ATLANTA -- Whenever Paul Johnson needs a good chuckle, he thinks back nearly two years ago.
That was the time when the head coach was hired by Georgia Tech, days after the Yellow Jackets had dropped a seventh consecutive game to rival Georgia. It was also the time when, with the red clay still fresh on his shoes, he became immediately inundated by a national media guessing game he contends still persists.
"It won't work there; not quickly at least," national talk radio gurus said then about his unique spread option offensive system that he ran at Navy.
"It's a running, high school offense that can't possibly have success at the BCS level," others said.
And the kicker that gives Johnson real side-splitting laughs to this day: "No NFL-caliber receiver can emerge from an offense like this."
Enter junior Demaryius Thomas, Georgia Tech's big-bodied wideout who was named two weeks ago a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award. The honor is given yearly to the country's top college receiver.
"We laugh about that all the time now," Johnson said. "He was told by a lot of people, 'You need to bolt. You're going to be in a three-point stance every play, blocking. You're never going to see the ball; you're never going to do anything.'
"And he had enough about him to say, 'I'm going to give this a chance. I'm going to see what it is.' "
Thomas currently leads the ACC in receiving at 91.4 yards per game, and has 34 receptions -- just shy of his career-high 39 last season.
Earlier this week, Johnson spoke candidly about his pride in players like Thomas, who stuck with the newly installed head coach and his rare system. Currently averaging 440 yards of total offense, it is a system which seems to have confounded opponents the last two years.
By quickly buying into a scheme that seemed idealistic to some and impossible to others, the Yellow Jackets have helped Johnson lead their storied program to its best start in 19 seasons. After what many called an unexpected 9-4 finish last year, the Yellow Jackets are already 8-1 this season entering Saturday's game against Wake Forest and sit two wins away from an ACC championship game berth.
"Probably the hardest thing we fought the first year was probably getting everybody to give us a chance to get started," Johnson said. "Because you had so many people telling these (players) it wasn't going to work, or, 'You need to get out of here because it's not going to fit you, and you need to go somewhere else.' That includes some of the guys coaching them."
In all, Georgia Tech lost four players -- a tight end, who is now at Alabama; an offensive lineman, who is now at one of Johnson's former schools; a receiver and a pocket-passing quarterback -- and a couple of recruits that offseason who felt they would not match up well in Johnson's run-based but proven scheme.
Johnson had conversations with each of the departed players, some of whom felt the coaching change would hinder their opportunities at getting drafted, he said.
That's fine, Johnson said. He wanted players with slightly different interests anyway.
"If guys are more worried about their individual stats than winning, yeah, I don't care, go on. We'll find somebody that wants to win the games," Johnson said. "(But) the point being, I think you can do both, but you've got to give it a chance."
Like Thomas, linebacker Sedric Griffin was a player who gave Johnson a chance and could not be happier school officials brought on board the man one Atlanta columnist earlier this week called the nation's "best play-caller."
"He's got such a winner's attitude," Griffin said earlier this season, "and when you see that and his presence, you want to be part of that. It really pulls you in; that winner's attitude of his."
Johnson has been asked whether he anticipated his team to be this strong, this soon. He claims to have never even entertained the thought and has only been focused on one, singular task at a time.
"I never said, 'If we can be x-x by our second year, then that's good,'" Johnson said. "We can still be a lot better (than Georgia Tech is now).
Whether they were x-x or y-y, most pundits didn't think the Yellow Jackets would be quite this strong this soon. Sports Illustrated even picked them to finish the 2008 season 3-9.
"A lot of people didn't think a lot of things," Johnson said. "I didn't give it any thought at all -- literally. It sounds cliche, but I just worried about the next game.
"People have asked me, 'Boy, you don't seem too emotional when you win?' I guess it's just my nature. Immediately, I'm worried about the next team we play."
It is a nature that seems to have crept into the players' persona. Since losing to Miami in Week 3, the Yellow Jackets have gone on a six-game winning streak and many refrain from talking about any opponents past whichever team is slated next on the schedule.
Is their success predicated on a level of confidence borne out of a string of recent achievements -- in two seasons, the Yellow Jackets have beaten rival Georgia for the first time in eight meetings, won a game at Florida State for the first time and beaten Virginia on the road for the first time since 1990 -- or is it something else?
"There's no question winning breeds winning," Johnson said. "When you have some success, your expectation level should rise and you should expect to do things. I don't know if we're there yet, but certainly we were there at the two other places I've coached.
"(There) we expected to win the game. ... if you don't expect to win, you probably won't."
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