Johnson confirmed as cornerbacks coach

Taver Johnson is the new cornerbacks coach at Ohio State, a team spokesman confirmed Tuesday.

Make that, Johnson is the renewed OSU cornerbacks coach. He held the same post for five seasons from 2007 to 2011, the first four under Jim Tressel and then in 2011 under Luke Fickell.

Johnson will work for Urban Meyer, who is headed into his seventh OSU season. Since leaving the Buckeyes, Johnson, a native of Cincinnati and a Wittenberg graduate, had been at Arkansas, Purdue and, last season, was defensive coordinator at Temple before circling back, taking the spot vacated by Kerry Coombs, who left in January to join the Tennessee Titans.

During his climb through the coaching ranks, Johnson spent the 1999 season as a graduate assistant Notre Dame where Meyer was an assistant coach.

“I am really pleased to have Taver Johnson join our coaching staff,” Meyer said in a news release announcing the move. “I’ve known Taver for a long time, going back to our days at Notre Dame, and I think he is a terrific coach and person. He’ll do an excellent job coaching our cornerbacks and mentoring the young men in our program.”

Johnson was linebackers coach at Miami University from 2002 to ‘05, moving to the Cleveland Browns as special teams coach in 2006 before joining the OSU staff the first time. At OSU he tutored several standout cornerbacks, including Super Bowl winner Malcolm Jenkins, who was All-America in 2007 and 2008, and won the Jim Thorpe Award in 2008 as the nation’s top defensive back.