On the heels of his team’s nine-win season, Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson has been rated a top-25 coach.
A survey of five CBS Sports writers of all of the power-conference coaches in the country placed Johnson at No. 24, one spot behind Florida's Jim McElwain and one ahead of Washington State's Mike Leach.
Johnson moved up 13 spots from his ranking last season after the Jackets finished their worst season since 1994 at 3-9. The fact that a coach now nine years into his job can move 13 spots in a season might be cause for a skeptical eye to be cast upon the rankings. Regardless, he was sixth among ACC coaches at No. 24 and third among coaches in the Coastal Division, behind Miami’s Mark Richt at No. 15 and Duke’s David Cutcliffe at No. 17.
The evaluation of Johnson: “When you’re running an option offense in a Power Five conference, there’s going to be variance. We saw that with Georgia Tech’s 3-9 record in 2015, but the Jackets bounced back to go 9-4 last season. Johnson’s reputation in these rankings did as well.”
The ACC’s coaches (with last year’s ranking in parentheses):
3. Dabo Swinney, Clemson (8)
4. Jimbo Fisher, Florida State (6)
13. Bobby Petrino, Louisville (25)
15. Mark Richt, Miami (18)
17. David Cutcliffe, Duke (15)
24. Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech (37)
26. Larry Fedora, North Carolina (35)
32. Bronco Mendenhall, Virginia (26)
34. Justin Fuente, Virginia Tech (38)
43. Pat Narduzzi, Pittsburgh (40)
46. Dave Clawson, Wake Forest (59)
50. Steve Addazio, Boston College (50)
51. Dino Babers, Syracuse (51)
59. Dave Doeren, N.C. State (50)
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