Tudor's Take: BC preps for option

Hovering Hanna puts this game well beneath the Doppler sweeps in these parts, but Georgia Tech’s trip to Boston College on Saturday looms as an interesting, possibly important, early-season ACC appointment.

At odds will be new GT head coach Paul Johnson’s age-old option tactics against second-year BC offensive coordinator Steve Logan’s unpredictability. Granted, most of the direct pressure will be on the Eagles’ defense to contain the near-Wishbone rushing ploys that have given the unit more than its fair share of trouble in the past.

But Logan, the former head coach at East Carolina, has much on the line, too. He was among those under consideration at Tech when Johnson was hired. He also received phone calls from North Carolina, N.C. State, Duke, Miami, Arkansas, Louisville, Baylor — pick one, pick all, pick others  — when various head coaching jobs opened during the past 2-3 years.

Logan’s biggest problem never has been his football brain. It’s his mouth. He’s got this strange habit of telling the media exactly what’s on his mind. Hey, you can search the world for an honest man, but a new football coach is always as close as his agent’s cell phone.

Logan line: “Hey, look, if you ask me an honest question, the least I think you deserve is an honest answer. Hell, it’s not like I’m running for president. I’m just trying to win a football game or two.”

Imagine that!

Athletic directors don’t care for that sort of talk.  Ditto for college chancellors, NCAA big shots and rubber-chicken banquet attendees.

“Here’s the thing about coaches,” Logan said after a huge Pirate Club meeting in Wake County in the early 1990s.

“Other than just one or two, coaches are never all that popular in the first place. It’s not about the coach, per se. It’s about whether the coach can beat Miami, or beat someone other team with a big name, or sometimes just even just getting on the nerves of all those Carolina and State fans. Maybe that’s all I’ve got going for me. I can get on [the opponent’s] nerves, even if I can’t beat ‘em.”

That’s vintage Logan. But in a way, it’s also who Paul Johnson is.

“I don’t much give a [dang] what everybody thinks about our offense,” Johnson said in late July. “If we get it done, not many people are going to look at how we got it done.”