Sports

Signing day represents new era at Ga. Tech

Paul Dehner Jr.

ALBANY — Paul Johnson slowly sifts through a room draped in yellow and blue at the Opera Nightclub Tuesday night.

The new Georgia Tech football coach, hired on Dec. 7, awkwardly attempts to squeeze through a small crowd at the bar who barely acknowledge the star of this National Signing Day party. One fan asks for a signed football, but most ignore Johnson. His few greetings are short-winded. His face, much like his work, is largely unknown at this point.

Then he hits the stage.

“This is kind of a different experience,” Johnson says. “We certainly didn’t go to a nightclub for signing day at Navy.”

In all, his class has 20 athletes, eight of which came from Georgia.

Rivals ranks one four-star commit and 11 with three stars.

The tapes look good, but Johnson hopes they translate much better than the polls which rank his class anywhere from 38 (Scout) to 49 (Rivals) nationally.

“I don’t get into all these rating services, and I don’t care who else is recruiting them,” Johnson said. “I want to believe what I see.”

Coming off a disappointing 7-6 season, seventh consecutive loss to rival Georgia and 40-28 loss in the Humanitarian Bowl to Fresno State, the new coach hopes to utilize his option offense and no-nonsense approach to make his fans want to hug him, instead of unknowingly block his path next year.

That begins with top recruit Omoregie Uzzi of Chamblee. The 6-foot-3, 291 pounder helped plow the way of an option attack and Warren Norman’s five touchdowns in elimination of Westover in the Class AAA state quarterfinals.

His addition fits perfectly with Johnson’s running style, one he ideally says would produce 350 yards rushing and 150 passing a game.

Johnson’s offensive style also helped land Dublin center Nick McRae (6-4, 290) and Phil Smith (6-6, 290) out of Tampa Jesuit (Fla.).

Those lineman will plow the way for a group of backs hoping to fill the departed cleats of Tashard Choice.

One of the biggest grabs, however, was 5-7, 175-pound scat back Marcus Wright out of San Antonio, Texas.

He rushed for a city record 3,374 yards on 359 carries with 45 touchdowns during his senior season and was named the Class 5A Offensive Player of the Year.

Wright will compete with Embry Peeples and Richard Watson in the backfield.

Peeples ranks as the No. 38 all-purpose back nationally and is coming off an injury during his senior year. Watson, at 6-1, 225 pounds, is a bruising fullback type out of Tallahassee, Fla.’s FAMU High.

“Watson committed a long time ago and when Johnson signed on as coach it was a slam dunk,” Smith said. “He is a big back who can tote it every down, plus he has blazing speed to take it the distance.”

Handing the ball off to them will be a new starting quarterback this year. With former starter Taylor Bennett being granted his release to transfer Tuesday, a new group of QBs will compete in the option offense.

Who, however, is completely unknown.

“There might be guys in the secondary that will be the best quarterback,” Johnson said.

The recruited QBs are Jaybo Shaw of Flowery Branch and Tevin Washington out of Alabama.

They both ran the option successfully in high school.

“I think we really addressed some needs from the speed standpoint and some fits for what we plan to do on offense and defense.”

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