South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Johnson named as Owls co-OC
New assistant will also coach QBs for Taggart
There will now be two father-son duos on the FAU Owls coaching staff and roster.
Florida Atlantic announced Friday that Michael Johnson has joined coach Willie Taggart’s staff as co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
Johnson’s hiring and the subsequent coaching staff changes come a couple of weeks after it was confirmed that Clint Trickett and Jaron Fairman wouldn’t return to the program for the 2021 season.
Trickett and Johnson served as the Owls’ co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach and special teams coordinator/tight ends coach, respectively, during the 2020 season.
The program added that co-offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer, who also coached the wide receivers last season, will coach the Owls’ tight ends.
Joey Thomas will be FAU’s new wide receivers coach after being a defensive analyst for the Owls in 2020.
The Owls averaged 324.6 yards (No. 112 in the nation) and 18.9 points (No. 115 among FBS programs) this past season with Trickett serving as a co-offensive coordinator with Mehringer.
Raymond Woodie, who’s the Owls’ outside linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator, has been promoted to the associate head coach position. He’ll also be the team’s special teams coordinator.
FAU led Conference USA in kickoff return defense and was No. 3 in punt return defense in 2019, but it fell to No. 10 and No. 8 in those respective categories in 2020.
Johnson is the father of Michael Johnson Jr., the former Penn State quarterback who transferred to FAU during the early signing period in December. Taggart’s son, Willie Taggart Jr., is also on FAU’s roster as a quarterback.
The elder Johnson was on Taggart’s staff at Oregon as the wide receivers coach during the 2017 season and stayed with the Ducks under Mario Cristobal in 2018. Johnson was most recently on the staff at Mississippi State as the wide receivers coach during the 2019 season.
After playing at Arizona
State and Akron as a quarterback, Johnson played a few professional football seasons during the mid-1990s before starting a coaching career that has spanned over 20 years.
He was the wide receivers and then quarterbacks coach at Oregon State (199799) before becoming the quarterbacks coach with the San Diego Chargers from
2000-01.
Johnson also had stints as a wide receivers and/or quarterbacks coach with the Atlanta Falcons (2002-05), Baltimore Ravens (200607) and San Francisco 49ers
(2009-10).
He was the 49ers’offensive coordinator during the
2010 season and was UCLA’s offensive coordinator during the 2011 season before being the head coach at The King’s Academy (Sunnyvale, Calif.) from 2014-16.
“I’m excited about these changes to our staff,” Taggart said in a statement. “Moving forward, we’ll have a talented mix of experienced veterans and younger coaches, all of whom I have had the opportunity to work with previously.
“I’m looking forward to this group coming together and helping me lead this program into spring ball and the upcoming season.”