Desmond Howard says Arizona should take a look at key Florida assistant for head coaching vacancy
By Adam Spencer
Published:
Florida OC Brian Johnson is only 33 years old, but he has a ton of coaching experience under his belt.
After a playing career at Utah that saw him lead the Utes to a 31-17 win over Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl, Johnson spent a year in the United Football League before entering the coaching ranks.
Since then, he’s served on Kyle Whittingham’s Utah staff (2010-13), Dan Mullen’s Mississippi State staff (2014-16), Houston’s staff (2017) and now, he’s the offensive coordinator at Florida.
On Saturday morning’s College GameDay, analyst Desmond Howard said he thinks Arizona, which recently fired coach Kevin Sumlin, should look at Johnson as a potential head coach candidate:
“I think Arizona’s a good job,” Howard said. “I think it’s a good spot to coach. It’s a fertile recruiting ground — you can recruit California, you can recruit Texas. I think you can get speed out there, you can get talent. I would look at a young coach like maybe Brian Johnson, the offensive coordinator at Florida. He’s a guy who has helped develop Kyle Trask into a Heisman candidate right now and he’s young. He’s played quarterback before. He played out there at Utah. … He’s a guy I would look at.”
It seems to be only a matter of time before Johnson gets a chance to be a head coach. We’ll see if that happens this offseason or not.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
