Alumni Magazine - Fall 2008 - (Page 37) game begins, before Paul Johnson leads his Yellow Jackets against an opponent for the first time, before the new era of Georgia Tech football begins. Thousands of fans, draped in gold and white, mill about the north side of Bobby Dodd Stadium when the steam whistle wails and a tenseness builds. Stepping briskly through the crowd, into the stadium, comes the team. Johnson, stoically expressionless, leads his players. A few days earlier, Johnson had said he’d be nervous before the game, that his gut filled with butterflies before every game as he led Navy, Hawaii and Georgia Southern. It doesn’t show. He appears only as a man on a mission. The fans break into chants and song, but their faces almost uniformly reflect expressions of uncertainty. The great tradition of Tech football — four championships, 115 seasons, the most lopsided victory in the sport’s history — had fallen into a stasis. Not bad but not great — and seven straight losses to rival Georgia. Here now is Johnson, the latest hope for gridiron dreams. But so many questions remain: Can he win at the highest level? Will his supposedly antiquated triple-option offense work against top-level competition? Can he beat the Bulldogs? As the Tech fans follow the team into the stadium, they ask these questions. But the only answer seems to be: “We’ll see.” I T’S STILL A COUPLE OF HOURS BEFORE THE T HE GAME CLOCK IS TICKING DOWN SLOWLY TO kickoff, and Johnson sits on a bench along the sideline, staring contemplatively out at the field. Maybe the butterflies have finally found him, because his face shows the same uncertainty of the fans’. Will his game plan work? Will the players perform? Will the home crowd support them? The opponent tonight is Jacksonville State, a small Division I-AA school from Alabama that features quarterback Ryan Perrilloux, a transfer from national champion Louisiana State. Because of Perrilloux and because no one knows what to expect from Tech’s young squad, the game’s been labeled a potential upset. Even Johnson was hard at work downplaying expectations, saying he knew the Gamecocks would bring a good team to Atlanta for the Aug. 28 season opener. Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Fall 2008 37
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.