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In Paul Johnson's weekly radio show, he clarified stories this week where he reportedly called the TV announcers "morons".
Here's what the AJC said:
Coach Paul Johnson doesn’t pull any punches.
Johnson was asked on his Sunday teleconference about his decision to go for it on 4th-and-7 from the Georgia Tech 34 with 2:24 left. The Jackets trailed 20-17.
He said that while watching a replay of the game, he heard the TV announcers questioning the move, too.
"I think you’ve got to try to win the game," he said.
"The guys who do the game, they’re morons…I don’t worry about what they say."
Now, here's what Johnson said about it:
"The story that came out about the announcers, and this and that........... I didn't even watch the TV replay. I don't have time to watch the TV replay. That was something that our friends at the paper made up."
"What happened was on Sunday, they called and asked about going for it on 4th down at the end of the game. What I said was that there was 2:24 left - 144 seconds is how I had broken it down in my mind......... 40 second play clock.......... we had one timeout. Now, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that if you punt the ball and you hold them on 3 downs........ let's say they run 5 seconds off for each play.... you take your timeout...... they punt it back........ you're probably going to get it right where you had it......... and you gonna have less than 20 seconds to try and win the game............. so I've got 6 yards to make on 4th down, or I've got 40 yards to make in 20 seconds with no timeouts. That wasn't a hard decision to me. So that's what went through my thought process in trying to win the game."
"When I explained why I went for it (to the AJC reporters on the call), they said - well, even the TV announcers said that was a bad call........ I said - the same TV announcers that said we shouldn't go for two when the score is 17-15?......... the guy said "yeah"......... I said - well, if they said that, then they're morons.............. which was a poor choice of words. I should have said "misinformed". It's not like I held a press conference to say I rushed home to watch the TV replay..... So that was kind of blown out of proportion. Trust me, I won't let the TV guys tell me what to do on 4th down. "
Wes Durham's final shot to Johnson:
Wes - "I want to preface it that it's the TV guys that are the morons"
PJ - "Most of the time"
Wes - "Yeah..... Oh..... most of the time.... ok" (to laughs in the background)