Johnson not a fan of transferring

As might be expected, Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson shed no tears for the three players who have elected to transfer from his program to play elsewhere.

Johnson spoke following the Yellow Jackets’ first bowl practice in response to the transfers of B-back Marcus Marshall, cornerback Dorian Walker and linebacker Emanuel Bridges, calling out the sense of entitlement he perceives among players in this generation. Transferring has become a growing trend in football, following the pattern of basketball.

“It’s pretty normal, if you look,” he said. “Kids leave for a myriad of reasons. My take has always been, if somebody doesn’t want to be here, I’m not going to stand in the way of letting them leave. So with some kids, they have legit reasons and others are impatient and think they should be playing.”

Johnson declined to delve into the specifics of the players’ reasons for leaving Tech.

However, asked further on the topic, he returned to what he sees as impatience for playing time.

“It’s just the nature of the beast nowadays,” he said. “The kids have such a sense of entitlement. Nobody wants to wait their turn sometimes.”

Johnson recalled his childhood growing up in Newland, N.C., where he said he couldn’t recall being on a team where there weren’t cuts or that had rules about ensuring every team member was able to play, a common policy in youth sports.

“It’s just changed,” he said. “I think that it’s not so much the kids. It’s just society in general.”

Johnson did have an appreciation of the difficulty players often encounter. He noted how each player on scholarship was one of the best players on his high school team, if not the best. He then comes to college and finds himself competing with as many as 84 other teammates who enjoyed the same status.

“Some kids can handle it better than others,” he said. “It’s just kind of the way it is.”

Johnson said no restrictions are being placed on where any of the three can transfer. Given that Walker and Bridges have used their redshirt years, Johnson noted they would have to sit out another year and lose a year of eligibility if they were to transfer to another FBS school. They could play immediately at an FCS school.