Georgia Tech Football: Paul Johnson enters 2018 on hot seat

A disappointing 2017 season saw Georgia Tech football miss a bowl for the second time in two years. Can Paul Johnson get the Yellow Jackets back to the postseason in 2018?

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The Paul Johnson era at Georgia Tech has been delightfully unpredictable, both for Yellow Jackets fans (three ACC title game appearances! Top 15 finishes in 2009 and 2014!) and for fans of the sport in general (a power-conference program running triple option!).

Some unpredictability is okay. In a division that houses Miami and Virginia Tech, it’s not entirely fair to expect the Yellow Jackets to be playing for the ACC title every year, and they’ve historically done a fine job of reloading and staying competitive in their off years. What’s troubling, though, is that the lows of the Johnson tenure have been getting uncharacteristically low. A 3-9 season in 2015 snapped a remarkable 18-year bowl streak, and any goodwill from the Jackets’ bounce-back 9-4 record in 2016 was promptly snuffed out after a 5-6 2018 campaign.

All of a sudden, the state of the program feels a little more tenuous and whispers about Johnson’s job security are starting to float around. Tech seems to have mastered the art of overachieving when pundits least expect it, and it’s not difficult to see this team bouncing back once again in 2018. But if they don’t, and the Jackets are home for the holidays once again, Johnson may be on the way out.

All this amounts to a fascinating year ahead for Georgia Tech football. Let’s take a look at their players to watch on both sides of the ball, and how their 2018 schedule shapes up.