2011 Season Preview: Tech's Paul Johnson all-business on recruiting front

When it comes to recruiting, Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson is a no-nonsense kind of guy.

If he had it his way, the rest of college football would follow suit.

Some of Johnson’s ideas for recruiting reform:

- Do away with ‘National Signing Day’ – the event – and let players sign whenever they choose.

- Eliminate non-binding verbal ‘commitments.’

- Prohibit ‘over-signing’ – 85 is 85, and when you’re done, you’re done.

- Throw a flag on excessive showboating.

For now, Johnson will take a commitment, but if a player commits to Georgia Tech and then takes visits elsewhere, Johnson is likely to pull the Yellow Jackets’ scholarship offer – he’s done it more than once in the past.

And he’s not going to ‘over-sign,’ as a matter of policy and principle.

“Everybody has 85 scholarships; When you recruit a guy, and he says he’s coming, you give him a scholarship and he signs it,” Johnson recently told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.” As soon as he signs it, he counts - he’s one of your 85. If you want to sign a kid who may or may not make it school-wise, that’s on you. You will have to try to find someone else in August if he doesn’t make it.

“It would stop all this craziness, hat shows, verbal commitments, and all the foolishness that goes on with it. If the guy says they’re coming, put the papers in front of him and let him sign. When you’ve got 85, you’re through.”

Johnson’s different approach to recruiting is reflected in the players he signs.

Much like Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer, he doesn’t get caught up in investing an undue amount of time in pursuing the nation’s highest-rated prospects.

He’s signed four recruiting classes since he’s been at Tech, and has yet to sign a five-star prospect. Four-star players have been few and far-between, as well – eight in four years, according to Scout and Rivals.

The lack of ‘elite’ players is reflected in Georgia Tech’s consistently modest recruiting rankings – four straight years in the 40’s and no better than eighth in the ACC, according to Rivals.

Yet Johnson succeeds – an ACC championship and another division title in his three seasons – by recruiting players of a particular skill-set who are interested in what Georgia Tech has to offer.

Johnson’s staff has established a strong in-state niche at the three-star level, and has further specialized by honing in on the players needed to make Johnson’s flex-bone offense work.

The Yellow Jackets’ 22-man 2011 recruiting class includes three quarterbacks – two of whom were listed as ‘athletes’ by the recruiting websites and recruited for different positions by other schools.

But at Georgia Tech, Demontevious Smith of Monroe, GA and Jamal Golden of Wetumpk, AL will get the same shot at the quarterback position as Durham, NC’s Vad Lee.

Another ‘athlete’ – Dennis Andrews of Godby High in Tallahassee, FL – will join the quarterback mix as a member of Johnson’s 2012 class.

Other skill-position players in Tech’s 2011 class include running backs Broderick Snoddy of Carrollton, GA and Zach Lasky of Fayetteville, GA, and wide receivers Corey Dennis of Troy, AL and Chris Milton of Folkston, GA.

On defense, Johnson restocked at linebacker by signing Jabril Hunt-Days of Powder Springs, GA, Tremayne McNair of Jakcsonville, NC, Anthony Harrell of Tampa, FL, and Mick Menocal of Miami, FL.

Georgia Tech’s 2011 class includes 11 in-state players, three each from North Carolina and Florida, two from Alabama and one each from Tennessee, Illinois and New Jersey.

So far, Johnson has seven commitments for Tech’s 2012 class, including in-state players Michael Summers, a wide receiver from Statesboro; Chase Roberts, an offensive lineman from Norcross; Francis Kallon, a defensive end from Lawrenceville; Pat Gamble, a defensive tackle from Carrollton; and Junior Gnonkonde, a defensive end from Lakeland.

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