'I am New Orleans': Florida State football coach David Johnson returning home for LSU game
The first time David Johnson moved out of Louisiana came after the New Orleans native watched Hurricane Katrina ravage his community.
How Johnson handled the aftermath of the 2005 disaster – which is still among the deadliest hurricanes ever documented in the U.S. – is a story he has shared countless times.
And it’s a story that inspires him even now as Florida State’s running backs coach.
Johnson remembers temporarily moving into a three-bedroom house in Oxford, Miss. with 27 family members. Then, when Johnson received an offer to be an assistant coach at Millsaps College, a Division III program in Jackson, Miss., he accepted.
Even if the circumstances were considerably less than ideal.
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“They could only pay me $500 a month,” Johnson said. “My son was eight months old, and my wife, they stayed with the family. When I got to Jackson, since I was from New Orleans, they wouldn’t allow me to stay in any hotels.
“So I slept in my car for two weeks for my first college job. I tell people, ‘I wasn’t homeless. I was just the first person at work.’”
The low pay could have kept Johnson from sufficiently supporting his family financially. But he saw an opportunity at Millsaps, his first college coaching job. Johnson had spent the last several years as the offensive coordinator at two New Orleans high schools: John F. Kennedy (1997-99) and O. Perry Walker (2000-04).
Taking the Millsaps job ultimately proved to be a wise move for Johnson, who parlayed his four-year stint there into a head coaching gig at St. Augustine High (2009-11) in New Orleans.
After his time at St. Augustine, Johnson elevated into the FBS ranks as an assistant coach for Tulane (2012-15), Memphis (2016-17), Tennessee (2018-19) and FSU (2020-present).
“Whenever you are presented with an opportunity – I always tell young kids, ‘Don’t let your opportunity embarrass you,’” said Johnson, a former star wide receiver for Nicholls State, on his rise as a coach.
With the Seminoles, Johnson certainly could take advantage of his opportunity this season. He has an impressive running back trio in Oregon transfer Trey Benson, former walk-on Treshaun Ward and the explosive Lawrance Toafili.
The three redshirt sophomores helped FSU wallop Duquesne 47-7 in its season opener last Saturday. For the first time in program history, the Seminoles finished a game with three 100-yard rushers via Ward (127 yards), Benson (105 yards) and Toafili (101 yards).
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FSU head coach Mike Norvell praised Johnson for how much he has developed the group.
“He is an incredible leader of men,” Norvell said. “Very, very smart football coach. Detail-oriented. You look at his background and what he has done – coaching receivers, coaching backs – he has done it all. He provides so much knowledge for them and also inspires them.
“And it’s not just what you see on the field. It’s the mindset of that group and everything of who they are and what they are about.
“It’s why I think you see that consistency of that performance that shows up. He does a phenomenal job.”
The ground game should continue to be a key for the Seminoles (1-0) when they face LSU (0-0) and its stout defensive line at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans at 7:30 p.m. ET Sunday. That game, tabbed as the Allstate Louisiana Kickoff, will be televised nationally on ABC.
And that game will be a homecoming of sorts for Johnson and others on FSU's team. Offensive analyst Gabe Fertitta, who won state titles as the head coach for Baton Rouge (La.) Catholic in 2017 and 2020, is among other coaches on the Seminole staff with Louisiana ties.
Defensive backs Sidney Williams (New Orleans) and Greedy Vance Jr. (Kenner), defensive linemen Bishop Thomas (New Orleans) and Byron Turner Jr. (Port Sulpher), wide receiver Ja’Khi Douglas (Houma) and offensive tackle Bless Harris (New Orleans) are all from the Pelican State.
“We know that there is business at hand,” Johnson said. “We have to play a football game. We have to try to win a football game. That’s one of our biggest things. And that’s the business at hand. We’ve got to take care of those little things.
“This is going to be a tough game. Tough environment. But that’s what you signed up for. That’s why you came to Florida State – to play big games like this.
“But for me, and kind of being in front of my family and friends, and going back home to play in a game like this – and actually, my son goes to school in New Orleans now.
“My son is a senior at St. Augustine. He goes to the same school that Tyrann Mathieu and Leonard Fournette went to. So going back home is going to be big.”
David Johnson coached former LSU stars Tyrann Mathieu, Leonard Fournette
To Johnson, Millsaps was not the only questionable job he accepted.
St. Augustine had been a reeling program, winning a combined eight games in the three seasons before Johnson arrived. The Purple Knights also had a yellowed practice field that lacked the basic essentials. No lines. No yard markers. No goal posts.
To simulate field goals, kickers cleared the ball over a fence.
“Everybody laughed at me for taking the job,” Johnson said. “All of my friends laughed at me and said, ‘Do not take that job.’ A lot of my friends offered me to be the offensive coordinator or a receivers coach, but I wanted to be a head coach.
“And I tell people all the time, ‘I hit the jackpot.’”
That jackpot included coaching multiple former LSU stars like defensive back Tyrann Mathieu and running back Leonard Fournette. Johnson took over the spring before Mathieu and Fournette entered their senior and eighth-grade seasons, respectively.
With Mathieu, Johnson quickly recognized his potential.
“It was the second practice when I watched him, and I called everybody I knew and was like, ‘This is the best player that I have ever seen,’” Johnson said.
“Now, this was after I coached (former LSU receiver) Craig Davis, who was a first-round draft pick (for the San Diego Chargers). I had already coached (former Ole Miss receiver) Mike Wallace, who went to the NFL.
“I called everybody I knew. I had never seen a player move like this and was that smart, that quick. And he was really small at the time, 5-foot-8. Everybody kind of laughed at him.
“But I knew. You could see it. And he knew. He knew before everybody else.”
Fournette dominated so much as an eighth grader, Johnson explained, that parents had him banned from playing football with his classmates. He instead played on the freshman team. And once Fournette started actually playing for St. Augustine's varsity team, his recruitment took off.
Four games into his freshman season, Fournette already had almost 1,000 rushing yards. He went down as one of the top recruits in the 2014 class.
“As an eighth grader playing on the freshman team in the very first game, he dominated,” Johnson said. “So my principal called me in to tell me that I couldn’t play seniors in a freshman game.
“I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ The principal was going off, and I was like, ‘That wasn’t a senior. That was Leonard.’”
The only coaching Mathieu and Fournette received at St. Augustine, Johnson joked, was that he didn’t mess them up. But that experience gave Johnson more perspective on what Louisiana kids with challenging circumstances can be like as football players.
“We take pride in having an opportunity to play,” Johnson said. “Being from there, that’s one thing, those kids are tough. And when you get tough kids from Louisiana wanting to play football, you are going to get really good football players. And good people.”
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‘I am New Orleans’
Johnson is commonly referred to as coach YAC, the abbreviation for yards after contact and yards after catch.
It’s a nickname Johnson picked up while coaching wide receivers, tight ends and running backs for various college programs. Johnson has embraced the moniker, which he received because of his enthusiasm for players making the most of their opportunities.
In the New Orleans community, though, Johnson is known by a couple other names.
“They don’t know me by that name in New Orleans,” Johnson said. “It’s either coach Dave or Mr. J, because I was a middle school teacher.”
Until Hurricane Katrina and a job opportunity prompted him to move elsewhere, Johnson had built a life in Louisiana. Before Johnson returns to New Orleans this weekend, he reflected on how much the Crescent City still means to him.
“The people in general,” Johnson said. “I’m so thankful and grateful for the people in New Orleans, because they presented me with so many opportunities. I wouldn’t be here without that city.
“And I don’t tell people that I’m just from New Orleans. I am New Orleans.”
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GAME INFORMATION
Who: FSU vs. LSU
When/where: Sunday, 7:30 p.m. ET, Superdome in New Orleans
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU football: Seminoles coach David Johnson has special tie to LSU game
