This previous post introduced Navy head football coach Paul Johnson, who is a throwback to an earlier era before media relations reps and banal press releases. Coach Johnson took some questions the other day as he prepares the Midshipman to play Boston College in the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte on Dec. 30:
Q: You seem a little perturbed. Can I ask you why?
Johnson: Yeah, we didn’t practice very well.
Q: You had told me originally that you would only go full pads the first couple of days, but it looks like you are going to do a little more full pad work.
Johnson: Yep. We will probably go full pads every day right up to the game.
Q: Why is that?
Johnson: We haven’t exactly practiced the way I thought we should.
Q: Anything in particular you’re seeing?
Johnson: We are lackadaisical and have no focus. Other than that it’s been OK.
Q: Does hitting wake them up a little bit?
Johnson: I don’t know. It hasn’t yet, but it makes me feel better. I can’t him them, but they can hit each other.[. . .]
A little more entertaining than the typical platitudes emanating from most head football coaches these days, don’t you think? Considering how he has turned the Navy program around, I cannot understand what Alabama is waiting for — Coach Johnson would be an instant hit at Bama.
Tom,
If you can figure out what the administration at Alabama is thinking, you are better man than I am. The fact that Mal Moore still has a job is a sad commentary on a once proud football tradition.
Buford, my sense is that the Alabama situation is a classic example of the Bama decision-makers not recognizing the difference between theory and reality. In theory, the Bama folks believe that Bama head coaching job remains one of the best in the SEC. In reality, there are at least four SEC jobs (Florida, LSU, Georgia, Tennessee) that are clearly better than Bama’s and another three or so that are on par (Auburn, Arkansas, South Carolina).