Oregon Ducks coach Willie Taggart has reportedly completed his coaching staff with the hiring of Mike Johnson to coach receivers, according to Fox Sports and the Michigan Insider Friday morning.
Johnson would replace Jimmie Dougherty, who left last week to coach the same position at UCLA.
Like UO safeties coach Keith Heyward, Johnson began his coaching career at Oregon State, where he coached receivers and quarterbacks from 1997-99 before following Mike Riley to the NFL with San Diego.
Johnson coached in the NFL from 2000-10 and was San Francisco’s offensive coordinator in 2010 before holding the same job at UCLA a year later, under Rick Neuheisel. After Neuheisel’s firing that season, Johnson was the Bruins’ interim coach.
Johnson most recently coached at The King’s Academy in Sunnyvale, California, and just four days ago the school announced Johnson was joining Jim Harbaugh’s staff at Michigan, where he was expected to be an analyst pending the NCAA’s discussion this spring of adding a 10th full-time assistant coach. Johnson is the father of the top dual-threat quarterback in the 2019 class, Michael Johnson Jr., and the move was criticized loudly by the SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum, who said he believed Harbaugh was “cheating.” Harbaugh himself then fired back in response.
But instead of working for Harbaugh in 2017, he’ll now coach for Taggart, one of Harbaugh’s proteges and closest friends.
Oregon had completed its coaching staff once before this offseason, before former co-offensive coordinator David Reaves resigned Feb. 3, following a January arrest for DUII and other charges and Dougherty, who was a passenger with Reaves at the time of the stop, left for Westwood shortly after.
UO moved quickly last week with the hiring of Oklahoma State’s Marcus Arroyo, who will coach quarterbacks and serve as passing game coordinator, though UO has not confirmed the hiring.
KPIX Mike Johnson and Son Feature
— Andrew Greif
agreif@oregonian.com
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