USC looks to stop explosive Georgia Tech offense in Sun Bowl EL PASO - Paul Johnson likes to keep it simple, at least on the surface. Georgia Tech's coach has run the same basic offense for nearly three decades, tinkering here, adding a few wrinkles there, though never straying far from the principles of an attack that annually produces some of the top rushing yardage totals in college football. Johnson calls it a spread option, but it includes elements of the triple option, double wing, the wing T and wishbone, morphing into what some dub the flexbone. If that sounds complicated, Johnson makes it look like anything but that. So when USC plays Georgia Tech on Monday in the Sun Bowl, the Trojans must slow down an offense that appears to run only a handful of plays. "I've always had the philosophy that I would rather do a few things well than have a lot of things and not be good at anything," Johnson said. Georgia Tech, like previous Johnson-coached teams at Georgia Southern and Navy, is prolific at rushing the ball. The Yellow Jackets have averaged 312.5 yards rushing per game, which ranks fourth nationally. They average 34.5 points. "This coach knows what he's doing," Monte Kiffin, USC's assistant head coach for defense, said of Johnson. This ain't his first rodeo. Nor Kiffin's. The 72-year-old father of USC Coach Lane Kiffin schemed against Oklahoma's famed wishbone offense as a Nebraska and Arkansas assistant in the 1970s. Kiffin, who is stepping down after the Sun Bowl, referenced former Oklahoma stars such as quarterback Jack Mildren and running backs Billy Sims and Elvis Peacock when discussing Georgia Tech and what he describes as "an inverted wishbone." "If you're not disciplined," he said of the Yellow Jackets, "they can make you look silly." For all its rushing prowess, Georgia Tech is 6-7 and required a waiver from the NCAA to play in a bowl game. But Lane Kiffin said that "in a weird way" playing Georgia Tech was similar to playing high-powered Oregon, "as far as not a ton of plays being run." "They do the same things over and over," he said of Georgia Tech, "but they're so good at it and they have the answers down so well that as soon as you do something after a few plays, they adjust to it." Johnson, like Lane Kiffin, doubles as offensive coordinator. But he makes adjustments on the fly on the sideline, and does it without a play-call sheet. Johnson, 55, was offensive coordinator at Georgia Southern, Hawaii and Navy before he became Georgia Southern's coach and won Division II national titles in 1999 and 2000. In 2002, he returned to Navy as coach, leading the Midshipmen to five bowl games in six seasons before taking over at Georgia Tech in 2008.