After compiling a 7-5 record with a season-ending loss (in blowout fashion) to in-state rival Georgia, it appears the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets will be in search of a new football coach. Paul Johnson, who took over in Atlanta before the 2008 season, will reportedly retire at the age of 61.
Sources have told me that Georgia Tech football coach Paul Johnson will retire from coaching. Johnson has been at Georgia Tech since 2008. He compiled a 82-59 record in his 11 years on the job. Georgia Tech will be looking for a new head coach.
— BillShanks (@BillShanks) November 28, 2018
Paul Johnson is indeed retiring, a source tells me. @TheAthleticATL
— Jeff Schultz (@JeffSchultzATL) November 28, 2018
Johnson enjoyed real success at Georgia Tech, posting a pair of 11-win seasons (2009 and 2014) with two additional campaigns in which the Ramblin’ Wreck compiled nine victories. However, it was a tumultuous ride in some ways, with the Yellow Jackets failing to reach bowl eligibility in two of the past four years and the Bulldogs, up the freeway in Athens, taking off as a perennial national power.
Before arriving at Georgia, Johnson led the Navy program and he is best known for his deployment of the triple-option offense. Given the rigorous academic standards at Georgia Tech, it made sense, at least to some degree, for the program to explore a system that would level the recruiting playing field. In the same breath, rumblings have existed with regard to Johnson’s job security in recent years and many believe that, given the recruiting hotbed of Atlanta, Georgia Tech doesn’t necessarily have to lean on a system largely utilized by service academies in the present day.
Johnson won more than 58 percent of his games at Georgia Tech and, in the ACC, that is no small feat. Moving forward, though, the brass in Atlanta will have some interesting decisions to make and, if they choose to leave the triple-option in the dust, it might take a while to rebuild the program after an almost certain dip in quality.
