After practice Monday, Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson explained the rather unorthodox play in the third quarter of Saturday’s loss to North Carolina that ended with kicker Harrison Butker kicking a 42-yard field goal.
On the opening drive of the third quarter, with the score 27-17 in the Tar Heels’ favor, Johnson said that he was ready to go for it on 4th-and-3 at the North Carolina 20-yard line. He called timeout after a “freeze” play (where the A-backs both try to draw the defense offsides by going in motion before re-setting) didn’t work.
In the timeout, Johnson called a play in the event North Carolina showed a particular look but wanted the offense to come off the field if the Tar Heels didn’t align in that particular way, which is what happened. Quarterback Justin Thomas signaled for the offensive players not on the field-goal team to run off the field, replaced by the field-goal unit.
“We were going to go with it,” he said. “They didn’t give us that look, so we were going to run out and kick the field goal.”
A problem was that Tech had not practiced it, Johnson said, resulting in confusion. In the exchange, the Jackets only lined up with 10 players on the field. Rather than risk a block, holder Ryan Rodwell waited to let the play clock run out to take a delay of game. Butker made the kick from 42 yards after the penalty.
“That was on me,” Johnson said. “We didn’t practice that. I tried to tell ’em on the side, and you can’t do that. I know better than that.”
