Paul Johnson Reportedly Unhappy, Wants Georgia Tech to Buyout Contract

Joshua S. Kelly-USA TODAY Sports

Well that didn’t take long. Just a mere 24 hours removed from Georgia Tech starting quarterback Vad Lee announcing his intention to transfer, reports are surfacing that head coach Paul Johnson is unhappy with the school and hopes that his contract is bought out.

Color me a cynic on this one, but it smacks of the ol’ coach saying, “Uh oh. I’d better launch a preemptive strike”.

UPDATE: 1/3/14 – 3:24 PM – Johnson is apparently now denying the report, according to coachingsearch.com:

In response to a report (see below) that surfaced within the hour, Paul Johnson, via text to CoachingSearch, states, “I have no idea what he is talking about and I’m looking forward to next season. All these anonymous sources are unbelievable.”

The first report came from CBS Sports’ Bruce Feldman, who tweeted about Johnson’s supposed bristling about his job today.

After a second consecutive season of losing six games or more, and having overall diminishing returns, there were already going to be questions surrounding the stability of Johnson’s job.  This public airing of grievances may put the wheels into motion for a new head coach search to begin.

How much it would take to buy Johnson out isn’t exactly clear, nor is it even a sure thing that the school would even care to dump money into buying him out and to begin an exhausting search for a new head coach (especially with so many lucrative head coaching openings still available).

The other question is, if Johnson is indeed bought out, would that possibly change Vad Lee’s mind about leaving the program – dependent of course on who the replacement ends up being.

All of this is speculative at this time, as the reports are just obviously hearsay and nothing has been confirmed.

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