Paul Johnson goes back to the future
In his Wednesday press conference, Georgia Tech Coach Paul Johnson cited the unpredictable nature of college football. Johnson noted that both his squad and Monday’s opponent Tennessee are breaking in some new players on offense, but he said this fact alone doesn’t portend a low scoring game.
“Every time you think it’s going to be a low-scoring game, it ends up 50-49,” Johnson said. “If you expect it to end up 50-49, it can end up 6-3. So you don’t know.”
With his description, Johnson stoked the memories of long-time Tech fans. Tech beat Tennessee 6-3 in 1966, in what would be Bobby Dodd’s final season as Yellow Jacket head coach. That game was a high-profile October match-up of two undefeated top ten teams (Tech #9, Tennessee #8). The game was nationally televised from Knoxville, in an era when there still was only one nationally televised game each week (that era ended 18 years later when the NCAA was cited in an antitrust decision by the Supreme Court).
That day in 1966 would be Coach Dodd’s final game against his alma mater. Dodd was an All-American halfback for UT under famed Coach Robert Neyland. Following Dodd’s acceptance of Tech’s head coach job in 1945, he recorded a 2-2 record against his mentor (Neyland retired in 1952).
Coach Newland was a strong believer in defense and the kicking game as the two pillars of a winning football program. Dodd believed as well, and on this day in his final season, he parlayed those strengths into a 6-3 win over the Vols. Tech’s kicker Bunky Henry, who later played professional golf, hit two field goals to secure the win for the Yellow Jackets.
