Johnson offers his insight to Hurricanes and Dolphins
When former Dolphins and UM coach Jimmy Johnson watched Miami Hurricanes games this past season, he noticed a couple areas where he thought coach Manny Diaz could do something different.
But then J.J. wondered: Should he call Diaz and tell him? After all, they had developed a good relationship last offseason, with Diaz taking his assistants to Johnson’s home in the Keys in the spring, and Johnson visiting practice last August.
Johnson, who admits he was “a little surprised” by Miami’s 6-7 season, decided to make a couple of those phone calls to Diaz — on topics that will remain between himself and Diaz — and he’s glad he did.
“There were a couple things I thought he could have done had he been a head coach longer,” Johnson said Tuesday during a Fox media availability in advance of Sunday’s Super Bowl 54 coverage on the network, where Johnson will be in his usual chair on the pregame studio show from Hard Rock Stadium.
“I was hesitant a little bit about making the phone call a time or two. But [Diaz] was very, very good about it. I think he will be fine. I’m still confident he can get it done. He’s a hard worker, he’s confident, he’s smart. The whole key is recruiting some good players. You look at the top dozen schools in college football; their talent is so much better than the rest of them. There is a world of difference. My wife Rhonda could win 10 games at those dozen schools. It’s not the quality of the coaching, it’s the quality of the recruiting.”
Former Dolphins coach and ex-UM assistant coach Dave Wannstedt said UM got the “steal of the transfer portal” in quarterback D’Eriq King, and Johnson said Diaz’s move to an up-tempo spread offense shows a willingness to change.
“That’s college offenses [now],” Johnson said. “You’ve got to be able to adapt.”
Wannstedt, a Fox college and NFL studio analyst, makes a good point about UM football: “The quarterback thing has been mind boggling to me. How you can be at the U and not have front-line quarterbacks stacked up. Is it evaluation? There’s something missing. If I’m basing it off my days where we went from Bernie [Kosar ]to Vinny [Testaverde ]to Steve Walsh to Craig Erickson, we had them stacked up. How they got in this jam is the difference in them being average like they’ve been or competing for the ACC Coastal.”
UM hasn’t had a quarterback drafted higher than the sixth round this century. Brad Kaaya went in the sixth round but never threw an NFL pass.
Wannstedt said he thought King would go to Oklahoma “but he ended up at the U. Wow. That’s exciting. They got the defense, they can run the ball.”
One big difference from the way Johnson orchestrated his rebuilding project with the Cowboys and the way the Dolphins are doing it is the fact the Dolphins traded skilled young players (Laremy Tunsil, Minkah Fitzpatrick). Johnson didn’t.
Does Johnson believe the Dolphins’ approach will work?
“There’s been a lot of teams over the years that had a lot of draft picks,” Johnson said. “A lot of those teams are still struggling. The whole key is not getting draft picks. The whole key is drafting good players. The only disappointing thing is if you got a good young player, you need to keep him somehow, some way.”
Johnson met with Dolphins scouts last summer, at the request of general manager Chris Grier.
“I told them the things I was looking for and examples,” Johnson said. “Playmakers, gym rats passionate for the game, character; you can’t win with bums. But intelligence right off the bat. You go through all those things but then you go to the original thing: Can he play? Zach Thomas was a great player; hey, he’s not real tall or not real fast. But go back to the top. Can he play? That makes your decision right there.”
Johnson said the Dolphins face a tough call with their quarterback options in the draft, primarily Tua Tagovailoa and Justin Herbert.
“I like both of them,” Johnson said. “Tua, I’m just concerned about the injuries. He’s already had three.
“When you have injuries, the frequency of those injuries escalate as time goes on. Herbert played really well in the Senior Bowl. I was more impressed with Herbert in the Senior Bowl than I was at Oregon.”
Dolphins receiver Jakeem Grant, making the rounds on
Radio Row at the Miami Beach Convention Center, vows to rebound from a season where he averaged 8.6 yards on 19 receptions and was limited to 10 games by injury.
This is healthiest offseason
I’ve had,” he said. “I left a lot out there on the field, so I’m coming back with vengeance. … I am going to go out and shock the world that I can be a top receiver in this league.”
The Dolphins this week auditioned former South Plantation High standout running back
Alex Collins, who has averaged 4.2 yards on 357 NFL carries with the Ravens and Seahawks from 2016-18, but he left without a contract offer. He was out of the league last season and served a three-game NFL suspension after pleading guilty to possession of more than 10 grams of marijuana and possession of a handgun in a vehicle.
Fox lead NFL game analyst Troy Aikman, who worked with new Dolphins offensive coordinator Chan Gailey late in Aikman’s career in Dallas, said he was surprised Gailey came out of retirement to become the Dolphins’ offensive coordinator.
“They are going to be able to run the football,” Aikman said of the Dolphins. “That’s his mantra.”