Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – They keep getting younger and younger in college football. Not the players. They stay the same. Nowadays, more and more coaches are the ones barely old enough to shave when handed their first pair of sideline headsets.

Charlie Weis Jr., the former University of Florida student whose famous father served a season as the Gators' offensive coordinator earlier this decade, is the latest fresh-faced coach to make national headlines. Lane Kiffin hired the 24-year-old Weis this week as Florida Atlantic's offensive coordinator.

A few years ago, the same was true for current Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley, who was only 26 in 2010 when he was named East Carolina's offensive coordinator. Still, the youngest of the young was Gators quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson, only 22 when hired to become Utah's quarterbacks coach in 2010. Two years later Johnson was promoted to offensive coordinator, replacing Riley as the youngest coordinator in the game at the time.

 

Like most ex-players who experienced the kind of success Johnson did in college – he was named Sugar Bowl MVP after the 2008 season when he passed for 336 yards to lead Utah to a win over Alabama – Johnson entertained thoughts of a professional career.

"It didn't work out,'' he said. "That year from your last year of college to welcome to the real world, that is a very unique transition."

Johnson didn't sit idle.

A native of Baytown, Texas, on the outskirts of Houston, Johnson didn't get a single offer from a state school following his career at Lee High. He took his talents to Utah, where then-Utes offensive coordinator Dan Mullen saw him as a nice fit in Urban Meyer's multiple-spread offense after Alex Smith departed.

Johnson proved Mullen correct and finished his career as Utah's all-time winningest quarterback and leader of the nation's No. 2-ranked team in the final Associated Press poll his senior season. By that time, Mullen was Meyer's offensive coordinator at Florida and wrapping up a four-year run with the Gators that included two national championships.

As Mullen started his head-coaching career at Mississippi State in 2009, Johnson stayed busy by putting his degree in mass communications to work, doing a radio show and writing a weekly column for the Salt Lake Tribune.

At some point during that "unique transition," Johnson got a call from Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham, who took over the Utes in 2005 when Meyer left to come to Florida. Whittingham wanted Johnson to join his staff only 12 months after Johnson took his final snap for the Utes.

"[He] has natural leadership ability and possesses a complete understanding of the game,'' Whittingham said when he hired Johnson.

Johnson jumped into coaching the same way he did the playbook for a game. The job was absent an instruction manual, but he figured it out with the help of Whittingham, Mullen and others who helped him go from a 17-year-old college freshman to the face of the young coaches movement.

"I got in really, really early,'' Johnson said. "It was completely different from playing. I had to learn a lot. I hadn't really coached before. I kind of learned on the job as I went and I was very, very fortunate to be around some great men who helped shape my career and gave me tons of good advice to make sure I lasted in this business."
 
In a profession that can eat you up and spit you out, Johnson is entering his ninth year as a full-time assistant coach and first at Florida. Johnson, who turns 31 on Feb. 16, spent four seasons at his alma mater, joined Mullen for three seasons as quarterbacks coach at Mississippi State from 2014-16, and spent last season as offensive coordinator at Houston.

While Johnson's age made him national news when Utah hired him, he gained national attention for his coaching acumen at Mississippi State, where he mentored and helped Mullen develop former Bulldogs quarterback Dak Prescott into a Heisman Trophy candidate.

Prescott was one of college football's biggest stories during the 2014 season when he led the Southeastern Conference in total offense (341.2 yards per game) by passing for 3,449 yards and rushing for 986. In the process, he helped the Bulldogs vault to No. 1 after a 6-0 start that included three consecutive wins over top 10 teams. Mississippi State became the first team in the AP Poll's 78-year history to go from unranked to the top spot in five weeks.

When Johnson departed Mississippi State in December 2016 to go to Houston, Prescott provided a glowing endorsement.

"He was unbelievable and I'm very thankful to have him as a coach,'' Prescott said. "Once I got the offense down, he took me to another level and his knowledge of the game was invaluable. It meant a lot to have someone who has played at such a high level be able to teach you."

Mullen's trust in Johnson is clear in that he lured him away from Houston after only a season to coach Florida's quarterbacks, a group that included last year's starter, Feleipe Franks, returners Kyle Trask and Jake Allen, and recent signee Emory Jones.

 

In their first time together as colleagues at Mississippi State, Mullen relied on Johnson to coach the quarterbacks and call plays at times. Johnson's play-calling gained attention in 2016 when the Bulldogs knocked off No. 4-ranked Texas A&M 35-28.

Mullen, who has remained engaged in play-calling duties throughout his career as a head coach and named longtime assistants Billy Gonzales and John Hevesy as co-offensive coordinators at Florida, credited Johnson's calls from the booth as a key to the win.

"He meets with the quarterbacks all the time,'' Mullen told reporters after the game. "A lot of times we're on the same page. You could see he was making some good calls. The fact that he was recruited by me and played a year for me, he knows my expectations."

If you research Johnson's past, the coaches he has played for and worked under all share a general view, starting with his high school coach, Dick Olin.

Johnson is smart, a natural leader, and a student of the game.

"He's always been more mature," Olin told the Houston Chronicle last year.

Besides his distinction as one of the youngest offensive coordinators in modern major college football history, Johnson gained notoriety a few years ago when he was one of four players chosen to be on the cover of the NCAA Football 10 video game. Depending on the make of the video game console one used to play the game, the game's cover featured either Johnson, Brian Orakpo, Mark Sanchez or Michael Crabtree.

While the three others have found success as NFL players, Johnson's career path took him into coaching. It's been a good fit.

"After I started I knew this is what I wanted to do,'' he said. "I love being around the players. I love being around the game. I think it teaches you so many life lessons that you can carry on when you are done playing. And it was fun. I enjoy being out on the practice field and helping guys develop and reach their potential every single day."

When Meyer, Mullen and the Gators defeated Ohio State for the 2006 national championship, Johnson made the trip from Utah to Arizona to watch his former coaches reach the game's pinnacle. Johnson had no inclination at the time, but one day he would rejoin Mullen to try and do the same with the Gators.

Funny how life turns out sometimes. Mullen's offer to rejoin him at Florida made perfect sense even though after years away, Johnson was finally back home in Houston for the first time since Mullen took him away all those years ago.

"I was a two-star kid that really nobody wanted,'' Johnson said. "He gave me my first opportunity to play college football. I've known Coach my entire adult life. He has been very instrumental in my career."