CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson spoke with the media Wednesday at the ACC Football Kickoff at the Westin Charlotte in Charlotte, N.C.

What Johnson has learned from 40 years of coaching

“ Wow. It’s flown by really fast. I started out back at my high school where I’d played, coaching, and it’s just kind of one’s led to the other. I think this will be — I was trying to count my 22nd year as a head coach, and each year you learn something. I think that certainly as you go through expectations — a lot of things change. I think that on our level of football, sometimes it’s turned into a little bit of an arms race, and there’s a lot of different factors that go into it. But the bottom line, I think, to win football games hasn’t changed that much; you need to be able to run the ball and win the turnover battle and play good defense. And if you’ll do that, be sound in the kicking game, you’ve got a chance to win games. It hasn’t changed much.”

Johnson’s thoughts on Clemson facility and program

“Well, it certainly doesn’t hurt them. I’m not sure that just that one aspect changes anything, but I think that just the overall commitment to the program, not just with facilities, but with budgets, with personnel, with all those kind of things. You know, every school is different. Georgia Tech and Clemson are set up differently as far as the schools go. We have far less students. Our fan base is probably not as big. We’re not going to have as many people at the game. So we’re not going to win an arms race with Clemson. But what we’ve got to do is sell what we have that’s positive. And if I look, they’re our natural rival from the other side. I think we’re 5-6 against Clemson. We’d like to be better. So certainly it’s not impossible for us to win. I think the last time they came to Atlanta, they were ranked in the top 5, and I think we did win. But you know, I think that what Dan and Dabo have done at Clemson is remarkable. They’ve been really consistent, and the commitment that they have to their football program is certainly visible. You can see that, not only with facilities but with personnel, with whatever you would need. But I don’t think that everybody has to try to do that to compete. Everybody has to be positive with what they have. We’ve got a great school academically. We’re in a great city. We have a lot of positives that we can sell rather than facilities sometimes. But you want — certainly it’s not going to hurt you to have those kind of facilities, that’s for sure.”

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