 1991 Ha-
waii unit gave the Sugar Bowl cham-
pion Irish everything they could han-
dle before losing 48-42.
Hired in 1997 by Georgia South-
ern, Johnson had achievements at the
school that remain close to his heart
— which is why he became enraged
in 2006 when current Notre Dame de-
fensive coordinator Brian VanGorder
changed the program's identity when
he was hired as the head coach at Geor-
gia Southern after a superb stint as
Georgia's defensive coordinator from
2001-05.
One of VanGorder 's first moves as
a new coach was to ashcan the triple-
option attack. Still the head coach at
Navy through 2007, Johnson immedi-
ately had the Midshipmen put Georgia
Southern on the schedule in 2010.
"VanGorder had made some com-
ments that he didn't think too highly
of the offense, and Paul called me up
and said, 'I need to talk to [athletics
director] Sam [Baker] and get Georgia
Southern on the schedule," recalled
longtime Georgia Southern athletics
administrator Roger Inman in an in-
terview with USA Today.
"I said, 'Why do you want to play
us?' And he said, 'Because I want to
beat the hell out of Brian VanGorder.'"
VanGorder ended up coaching only
one season at Georgia Southern, a mis-
erable 3-8 campaign in 2006, before
TOP STOrylineS
Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson (above) has
a score to settle with Notre Dame defensive coordi-
nator Brian VanGorder.
PHOTO BY DANNY KARNIK/GT ATHLETICS
