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Replacing a legend is never easy, but someone has to do it. For Bountiful — that person is Randy Johnson, who has been hired as the next football coach of the Braves after Larry Wall retired last week, The Tribune confirmed on Tuesday afternoon.

"You implement the things that we do," Johnson said when asked how to run a program his way after Wall coached for 31 years. "You have a similar philosophy, but go about it a different way. You have to know it's going to be a different process and hope the kids get sold on it."

Johnson was the head coach at Clearfield from 1991-2005, where he orchestrated the most successful era of the program, with an overall record of 100-64 during his incumbency, including leading the school to its only state championship in 1992. No other coach has ever finished with a winning record at Clearfield, and the Falcons are 25-77 since Johnson left. Johnson also served as an assistant at Bonneville and Bountiful after his time at Clearfield.

Wall retired after 31 years atop the program on Friday. He accumulated an overall record of 238-116 — the second-most victories in UHSAA history, and guided the Braves to four state championships.

"You want to keep on the success that Larry had to make it a very competitive football program," Johnson said. "There's not a magical formula. It's hard work and being lucky from time to time, and hopefully things work out that way."

Johnson said Bountiful will use three running backs on offense, incorporating play-action from the run-first scheme. "We want to keep things as simple as we can," he explained. "We want to make everything look the same. It's a version of a double-wing and option."

Defensively, Bountiful will operate from a 4-2-5 base under Johnson. "That way we can adjust to more of the spread stuff you see more often nowadays," Johnson said.

The Braves finished 7-5 this season before falling to Timpview in the Class 4A quarterfinals, but lost several key contributors, most notably running backs Max Tooley, who signed with BYU, and Kaden Simmonds, who joined Utah as a preferred walk-on.

"The younger groups have some good kids. We don't have the Max Tooleys," Johnson said. "But, I think, at Clearfield, we had years where we didn't have the big-name kids, and [we] still were very competitive. I think we should be able to compete that way."

— Trevor Phibbs

Twitter: @trevorphibbs