Meet the staff: Marcus Johnson

In a series of stories over the next few weeks, PowerMizzou is going in-depth with Missouri's assistant coaches to give Tiger fans a better idea of who the coaches are and what led them to this point. Today, hear from new offensive line coach Marcus Johnson, who joined Missouri's staff from Mississippi State. Johnson played on the offensive line at Ole Miss from 2001-2004, then spent five seasons in the NFL before starting his coaching career at Duke. You can find our most recent Q&A, with special teams coordinator Erik Link, here.

PowerMizzou: Just starting off, I know you played college football and in the NFL. When did coaching come on your radar? Was that something you always thought you wanted to do after you played?

Marcus Johnson: “I would say it kind of came into view later for me. As a player, you feel like you’re in control of how long you’re going to play, and that’s not necessarily the case, and with me, I was unfortunate and had an injury which ended my playing career. And I knew one thing, that I had been around football my entire life, and I wanted to continue to be involved in football. But I chose not to continue to play because I didn’t like the idea of seeing so many guys — I ran into so many guys every week, I’m talking 20, 30 guys that I would see come into the facility and working out and trying out and then them not making it and then they’re going to Seattle the next week, then they’re going to Tampa, to Minnesota, to Detroit. And I didn’t want to go that route, traveling all over the country, working out and training, trying to get back into the league, because I saw so many guys waste a lot of time. I’m talking two, three, four years of their life. And even to this day, even some of the greats you see doing it. Dez Bryant, for example, he’s trying to get back into the league, and he hasn’t probably played in the league in three years or so, maybe even longer. But I didn’t want to go that route, because I knew that I knew football and I wanted to stay involved in football, and thats when I began thinking about coaching, while I was hurt. And so what I did was, and what some of my former coaches and mentors encouraged me to do, was to go out to Duke and to visit with David Cutcliffe, who was my head coach in college, and just to kind of see how it works. So I spent I think three or four days at Duke spring ball that year. I probably shouldn’t have even been driving, because I was still on crutches and I was still in a leg brace, and coach Cut actually had some reservations about it, because he thought that I was going to be one of those guys that, if I got a call back to the NFL that I would leave coaching and take it and leave the kids hanging. So he had some reservations about hiring me, and he told me, once I finished up those three or four days, he told me to just go back home, think about it, talk about it with your family and just make sure, you know, that this is what you want to do. And I mean two days later, once I got back home, I called him back and said, 'coach, I’m done playing ball. This is what I want to do.' And he told me, 'alright then, Marcus, I’m going to see what I can do.' And probably a week or so later, two weeks later, he ended up telling me he doesn’t have an on the field position for me, so he’d like for me to come in as an unpaid intern in the weight room. So that began the start of my coaching career, in the weight room at Duke University.”

Was that a tough decision to just say I’m done playing without seeing what might have happened once you healed up?

“Well, it was a tough decision, but me, I’m the type, I try to think ahead. I think long term with any decision I make, and I knew that this was a long-term decision. That’s what began to come into play for me, I’m thinking about life after football and a second career, which I don’t think enough guys do. And even when I was playing — again, you heard me say, this wasn’t something that I thought about doing when I was in high school and in college — but I damn sure began to think about it when I was hurt and in the free agent market. And again, I didn’t want to go that Dez Bryant route, trying to get back in the league and next thing you know I’m 32, 34 years old and I’m still looking for a job. I was thinking long term, and I would rather invest that time while I was hurt into coaching rather than going back into playing. I think it was a great decision for me, and there’s no regrets about that decision, because I still get to do what I love, which is talk ball.”

So when you find out you’re going to be an unpaid intern after all that, what was your reaction? And what was your job description in that role?

“Well for me, first off, I went into it with no ego. I’ve always been a player, and I’m still a coach to this day, with no ego. So for me — even hearing (Missouri head coach Eliah Drinkwitz) say it all the time — the team, the team, the team. That’s what it was all about for me. I think there’s so many NFL guys that end up getting out of the league and they expect to get a full time job immediately. There’s very few Mike Vrabels. He’s rare, to immediately stop playing and immediately get a full-time job. Mike Munchak is rare. Immediately, as soon as he retired, gets a job, an o-line job for the team and the organization that he played for. There’s very few cases, in my opinion, that can do that. Most of us that are done playing ball, you have to start over, you have to start from the bottom, and ego wasn’t an issue for me when I started from the bottom and worked my way up. And hell, after six months of doing a good job in the weight room — it may have been more like eight months — I ended up getting promoted to full-time in the weight room. That was a blessing, but again, for me, it wasn’t about the money during that time, because I did a great job of saving my money while I was playing. For instance, I didn’t even buy a house until my fourth year in the league, and the only reason I bought a house at that time was because I had a daughter that was born, and I wanted to have something for her and my wife. That was the only reason I even bought a house. I didn’t buy a vehicle when I got drafted, I used my college vehicle. And I had just signed, I think it was a $1.6 million signing bonus, which I still haven’t touched to this day. And I think that was kind of me growing up, that I always respected the value of a dollar. And another thing that my o-line coach from college taught us as players was expect the worst and you’ll never be surprised, so that’s kind of how I live my life and how I try to train guys. Alright, what’s the worst that can happen to you on this play? Protect yourself against the worst, and if the worst doesn’t show up, my step, my set should put me in a position to still win and succeed, so now I got space and distance to make up for the worst not happening, if that makes sense.”

You said you worked your way up from a strength and conditioning coach to offensive line coach at Duke. What were the steps in the middle?

“Alright, so once they hired me in the weight room full-time as one of the five strength coaches, I worked with the o-line, being that that was kind of my specialty. And then I actually ended up getting my certification along the way. I was in the weight room about two and a half years, I got my certification, and it’s one of the hardest things that I’ve ever done in my life. I’m still a certified collegiate strength coach even to this day. That was important to me. I studied for about a year in preparation for that test. And I knew that David Cutcliffe, if you know him, you know he’s going to be an attention-to-detail guy. So even those two and a half year, I knew he was watching me. Even when I was an unpaid intern, I knew he was watching me. Because I know David Cucliffe well enough to know that he’s not going to hire just anybody to be around his kids and his program. So I always had that in the back of my head, just taking care of the first things first and making sure that my mind was where my feet were. So after my first year at Duke, John Latina was hired — my mentor, my offensive line coach from college — once Matt Luke left to take the offensive line job at Ole Miss. So after that, he was hired, after my first year. And after his first year at Duke, my second year at Duke, that’s when he came downstairs and asked me if I wanted to work with him on the offensive line. And I said, hell yeah, man, I've been waiting on this for two and a half years. And that’s what kind of opened the door for me to kind of get in position to be an o-line position coach. My title of my role was offensive quality control — which I’m still trying to figure out to this day what the hell that means — and assistant o-line coach to John Latina. So I served in that role for three years, and then I think he kind of did me a favor. He and I have always been coach. He was my recruiter back when I was coming out of high school, so he had my area in Coffeeville (Mississippi), and he actually coached my older brother, so we had a great relationship. This is a guy I’ve been knowing since I was about 16 years old, I played for him for my entire five years at Ole Miss, and then I get to work with him for three years as his assistant. And matter of fact, he was my best o-line coach, even among the guys I played for in the league, and I played for about five different guys, four or five different o-line coaches, and there’s no question he was the best. Probably was my best just because of the continuity. There wasn’t a lot of coaching changes back in those days, so I was fortunate for him being the only o-line coach that I played for in college. So obviously, being that he was the best that I had, I took a lot from him. Even still to this day, he’s a guy that I lean on big time. I probably talk to him three or four times a week at 4:30, 5 o’clock in the morning because I know he’s up. He ended up retiring I think after his fourth year at Duke and it was going into my fifth year at Duke, and that was when coach Cutcliffe hired me as his o-line coach, once John Latina retired from coaching. He kind of did me a favor. He knew it was time to pass the torch and he wanted to give me an opportunity, and I think honestly that’s why he retired, to pass the torch to me.”

You kind of just touched on this, but who are some of the guys who have influenced the way you coach?

“Well the first one, again, would be John Latina. He taught us so many life lessons. You heard me say earlier one of the things that he used to say all the time to us, expect the worst. Expect the worst, you’ll never be surprised. He was a big guy on toughness. Toughness and mentality more so than technique. Obviously he would preach and teach technique, but you had to be a tough guy to play for him, and that was kind of the number one trait that he was looking for, just tough-minded guys. And I think I’m kind of one and the same way. If we’re going to lose, we’re going to lose fighting like hell and our opponents are going to know we came to freakin’ fight. So I would say that side of it came from him, and then I would say coach Cutcliffe as far as the organization and progressions. He’s a big believer in technique and fundamentals and he’s an attention to detail guy. First off, he’s going to start with the stance. You know, ‘Coach Johnson, look at his stance, what do you think about it?’ And then his first step, or first set if we were in pass protection. So I would say the attention to detail and the organization came from David Cutcliffe, who’s also like a father figure to me.”

Kind of fast-forwarding a little bit, I know you were let go when they changed coaches at Mississippi State and it was kind of a quick turnaround to come to Missouri and get settled before the recruiting period and spring practice and all that. Are you starting to feel like you’re getting your feet under you in terms of getting to know the team and the area and everything?

“I think it’s still a work in progress, especially due to this coronavirus thing. Because when I first got here, I had to immediately get on the road to recruit. So there was a lot of catching up to do, and I didn’t really get to meet with the guys, I would say, until probably like February, started up a relationship with those guys. And then obviously we got cut short with spring ball around March. I guess we stopped practicing around March 20, or something like that. So it’s still a work in progress, especially with this virus thing having everybody away, you’re not able to be around the guys like you really want to and need to. As you know, when you called me, I was on a meeting with the guys. I was going over some drill tape with those guys and encouraging them of things that they could possibly do while they’re away from here. Again, it’s tough because you’re not there, so you hope and pray they’re not training bad habits that you have to correct once you get back.”

I know this isn’t something you’ve had to deal with before, but what can you do when you’re new to a position group and you don’t get that in-person time with them?

“I think you have to show them that you love them and you care for them. In order to do that, you have to spend as much time as you can with them. So I mean I called those guys up, I talked to their families. I reached out to their families even when we were at the beginning of this virus thing to kind of update them on the steps and precautions that we were taking in order to help with the situation. I made them aware that, hey, we’re disinfecting the rooms, you know, just kind of building the relationship. That’s kind of where the relationship with the parents starts, just kind of informing them of what’s going on. And to me, that’s part of that building trust and love within the group. And again, we do all these Zoom meetings, there’s times when I reach out to them individually and one on one, hey man, how you doing, how’s your family doing, what’s going on back at home? Really just try to dive into them as an individual more so than it being about football all the time. Because I do think it’s bigger than just football. That’s one of my biggest preachers to guys, especially when you’re in the recruiting process, is not putting all your eggs in one basket. One of coach Drink’s things is chasing two dreams. Hell, you can chase two dreams. It isn’t just all about football. It’s about life lessons along the journey while you’re playing football. So meetings, we have several meetings throughout the course of the week where we’ll watch scheme. Again, you heard me talking about we’ll watch individual drills and kind of giving them some things that they can possibly do. Obviously I can’t mandate them to do it, it’s strictly their decision, and you just hope and trust, like I told them, that they have great self-discipline because, like I told them, and excuse my language, but nobody’s going to give a shit about the coronavirus when it’s time to kick off this fall. Georgia’s d-linemen and Florida’s d-linemen are not going to be thinking about the damn coronavirus, they’re going to be thinking about kicking our ass. We should be thinking the same thing.”

Just going back to you personally, I know you said you didn’t always dream of getting into coaching, but what are your goals for yourself at this point in the field? Do you have aspirations of being a head coach one day?

“I’ve been asked that several times from several different people. And right now, man, my focus is strictly on the o-line. It’s the world I’ve lived and the world that I’ve enjoyed, and I think it’s a unique position. I think we’re totally different than any other position on the field in the fact that you’ve got to have five guys with the same mindset and the same mentality, the same goals and dreams and destinations. Because even if we have four guys that are first-team all-Americans and four of the five are the top four picks in the draft, if that one guy’s not holding up his weight, it makes the entire offense look atrocious. All it takes is one to not be in line. So I think that’s what makes us different, and that’s what I enjoy the most, and I want to be the best at it. I want to help these big guys enjoy their dreams. Usually we’re the position that doesn’t get a lot of the limelight. Usually we have to humble ourselves and usually we’re the blue-collar, tough-minded guys on the team that do the dirty work that nobody wants to talk about. And hell, usually the only time we hear our names called is if something bad happens. So I always say to guys, don’t get caught up in all that hype. If you don’t hear your name called, it’s a good thing.”