Georgia sports for Friday, August 29th

College football/Ga Tech and Georgia--

The debut of new head coach Paul Johnson was successful. He led his Yellow Jackets to a decisive 41-14 win over Jacksonville State in Atlanta.

A season of high expectations opens tomorrow afternoon in Athens for the Georgia Bulldogs. The team has been picked by many, including the national coaches and sportswriters poll, as the #1 preseason club. Georgia faces Georgia Southern at Sanford Stadium--kickoff at 12:30 Saturday.

NFL/Atlanta Falcons--

The Falcons wrapped their preseason with a 10-9 win at Baltimore last night. The win gave the Falcons a 2-2 record under new head coach Mike Smith for the exhibition schedule.

MLB/Atlanta Braves--

Charlie Morton's strong pitching effort, along with catcher Brian McCann's 3-run homer helped the Braves to a 4-2 win over the Florida Marlins in Atlanta Thursday night.

Georgia sports for Thursday, August 28th

Georgia Tech football--

A new era begins tonight for Georgia Tech football. New head coach Paul Johnson will lead the Yellow Jackets into their season-opening game against Jacksonville State. Tech hits its home-turf at Bobby Dodd Stadium with sophomore Josh Nesbitt making his first start for the team at quarterback.

College football / Georgia Bulldogs--

Ahead to the weekend, the preseason no-1 team in the country, the Georgia Bulldogs, will be home in Athens Saturday to face Ga Southern in their opener.

Atlanta Braves--

From major league baseball, the Braves were 4-1 losers to the Florida Marlins in Atlanta last night. Before the game, the Braves traded veteran outfielder Mark Kotsay to the Boston Red Sox for a minor league outfield prospect.

Johnson Leaves Navy for Georgia Tech Job

Johnson. (AP Photo)

Navy football coach Paul Johnson is headed to Georgia Tech after turning around a struggling program in six years at the military academy.

Johnson informed the team at an 11:45 a.m. meeting at Ricketts Hall, where the football offices are located, said Scott Strasemeier, Navy's associate athletic director for sports information.
Georgia Tech has scheduled a news conference for Friday at 5:30 p.m. EST, when athletic director Dan Radakovich will announce a new head coach.

Johnson, a former Georgia Southern coach, also negotiated with Southern Methodist and Duke this week.

He will replace Chan Gailey, who was fired one day after a 7-5 regular season ended with his sixth straight loss to Georgia. Gailey had four years left on his contract at $1 million per season.

The Midshipmen had a miserable 1-20 record in the two seasons before Johnson took over. He had a 2-10 record in his first season, but turned things around quickly. He led the Midshipmen to five straight bowl games, a school record. Navy will play Utah in the Poinsettia Bowl on Dec. 20 in San Diego.

Johnson was 45-29 at Navy. He was also successful against the other service academies. He got his sixth straight win against rival Army last week, an unprecedented streak.

Click here for more GPB News coverage.

(The Associated Press)