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/ SPORTS / WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Georgia Tech coach curbs confidence before Kansas
Georgia Tech quarterback Joshua Nesbitt stiff-arms a South Carolina State player as he runs for his third touchdown at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday September 4, 2010. Georgia Tech won 41-10.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
McClatchy-Tribune
The warning came in the form of a question: How would you feel if you lost to South Carolina State?
ATLANTA — Paul Johnson is warning his Georgia Tech players they better not be distracted as they prepare for the program's first road game at a Big 12 school since 1992.
Georgia Tech moved up one spot to No.15 on Tuesday after its 41-10 opening win over South Carolina State, but the question from the coach was relevant as he sought to keep his team focused.
The Yellow Jackets play at Kansas on Saturday. Kansas suffered a 6-3 home loss to North Dakota State last week.
Both South Carolina State and North Dakota State are FCS schools. Johnson's warning was that if Georgia Tech players understood they would have extra motivation following an embarrassing loss, they can expect the same reaction from Kansas.
"It's like I told them on Monday, you better brace for their best shot," Johnson said. "Their backs are against the wall. They're going to come out fighting. They'll be upset. They'll be mad."
"I asked our team, 'How would you be on Monday if you lost to South Carolina State?' That's all you've got to think about. They will be upset."
This is a rare travel opportunity for Georgia Tech (1-0), which hasn't played a regular-season game west of the Mississippi River since opening the 2003 season with a loss at BYU. Georgia Tech played at Baylor in 1992 in its last game at a Big 12 school.
Georgia Tech also traveled west when it lost to Fresno State in the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho on Dec. 31, 2007.
Kansas will play at Georgia Tech next season. The Jayhawks' loss to North Dakota State came in Turner Gill's debut as coach, and it left Kansas with an eight-game losing streak.
Kansas fans booed during the loss.
Johnson said he knows how it feels to be booed by home fans. He said he heard boos and insults as a coach at his high school alma mater in Avery County, N.C.
"Fans will be fans," Johnson said. "I can remember my first coaching job. I think the first year we didn't lose a regular-season game
in high school and it was actually my hometown. The second year we lost one in the regular season and as we were coming off the field they were yelling 'Fire the bums.' They were yelling at me 'Hey, you weren't any good when you played."
Added Johnson: "Fans will be fans. That's what they do"
on defense and a slow start for the passing game in the win over South Carolina State as reasons his players should not look past Kansas.
Johnson referred to breakdowns
"If our guys are overconfident of the effort they put out there, it's going to be a long year," he said.
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with two catches for 18 yards and a touchdown. "I don't know who let who by . . . but there were people in my face. That prevented a lot of things."
Tech (0-1), which fell to No. 13 in Tuesday's Associated Press poll, finished the game with 44 carries for 128 yards. The vaunted running back trio of Williams, Darren Evans and David Wilson had a combined 25 rushes for 58 yards.
Evans, who had three carries for 12 yards, never got started in his first game back from a torn anterior cruciate ligament that kept him out all last season. Wilson, who said last week in a perfect world he'd prefer to have about 10 carries a game to justify not redshirting him this season, had just one carry for 2 yards.
Of course, it was difficult to get much of a rotation going in the backfield considering Virginia Tech played from behind for all but 56 seconds of the first 2 quarters and had to rely primarily on its most dependable offensive options (Williams and Tyrod Taylor) to get back in the game.