Alumni Magazine - Spring 2008 - (Page 43) letes, but I don’t know if we are as physically tough or as mentally tough as we need to be.” Johnson says he will not pal around with the players. “I told the team, ‘Look, I don’t want to be your buddy. I’ve got buddies, you’ve got buddies. You’ve got guys you want to hang out with. You don’t want to hang out with me. It wouldn’t be any fun.’ “My job is to come in and establish a foundation and a set of rules and try to make these guys be the best that they can be — not just from a football standpoint but as students as well.” The Big Picture ohnson says he and the coaches on his staff will mold the players into a team. “I’m there for each individual, and I’m here for the problems that they have. But in the big picture, I’m going to do what is best for the team, and the team takes precedence over one individual. “One of the problems that I saw here — I don’t know that it was a discipline problem, it’s just a different way of doing things, but there was a real divide between offense and defense and special teams. On the scoreboard it says Georgia Tech. If you lose, we all lose — the defense loses, the offense loses, the special teams lose. It’s a team game.” Johnson adds that there is “a very thin line” that differentiates winning and losing. “There’s not much difference. There’s an old saying that physical superiority cancels all theory. That’s true to a point, but there’s attitude involved, intensity and caring — and all those things come into play. Doing the little things sometimes gives you a chance to make the big things happen. There’s a real small margin of error between winning and losing.” Johnson, who was a finalist for the 2007 Liberty Mutual National Coach of the Year, says his job will be to develop players who win. “It’s been my experience in coaching that guys want to win. There are 119 schools playing Division I football. I guarantee you, if you ask every one of those players, they’ll all tell you they want to win. The key is do you know how to win and are you willing to do what it takes to win? That’s what we’re going to find out. We can show them what it takes to win.” GT J Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Spring 2008 43
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