Georgia Tech: Trust Runs High, Yields Big Results for Yellow Jackets

(That's not the play Nesbitt scored on, but it sure looks like the real thing, don't it?

Five yards, one needed for a first down, all five needed for a win, less than a minute to decide whether to play it safe and tie the game, or risk everything for a win—what do you do?

"I play to win. The kids work hard and put in a lot of time and effort. If we can't make an inch there, we don't deserve to win the game. Shoot, the ball's on the three yard line, give the kids a chance to win the game."

Those are the words of Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson, the toast of Atlanta this weekend after he laid all his chips down on the trust he has in his players, only to have them tripled right in front of him.

That exact scenario lay before Johnson and the Jackets on Saturday against Wake Forest. Down 27-24 and facing 4th-and-1 from the five in overtime, Tech could have played it safe, kicked the field goal. But Paul Johnson laughs at field goals (Johnson goes for it on fourth down almost twice a game).

For the few who do not know, Josh Nesbitt plowed ahead for the first, and the game-winning touchdown one play later, and the Jackets are still on course for the ACC title game.

But the moment, which may or may not go down as Georgia Tech lore someday, proved something far more important than Georgia Tech's 9-1 record: There is an unstoppable unity at work in Atlanta this season.

Coaching in college football comes down to the usual chestnuts: Discipline, focus, execution, etc. But it also comes down to belief and trust. When players trust their coaches, their schemes, their systems, they have a level of belief that they can and will pay off in ways that cannot be measured simply in yards or points.

When Chan Gailey was in charge, the Jackets were a team of mediocre destiny. There was always a non-specific feeling hanging over the program that greatness would forever be out of reach, no matter how heartily the Jackets flung themselves into the fray of college football.

Under Paul Johnson, that feeling exists no more.

"Coach is the type of person you want to play for," Nesbitt said after the game. "He keeps fighting until the end and that makes the whole team fight to the end. He motivates you to never letdown and keep fighting."

In professional football, coaches don't have to do a lot of motivating. Players work for a living, they understand the stakes, and what they have to do to meet individual and team expectations.

In college, it's a more complex ordeal.

Take, for example, Mark Richt at Georgia, just down the road. Richt is passive, maybe too nice, and famous for his motivational ploys, the black jerseys against Auburn and the team touchdown celebration against Florida listing highly among them.

But Richt also found out the hard truth that if you try those tricks too often, they start to look like a cheap magic show.

Paul Johnson is like the dark Jedi version of Richt. He's not brusque or mean, but he's a man who pulls few punches and stands by his beliefs. He'll tell the truth to you straight, no matter how straight that truth has to be.

Richt has his players' loyalty and devotion, the way the Bulldogs have closed ranks around their coach during what has been a tumultuous season proves it.

But Johnson has that same loyalty, and a great deal of respect, from his players. He's tough on them, there's a line that's not crossed.

But they believe, week-in, week-out, that the way he prepares them for Saturday will put them in position to be winners. And they know that whenever it's time to lead, Johnson will lead at the front, and he'll demand absolute perfection not just from them, but from himself as well.

"Coach is confident, he knew we were going to win the game and believed in us the whole time," Jonathan Dwyer said after the game. "As a player you like that he trusts us with and it makes the team work harder on the field to make sure we come away with a victory."

From coach to players, to the field, to the win column, the math keeps getting simpler for the math geeks at the North Avenue Trade School. It's now as basic as can be—win Saturday, and you're going to Tampa.