ATLANTA _ The Paul Johnson era at Georgia Tech is over.
The head football coach is retiring, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned. Gregg Garrett, a major donor to the Tech athletic department and a close friend of Johnson's, confirmed the decision. The school announced the retirement shortly after 2:30 p.m.
The news was first reported Wednesday by Macon radio personality Bill Shanks.
"After 40 years of coaching, it's time to take a break," Johnson said in a statement. "My family has sacrificed a lot over the years. I want to watch my daughter (Kaitlyn, a professional opera singer) perform and do some things with my wife (Susan) that we've never had a chance to do. It's been a great run for the last 11 years here on The Flats. I'm proud of what we've accomplished and am looking forward to having the chance to coach this team one last time at our bowl game next month."
A news conference is to be held at 9 a.m. Thursday.
Johnson made the decision on his own, Garrett said, and that athletic director Todd Stansbury wanted him to continue. Garrett said he thought that Johnson, 61, had reached a point where he did not want to give the non-stop commitment to the job that is required of a head coach at an FBS school.
"It wasn't one particular game or one particular thing that didn't go well off the field," Garrett said. "I think he had come to the realization that it was time to go to that next phase."
Johnson's decision to retire comes as a surprise, at the end of his 11th season at Tech and his 40th in coaching. The Yellow Jackets completed the regular season at 7-5, winning four of their final five games.
The Johnson era at Tech ends with an 83-59 record, the longest tenure and most wins for a head coach at the school since coach Bobby Dodd's retirement.
Under Johnson, the Jackets reached heights rarely scaled since Dodd's retirement at the end of the 1966 season.
Tech won the 2009 ACC championship _ just the third in school history _ and finished eighth in the country in 2014 with a team that won 11 games while beating Virginia Tech, Miami, Clemson, Georgia and Mississippi State. In 2008, his first season at Tech, the Jackets ended a seven-game losing streak to archrival Georgia, and then led the Jackets to wins in Athens in 2014 and 2016.
The team's two Orange Bowl appearances, at the end of the 2009 and 2014 seasons, were the Jackets' only major-bowl appearances since Dodd.
He did it with a spread-option offense that was derided by many but bedeviled opponents and piled up points and yards.
Johnson's finale will arrive in December at the Jackets' bowl game. A fitting finale might be the Military Bowl in Annapolis, Md., where Johnson coached Navy for six seasons, taking the Midshipmen from a 1-20 record in the two seasons prior to his hire to five consecutive bowl appearances.
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