Former Georgia Tech Head Coach Paul Johnson Tears Into Geoff Collins in Recent Interview: "I Got No Respect For The Guy"

Collins took over for Johnson after the 2018 season and was fired during the 2022 season

Georgia Tech had one of its most successful runs in program history under Paul Johnson, who coached in Atlanta from 2008-2018. He led the Jackets to nine bowl appearances and three Atlantic Coast Conference Championship Games and was named ACC Coach of the Year three times (2008, 2009, and 2014) during his 11 seasons at Tech. He was selected as National Coach of the Year by CBS Sportsline in 2008, marking the second time in his career that he received National Coach of the Year honors (Bobby Dodd National Coach of the Year – 2004, Navy).

The coach that followed him had one of the worst runs in program history. 

Geoff Collins finished with a record of 10-28 as the head coach of the Yellow Jackets and 0-2 against Georgia, losing by a combined score of 97-7 in two meetings.

In a recent interview on the Bill Shanks Radio Show, Johnson did not hold back on his feelings about Collins: 

"Well, he wanted to reinvent history a little bit and he kept going back to when Georgia Tech was relevant, this, that, and the other, and I was trying to think back to when they were better than when we were there, I gues maybe the 50s, but if you went back and looked, I kept looking for all the championships they had won and it was like... you know he just distorted everything when he got there, I will just call a spade a spade, I don't care, I got no respect for the gu, I can say what I want. He went in and distorted everything that was there and acted like we had not won a game and lied about who he inherited, lied about the offensive line, lied about us not going to the high schools in Georgia. He went and told a bunch of whoppers and it came back to get him because there was not much substance there."

Johnson did not stop there though. 

"You know what was really amazing... I probably should not say this, but I will, I have never been one to hold much back, but the opposing coaches in the league would call me and they were laughing. I had one particular coach who called me who had really pounded them at home in Atlanta and he told me, Paul it is a circus and he goes I told my kids after the game in the locker room, he said congratulations, you just beat a team that physically had kicked our ass for the last three years and he goes, I am just not saying that to you. When we got through with those games, he said it was hard for us to play the next week because of the physicality and the way you played. I had another coach who called me late on Saturday night who just beaten them and he said I even lined up in your formation at the end just to stick it in. I think the people who knew, knew. 

Not only did it frustrate... I know I got frustrated with it, he frustrated a lot of the former players who played there. There were kids who had played and won double-digit games and played in Orange Bowls and played in ACC Championship Games and just totally disrespected what they had done and the tradition and the history. I told somebody that the team he inherited had won seven games and finished second in the Coastal, had four of the five offensive lineman coming back... Now I could go into the story that one of their dads told me, one of the ones who left, and that sort of things but to say those kids averaged 250 LBS, it was backhanded at them and I don't know why you would do that. 

Former Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson / © Nell Redmond-USA TODAY Sports

I followed a lot of coaches who have been in the profession and knows that when you go in, if you don't have anything good to say, just don't say anything. But, when I went into Georgia Tech, I was very appreciative of what Chan (Gailey) had done. We had some really good players in the program, and we had holes like you do, there were some positions where we needed more guys or whatever but it would not have done me any good to go in there and bash Coach Gailey, plus I had a lot of respect for him, I thought he did a good job. So it was like... I had never done that. I inherited a program at Navy that had gone 3-30 the three years before I got there and I did not go in and bash the coaches or the players who were there and I think the year before I went to Georgia Southern, they had won four games so I think you are just making a lot of excuses when you do that and you are trying to alibi... I was more disappointed in the administration for letting it go on."

Johnson was asked about his current relationship with Georgia Tech and he spoke about that: 

"It's good. I went back for the North Carolina game and was honored for the College Football Hall of Fame. You can't stay at a school for 11 years and not... I pull for them, I hope Brent (Key) can do a good job, he is on the right track and hopefully, I think they are coming with some support and those are guys are getting a lot of stuff that we did not get and hopefully they will be successful. I want nothing but success for Georgia Tech. I don't have any ill will towards the school. I was just disappointed... I had image of what would happen when I retired or what I thought I am leaving this thing the right way and I will be in a position where if we stay in Atlanta, I will drive over to practice or hangout or whatever. "

You can listen to the full interview here. 

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