Former Utah quarterback Brian Johnson is a shooting star in NFL and college coaching ranks, having tutored Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts to a stellar season, straight to the Super Bowl. He’s previously interviewed with the Green Bay Packers for their offensive coordinator position, and in recent weeks he talked briefly with the New York Jets about their OC spot, before the team hired Nathaniel Hackett. Notre Dame reportedly is targeting him as a serious candidate for its offensive coordinator opening, seeking to interview him after Super Sunday.
A whole lot of people are crowding around Brian Delance Johnson these days, keeping tabs on the man.
That was not the case 14 years ago, when he stood solitarily in the dark of a New Orleans night, nobody near him, nobody around him, nobody in sight, nobody knowing where he was.
Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham and Utah quarterback Brian Johnson (3) hold their trophy aloft after the Utes defeated Alabama in the 75th annual Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Friday, January 2, 2009.
He had a backpack slung over his shoulder and the Sugar Bowl MVP trophy in his hand, having led his Utah Utes to a memorable win over the Alabama Crimson Tide under the bright lights in the Superdome.
Two hours earlier, the quarterback had wandered across the field, confetti falling on his head and shoulders, yelling in exultation to anyone within earshot, “Me and my teammates and coaches, we were the only ones who believed we could do this! The only ones!”
Johnson was right about that, various Utes, also covered in confetti, slapping him on his shoulder pads and celebrating the good things that surprising victory brings, eager to hit the town and unrighteously celebrate some more. The team leader, though, took his time, dawdled even.
Finally, as he walked out the back door of the vacated big building, the sky was black, the scene oddly quiet. He was alone.
The team bus was gone, his teammates were gone, his coaches were gone. Johnson not only had been left behind, he had no clue how he was going to get home, both physically and metaphorically.
He punched into his cell phone Kyle Whittingham’s number and said: “Where is everybody? Why did you leave me?”
The coach’s response: “We did?”
It was 1 in the morning as a disheveled street stranger approached Johnson, asking if he could heft his cool trophy, and the senior star, his college playing career finished, had all kinds of thoughts racing through his mind. He realized in that moment that he had an uncertain future ahead and miles of empty shadow-road in front of him.
Well. That was what seems like a long, long time ago, and let’s just say, he has found his way home now. At least his home pro tempore. It’s in the quarterbacks room as QB coach with the Eagles as they prepare for the Super game in Glendale, Ariz., on Sunday. It is Johnson who has coached up the inexperienced Hurts to a shining season in which he threw for 3,701 yards, ran for 760 and accounted for 39 touchdowns, four in the playoffs.
The bright lights have returned to Brian Johnson.
(Rich Schultz | AP) Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) talks on the sidelines with Philadelphia Eagles quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson before an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022, in Philadelphia.
Of Hurts, Johnson said: “He’s battled and I’m excited to get to this point and watch him play on Sunday. He’s done an excellent job in terms of understanding the system and being more comfortable. He’s put himself in a position to play really well on a consistent basis.”
Speaking of being more comfortable and consistent, that describes Hurts’ coach, as well.
Johnson is realizing what he was unsure about in the Sugar Bowl’s immediate aftermath.
He had hoped to play in the NFL, but discovered, no matter how much people say leadership, poise, vision and a winning character matter at the position, that the real demand in the pros for undersized quarterbacks is downright subterranean. He was told, at 6-foot, he wasn’t tall enough.
“I always thought I’d get drafted and have a great career,” Johnson said all those years ago. “It didn’t happen. You go from an extreme high to an extreme low.”
As was his way, he kept his spirits up, looking for a free-agent shot somewhere, making a trip to Green Bay for a tryout, but the experience led to nothing.
All the nothingness slowly opened Johnson’s ears to the possibility of coaching. A whole lot of folks had told the smart, charismatic one that he had the natural ingredients for that stew. And that’s the dish he dove into, saying: “Nobody can predict the future. I’ve learned that. …”
Hold that quote right there, and we’ll get back to it.
At the early age of 24, after working as Utah’s quarterbacks coach, and after a short stint as a sports talk-show host, Johnson was hired as Utah’s offensive coordinator, everyone figuring, including Whittingham, that if Johnson could have mastered the Ute offense the way he did as a player, he could do that and more as a coordinator.
Dan Mullen, who had recruited Johnson to Utah before moving on as eventual head coach at Mississippi State and Florida, said: “He has such an intelligent football mind, I know he’s going to succeed.”
He didn’t. The Ute offense struggled that next season, and Whittingham left Johnson in the dark again. Dennis Erickson was named co-coordinator to help guide the ship, and thereafter Johnson was demoted to quarterbacks coach. He subsequently left Utah, getting hired by Mullen at Mississippi State.
Johnson said he held no animus toward Whittingham, or his alma mater, praising him and it, and suggested that he would frequently get back to Utah to visit, to “play golf at Old Mill.”
The former Ute also said this was “a good chance to gain some new experience in my life.”
Take the man, the prophet to Vegas.
Johnson helped develop Dak Prescott at Mississippi State, and after Mullen left Starkville for Gainesville, Johnson worked for one season as quarterbacks coach/offensive coordinator at Houston before Mullen hired him at Florida, where he became that program’s first Black offensive coordinator.
In January 2021, Johnson was hired by Eagles coach Nick Sirianni. Since that hiring, Philly has blistered upward, becoming this season the NFL’s winningest team, straight through the playoffs to the Super Bowl. Hurts, despite some doubters, has played a huge role, rapidly growing as one of the league’s freshest young talents, and for Hurts’ quick rise, the 35-year-old Johnson has correctly received much of the credit.
His future now is a hundred miles of lit, open road.
OK. Back to the unfinished quote.
“… There are so many unknowns as to what’s going to happen. You just have to make something out of the opportunities you get, and enjoy it. You never know when things will end, and what new doors will open.”
Open, they are.
Nobody ever told Johnson he was too short to be a great coach.
He’s gone, then, from extreme high to extreme low to extreme high, again.
And if he gets left in the dark outside Glendale’s State Farm Stadium late Sunday night, all alone, nobody near him, nobody around, nobody in sight, he will not have to call anyone, not a soul. They will be calling him.
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