Georgia Tech Football: Bowl Bound?

Q and A with Jonathan Leifheit from GoJackets.com about the upcoming season.

Can you give us some information on starting quarterback Josh Nesbitt?  Given he did not play much last year, only attempting 13 passes, the scouting report on him is pretty thin.  Were the coaches impressed with him during spring ball?

Actually, Josh did play a good bit last year—enough that he was the third-leading rusher on the team.  He racked up 355 yards on 53 carries.  He didn't pass a lot—five for 13 for 93 yards—but he was on the field nearly every game.  Largely, Josh was used in spot duty and generally was put in for one (maybe two) series in every game.

Josh is an excellent runner and proved to be very hard to bring down.  What is unknown is how good a passer he will become.  He is known, however, to have a very strong arm and played in an offense in high school that featured his arm frequently.

Josh emerged from spring practice as the clear No. 1, and thus far he has grasped the offense better than any of the other QBs.  However, he did have some injury problems and didn't get in as many reps as the coaches would have liked.

Many people perceive Paul Johnson’s option attack as a ball-control offense that methodically moves down the field.  Can this offense be effective when trailing in a game, and can fans expect this system to produce big plays?

Last year, Navy's offense was third in the country with regard to scoring drives of under a minute and eighth in the country in plays of 25 yards or more.  That sounds to me like an offense that CAN and DOES pick up big hunks of yardage in a hurry.

Navy was the second-least penalized team in the nation last season, allowing the offense to become the nation's finest rushing attack.  Georgia Tech was heavily penalized last year in terms of yardage.  Do you think offensive discipline is something Paul Johnson can change, and how important is this statistic for the Georgia Tech offense this year?

I think you can expect that Coach Johnson will get the number of penalties down in the long term.  However, I'm not sure how well that will be demonstrated in year one.

Largely, offensive penalties happen because a player isn't in position to carry out his assignment and has to do something outside of the rules to do his job.  Typically, that results in a holding call on offense.

I expect that as this team learns their roles, those penalties will still occur.  I do think we should see fewer of the five-yard penalties (delay of game, illegal procedure, and illegal motion).

Penalties and turnovers are an important statistic in any offense, and how well they keep them down will still play an important role in how well the offense performs.

Paul Johnson led the Navy program to five straight bowl appearances and did an amazing job since his first year in 2002, when he only achieved two wins.  The Navy football program seemed to hit the ceiling in terms of its program potential.

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