Technical Tidbits 10/18: Johnson tells all in podcast interview, Bobinski makes first move at Purdue

Former Georgia Tech and current Purdue athletic director Mike Bobinski wasted no time making his presence felt in the B1G, firing Boilermaker head football coach Darell Hazell after a 3-3 start to the season. As the AJC article indicates, that decision runs completely counter to his mantra of evaluating the “whole body of work” that he employed during his days as the Tech AD while watching a horrendous basketball program struggle year after year. Apparently a handful of games was all Bobinski needed to justify showing Hazell the door, or perhaps he was just antsy to make that first big move at Purdue after stewing on the futures of both Paul Johnson and Brian Gregory for so long.

Paul Johnson recently sat down for a very interesting interview with the AJC’s Jeff Schultz and WSB-TV’s Zach Klein, remarking on everything from why more colleges don’t use the option to the shortcomings of his past defensive coordinators. The part about the past coordinators was especially interesting, with Johnson going so far as to admit that he didn’t get to make his ideal hire at defensive coordinator due to monetary constraints back in 2008 (it would have been Ellis Johnson, who ended up at South Carolina under Steve Spurrier as defensive coordinator and is currently there once again as the linebackers coach under Will Muschamp). I haven’t gotten to listen to the whole podcast quite yet, but I look forward to getting to finish it soon. There’s a lot of good stuff in there.

Quarterback Justin Thomas has been breaking a number of big records this season, but the team’s inability to win over the past few weeks has put a serious damper on his excitement over the accolades. As explosive as he is, Thomas has shown signs of trying to do too much by himself at times this season. That’s not a criticism of him so much as a testimony to the injury issues of the offensive line (among other factors), but his big plays just haven’t been there too often since the 2014 season. It feels incredibly rare that we get to see Thomas running in space over these past couple of seasons; he’s spent more time trying to spin away from tackles for losses than running downfield. Despite that, he’s a great player and will get on track as soon as his supporting cast does. We should see the big plays come more freely as the season wears on.

Have a great Tuesday!