Taver Johnson knows what it’s like to be an assistant coach at Ohio State.
He says the program is very different now, though, with Urban Meyer going into his seventh season as Ohio State’s head coach, than it was when Johnson left Ohio State more than six years ago.
"It feels brand new," Johnson said Wednesday during his first press conference since returning to Ohio State. "When I walked in the first time, and just walking through the hallways, a lot of things have changed. Everyone has to be ready to go 100 miles an hour, detailed and all those things, all the time. That’s what’s new, that’s what’s different."
Johnson was previously the cornerbacks coach at Ohio State from 2007-10, when Jim Tressel was the Buckeyes’ head coach, and in 2011, when Luke Fickell was interim head coach. Johnson was offered the opportunity to remain on Meyer’s initial coaching staff in 2012, but decided to leave for an opportunity to become the assistant head coach and linebackers coach at Arkansas instead.
Six years later, however – after two seasons at Arkansas, three seasons as Purdue’s defensive backs coach and a year as Temple’s defensive coordinator – Meyer gave Johnson the opportunity to return as cornerbacks coach, and Johnson didn’t turn it down this time.
"At that time, I felt like I needed to venture out," Johnson said Wednesday on leaving for Arkansas in 2012. "At that point in my career, that’s what I felt. Was it right? Was it wrong? It was a great learning experience. I wouldn’t take it away for anything in the world, even though we had some bumps and bruises, but that’s what allowed me to continue on my career and actually get back here at this point in time. So I’m very thankful for that. I really am."
Was Johnson surprised that Meyer would want to hire him again after being spurned the first time? "Yes and no," Johnson said, because he has known Meyer for nearly 20 years, having worked with him when he was a graduate assistant and Meyer was the wide receivers coach at Notre Dame in 1999, and felt Meyer understood why he made the decision he did.
"He knew that it was not personal whatsoever," Johnson said. "When I left, it wasn’t on bad terms whatsoever. But again, when you tell Coach Meyer no, that’s always a tough thing, because I know what type of person he is, as well as coach. So that was tough. But then also, I think just going back and having the friendship and everything, that he understands that I believe in and we believe in the same things. When the opportunity came about (to return), I was thankful for that."
A big reason why Johnson chose to return – beyond the fact that he grew up in Cincinnati as a Buckeyes fan, and has deep ties to the state of Ohio – was because of the high regard in which he holds Meyer.
In his first couple weeks back inside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, Johnson has been nothing but impressed with how the Ohio State football program has evolved under Meyer’s leadership.
"You walk in the door every day, you’re going 100 miles an hour," Johnson said of working for Meyer. "We were able to do some really good things when I was here the first time with Coach Tressel, which I’m thankful for. And again, that allowed me also probably to come back. But just the ongoing of everything that we do, at such a high rate, high expectation, everyday, constantly, it’s good. It challenges you as a person, it challenges you as a coach and really, within these last eight, nine days I’ve been working, has already made me better overall."
Johnson experienced no shortage of success in his first stint at Ohio State; the Buckeyes won at least 10 games in each of Tressel’s final four seasons at the helm, appearing in a Bowl Championship Series game each year, while Johnson himself developed a pair of All-American cornerbacks in Malcolm Jenkins – who recently became the first Buckeye to win the Super Bowl with two different teams – and Chimdi Chekwa.
Under Meyer’s leadership, though, Ohio State has gone on to even greater heights, winning at least 11 games in each of his first six seasons (with at least 12 wins in five of those seasons) and winning the first-ever College Football Playoff national championship in the 2014 season.
“You walk in the door every day, you’re going 100 miles an hour.”– Taver Johnson on working for Urban Meyer
Perhaps Meyer’s biggest impact has been on the recruiting trail, where the Buckeyes have evolved into a perennial national powerhouse, so while Johnson had players with the talent to become All-Americans during his previous tenure at Ohio State, he says there has been a noticeable evolution in the overall depth of talent that the Buckeyes have now.
"There is a different level, there’s no doubt about it," Johnson said of the talent on the Buckeyes’ roster. "Coach Meyer and his staff have done a great job of getting more of the talent. I don’t know if when Coach Tressel was here, the first time, if he had the numbers of guys that were talented. We had some talented guys that developed. I think guys that have come here, talented and then also get developed, and that’s why this place is going through the roof."
As a recruiter and developer of talent, Johnson has big shoes to fill in replacing Kerry Coombs, who developed Bradley Roby and both recruited and developed Eli Apple, Marshon Lattimore, Gareon Conley and Denzel Ward – all cornerbacks who have gone on, or in Ward’s case likely will soon, to be first-round draft picks in the NFL – during his six seasons as Ohio State’s cornerbacks coach.
Johnson says he is not intimidated by that challenge, though, even though he has known Coombs since Coombs’ days as a high school coach and considers him to be a "tremendous coach."
"Intimidating? No. Pressure? Always," Johnson said. "Kerry’s done a great job with those guys. The whole staff has done an outstanding job. And not just producing those first-rounders, but just quality young men that come through these doors. I told the guys, and I already know, I have some big shoes to fill. And I’m accepting that challenge, and I’m excited about it."
