#51 Chad Johnson: From Blocking LB Stacks to Sharing in a Substack

Paul Horne: Welcome to Trenchiometry. If you've spent any time in or around the trenches, playing offensive line isn't just blocking. It's chess at light speed. You're controlling angles while 280 pound defender tries to destroy your running back. Every snap, calculating leverage, mirroring footwork, and anchoring against pure violence. Miss one step and your franchise player gets flattened. We're here to discuss the most undervalued aspect of the game of football, the offensive line. You can draw up the plays you want, but if you don't own the trenches, you don't own the game. Remember, you master the trenches, you win the war. This is Trenchometry. Today, we're talking to a man who has spent over a quarter century in the coaching ranks, doing just about everything you can do on the football field. He's coached quarterbacks, running backs, linebackers, and coordinated on both sides of the ball. But lately, he's been busy building one of the most dominant offensive line factories in the state of Louisiana. Since twenty fourteen, he's been a staple on the staff at Neville High School in Monroe, Louisiana. In twenty twenty, he made the famous jump from linebackers to offensive line. And all he's done since is help mold some of the absolute best tackle prospects in modern college football and the NFL, including first round draft pick Will Campbell and SEC standout Lance Hurd. He's the mastermind behind the game day systems substack, a gold mine built specifically to give coaches real, actionable blueprints. We aren't talking high-level theory or clinic talk today, fellas. We're talking actual plug-and-play systems you can use tonight, from game day painkillers like handling defensive stunts. To full ninety page install manuals on inside zone, duo, and practice templates. He's got it all, all mapped out in his game day systems vault. Lock in, grab your notebooks, and let's get into it. Welcome to Trenchometry, Coach Chad Johnson. Chad, welcome today. How you doing?
Coach Chad Johnson: I'm doing good, coach. Thank you. Thank you for having me. appreciate
Paul Horne: Hey, I'm I'm excited to talk to you, man. You got you're you're a shaker, man, out there on the internet. There's a lot of stuff going on and and we've had ironically, between the two of us, we've had technical snafoos for the for a while. Just getting
Coach Chad Johnson: It
Paul Horne: here was an uphill battle, it seems like.
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. You'd think we know what we were doing.
Paul Horne: Just just adapt and overcome. That's a constant mantra for offensive line coaches everywhere. But well, before we
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. Every day.
Paul Horne: do anything else, let's talk about your sub stack, because that's an interesting and intriguing thing. We were chatting about it a little bit. You said you haven't been doing it for very long. Take take me down that road. what's your path that led you into the sub stack area?
Coach Chad Johnson: So so I started in in February of this year. It's been four or five months. I guess after football season, I normally I was I'm a baseball coach or been a softball coach lately, and I always said I can't I can't do them all together. when football season was over, I was then all in on softball or all in on baseball and I would forget about football for a while. Well, this year, coach moved me to track, which was great. I think a lot of that was so I would spend more time or had more time in football. So when football was over, I just added on, just kept doing what I was doing. I didn't have softball or baseball to to go obsess over, and I'm gonna obsess over something. So I went in and cleaned my Google Drive and got it all sorted, and I was like, man, I got some good stuff here, that people had had given me. And and the way that game day system started, I've told this story before is I have a It's a clock management form. I think LSU had it. I I I got it somehow. And I put it out on Twitter and it had thousands and thousands of shares and bookmarks and I was like, it interests me, but it interests a lot of other coaches too. and then I I built something. I don't even remember the first little thing I built and I saw the interest that was was out there and I guess I was the type of person that always thought I care about this stuff and And I thought I was just different than everybody. But I realized that other coaches care about the same weird stuff sometimes that I care about too. I started making tips for coaches and I ended up n naming them painkillers. And
Paul Horne: Mm-hmm.
Coach Chad Johnson: the first one we did was Ten Things That Offensive Linemen Hate. Or, that was what I came up with. just thinking of my O line and what they don't like and It was slow to get the play in, getting blamed for quarterback mistakes, things like that. And I threw it out there and I didn't even have a number on it at first. and and again, a lot of people got a lot of engagement on it. I think it resonated with a lot of people and they're like, This is yeah, getting out now that you say it, it makes sense. And then I started numbering them after that and and I was always thinking of of what's something That I think about all the time, but I don't write
Paul Horne: Mm-hmm.
Coach Chad Johnson: it down. So I have to think about it again, every every game, every just didn't have it put in one place. And so then I started numbering them and I went went through went to like red zone, ten ten tips for the red zone, two minute tips, backed up tips, four minute offense tips. one of them was It was like six things that the O line coach should relay to the offensive coordinator during the game. another one was seven things that the O line coach should do in between series. Just little detailed stuff that everybody probably had sit down and thought before, yeah, I wonder what other people are doing. is there a way I can maximize this better and and be better at what I'm doing. I just started putting it on paper and
Paul Horne: Mm-hmm.
Coach Chad Johnson: I I get on chat GPT and see what they'd spit out. And then I would pick the ones that I liked and it just it of blew up from there. and I I'd always wanted to make an a manual, a a system manual type deal for O lineman, mainly for for young coaches that that are just thrown into it. And so
Paul Horne: Right.
Coach Chad Johnson: I started on offensive line manual back around February, March. took my time on it and got it got it done. And when I got it done, again, I I almost named it the O-line manual for first year coaches. But what I found is as I just named it the O-line offensive line manual, what I found is I had a lot of veteran experienced coaches that sent me messages like, Man, you break this down and make it so simple. And that was the point. that's how my brain thinks. But apparently I have a gift of putting it on paper to where other people can understand it. And I never thought I had that, but I've been told that a lot. that I simplify it and and make it to where it's easy, to understand. I I have over three hundred, I did an inventory last week, over three hundred resources in the vault, in the game day systems vault now. And I probably made over two hundred, two hundred and fifty of myself. That's my hobby is I get on Google Slides and You know, whatever whatever
Paul Horne: Start going.
Coach Chad Johnson: problem I want to attack, whatever I want to do is I'll do it and put the graphics on it and then turn it into a a PDF or a JPEG and and upload it. I started putting drill videos that I find online, short clips of that. And that's that's been a big hit. one thing that that I've done this summer is started doing member exclusives where it's weekly content. doing a thing called game day diaries. to where I actually keep a a running journal, take pictures and video of my offensive line during the summer and just what we do every day. like I said, people can just go on there every day and see where I've typed in. This is what we did. this is some things that I saw that we need to fix. this was the good. This was the bad. It's it's not a polished, storybook. It's it's real time. we suck today. We weren't very good. And that's what I said about Thursday of this week is I I wasn't real happy with with what we did. And so I think that, especially a lot of coaches that are that are just getting into it or or trying to figure out their way. It it helps them a lot to see another coach do it and see their screw ups and what they've done that this work well. so that's been good. I got another series that we do every trying to think every Tuesday I do a thing called run run game pairings. And I just started that one time because I told our OC if you're running zone to the left out of the same formation, if you run power to the right, they look alike. They kind of play well off each other. So
Paul Horne: Right. Yeah.
Coach Chad Johnson: I I do those with two plays. I'll I'll think of plays that that so every Tuesday that comes out. And then every Wednesday I do a series called How We Teach It. to where I break down a technique and exactly how we do it, how we teach it. it might be a different, technique, like our zone steps with a backside shade, which we call peg or lateral lead. just things like that that that, it it's the coaching points, it's common mistakes, what to look for, and and things that I can keep in a library and other people can have if they ever need to go back and look. I'm I'm gonna teach this technique, what's what's some pointers, what's some things. that I need. and not to go on about this, but I spoke at
Paul Horne: But it's go on 'cause it's pretty cool, coach. It's I it's it's extensive. I was on there this morning doing some
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: doing some research and and I mean it you could get lost in it. You could spend days in your
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. Yeah.
Paul Horne: sub stack.
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. It's it's it's really it is and that's one thing you say that one thing that I've really worked on lately is the onboarding, the trying to make where people don't get lost because it is, it's a lot of lot of material and I've went in and and ordered the the the lobby when you come in, the folder when you come in and try to point people where to go and things like that. But what I was saying is last week I I I spoke at the O line clinic for Ian Tatum, the trench mob that he did. And one thing that I talked about or the the thing I talked about was developing a system for your offensive line. And and I talked about how I was that person up until not long ago. I mean, a couple years ago is where I had all these drills. I mean, I was great at getting on Twitter, getting on YouTube, talking to coaches. Man, I I got twelve, fifteen notebooks full of just notes everywhere. I was full of information, but I couldn't transfer that to the field, and that was what I what I really talked about and and I had a handout that I actually I made available on my Substack. It's still there if anybody'd like to to get it. But it was it was on just building an O line system, starting with your identity. What do you want your identity to be? What are we gonna work at? because everything you do in practice comes back to what you want your identity to be, who you want your identity to be. then
Paul Horne: That's right.
Coach Chad Johnson: the next step was developing your non-negotiables. What are four to six things that you as a coach are gonna make automatic? one thing with mine is you're always gonna be on time. you're not gonna talk while I'm talking. that's just something that's always bothered me. that we're gonna hustle on and off the field. Just stuff that Kenny Simpson, I listened to his podcast a lot and one that's He always talks about you better not have more than about five because then you can't, you can't do them all. Yeah.
Paul Horne: Can't remember yourself.
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah, you're you're setting yourself up for failure. So we got six here at Neville and and I I remind the kids of them and they know like what's important to me. This is what's gonna make us go. but then the system we we went on into the practice system and how we select our drills and our everyday drills that we're gonna use. but it it's it's got everything in that handout and just it's it's great for a coach that's that's just starting out or even one that's been doing it a long time that feels a little lost at times. this is what this is how we need to, develop our O line or get it going so that we have organized and and we're going in the right direction. 'Cause like I said, I I was I was lost myself. I was a smart
Paul Horne: Yeah.
Coach Chad Johnson: coach that knew a lot, but I didn't know where to start and where to stop, And just because you're smart and know it all don't mean that you're you're great at teaching it and and transferring it to the kids. Exactly. You're not playing. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So
Paul Horne: Yeah, 'cause it it's it doesn't matter what you know, right? Doesn't matter what you know. It's what the kids know out on the field. I I've I've told this before. Marcus Lawrence from Fayetteville State up in North Carolina was at the AFCA convention this year, Sharon.
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah, I know you're talking about.
Paul Horne: And and his it was awesome watching his everything structures and I and and I I relate to this. I was very conscious of building everything I tried to do on the field to replicate and and be found in the game, right? There we weren't gonna
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: do I I wasn't doing a whole lot of drills that were fancy or new wave. I was old school. I don't need the med ball. I don't need the bands. I don't be nice to have a board. If we have a board, great. If not, we don't need a board. We'll figure it out. We can use sidelines, lines on the field, whatever, to to delineate where feet are and and all that kind of stuff. So we could get it done. I dunno I didn't need any of that stuff. But whatever we were doing, you're gonna be able to find Like Marcus says on that game film and where he traced the game film back to the practice film, back to the practicing, back to the offseason drills, whatever it was, it was all building on top of that. And I I learned that, I don't know, pretty early on in my coaching career that that's how I wanted to structure everything. And it would it used to frustrate me when I'd see other coaches on our staff just throwing drills out there, not structuring it to build towards whatever it was that their position needed to accomplish on the field Friday night. I I I used to frustrate the heck out of me. And I and as an offensive coordinator I would say things and and I probably rub people the wrong way doing it, but it's just seem it just makes too much sense to me and the way you're structuring things there on your sub stack. I liked it 'cause there it is. I mean, the banner across the top, it tells you what you want. You click on that, there's all sorts of thing there. You got articles, you got pictures, you got drawings, you got videos, you got explanations, and I I enjoyed looking at it and and Have you if I was still out on the field coaching, it'd be something I'd be into pretty regular checking for ideas. Cause I think that's how we grow as coaches. You're bouncing ideas off each other. Have you thought about doing it this way? Have you you're running option offense, but there's some zone principles you can steal from people. You're running a gap scheme, but there's some, option variables that you can use out there. And in pass game, whatever it is, there's there's things that you can tweak and, borrow here and steal here and put together and cobble it together and you put a pretty formidable thing out there on the field that that gets the job done. Because ultimately you we gotta
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: make space. We gotta create lanes. We gotta hold people off so that they can't get to the quarterback. I always said I had a motto for our guys, when we block, we win. And, that was kind of a double entendre there. When we block, ain't nobody else out there to do it. We're gonna win. And when we block, it's up to us. There's nothing else that's gonna happen. There's nobody else that can do it. So
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: That was kind of my approach. I kinda like that kind of relate to what you're doing there. So we'll come back to that in a little bit. And you said that's going very well. You mentioned that earlier when we're going on there. So it's getting you out of some part time jobs, which is which is cool to hear. It's always fun to hear co football
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah, yeah.
Paul Horne: coaches f stumbling into success and and being able to buy a cable or something, whatever it is,
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: pay a bill.
Coach Chad Johnson: I I'll tell you now, when I started, I I was not thinking about any kind of money. Like that that was the la last thing on my mind. I was just wanting to get what I did out there for other coaches. And you start doing it a lot and you're like, well, it it's it's worth a little bit of money, so since it's since February, I've got twenty seven hundred subscribers. And over 500 monthly paid subscribers. So
Paul Horne: Awesome.
Coach Chad Johnson: you can't really do the math because I've charged four ninety-nine and it's it's actually grown so much that it's seven ninety-nine a month now. you can buy a yearly subscription for thirty-seven percent discount at at fifty-nine ninety-nine. And I have eight lifetime members that paid two hundred dollars, it's up to two fifty now. But they pay two hundred and they never have to pull their card out again. They got it for the rest of their life. So
Paul Horne: Nice.
Coach Chad Johnson: those coaches also have my cell phone number and I've talked to talked to all of once or twice. They'll have a problem. They'll text me, hey, do you mind if I call you, go over some stuff, and we talk through it. I'm I'm not this genius know it all guy that I'm I'm just a guy that that likes to organize my stuff and, maybe come up with some ideas. So They can call me any time and and we'll go through it. And besides my number, I'm I'm like that with all of my my members. I think Yeah.
Paul Horne: I wanted to ask you the you you mentioned the first thing you mentioned was a timesheet. Was that as a clock's running out in a game, how many first downs you need to keep the the clock going?
Coach Chad Johnson: It it was yes. But but it was it was a whole lot more than that. I've seen it floating around. it was yeah, when you can take a knee, when you can go for two when to go for two.
Paul Horne: Mm-hmm.
Coach Chad Johnson: it was a whole lot really detailed, you know, all all put together. I've seen it floating around. I think somebody's pointed it back to L S U maybe a few years ago had had done it. So
Paul Horne: It's funny you said that I had a I had a buddy that was coaching with the Eagles and we were we never really had the go for two timing thing on any of our call sheets and
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: I and that was something I put on the back of our call sheets just as a during a game you don't want to have to calculate all that stuff. That's why you put it
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: there and that's why you have it out there for people to use. And so I remember calling my buddy with the Eagles and I was like, Hey, what do you guys use? Can you just send me what you guys use? And he was like, Nope. I was like, What
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: do you mean no? He's like, Nope, it's in house. But it's in-house stays house. And I was like, All right, I can respect that. But we're talking about when to go for two stuff. Like this isn't like this is already calculated. This is this is saving me twenty minutes of having to figure all this out. And going back and
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. How's that secret? Yeah.
Paul Horne: putting a timesheet together and, calculating thirty second play clock and then four seconds for a play and then six seconds to set the ball and then coming up, so I end up having to formulate my own timesheet and end up having to
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: formulate my own go for two sheet and and then once you have it made, then it's It's just copy paste each week. It's not something I I had to go back and recalculate until they changed the timing rules for the forty five second clock where, they start the clock immediately
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: after the the ball's the play's over. That that that factors differently. But that's cool that you had people looking for it.
Coach Chad Johnson: Let me see if let me see if I can show you if I can show it to you. can you can you see that at all? Yeah, it's pretty detailed. So
Paul Horne: Mm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. I like it.
Coach Chad Johnson: it's good stuff, and it and it might have changed since then, as far as play clock and stuff, but it you can fit it, you know, to however you need to for your association.
Paul Horne: Yeah. Keep formatted on your call sheet and have it there just to consult. I even had I had a penalty chart on mine so I could keep track of penalties. I had the the time chart, I had the the go for to chart, all that stuff was just standard. I had a back to our call sheet and that was the standard on the back. I just copied and pasted that each week on the back and I didn't have to worry about it. And
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: and then on the other side I'd have our call sheets and and however we were gonna do it. So coach, let's get into your journey here. where where are you from originally?
Coach Chad Johnson: All right. so I'm from small town called Sterlington, Louisiana. It's it's in North Louisiana, not not far from where I'm at now. when I got out of high school, I was I was mainly a baseball player. baseball was my thing a lot more than football or anything else. And my high school coach, as soon as I got out, I was I was going to college at University of Louisiana Monroe. And he asked me to come back and student coach. I think I'd always said that I wanted to be a coach and and he knew that's what I wanted to be. So I started coaching coaching baseball at Sterlington right out of high school. I went ahead and and coached junior high football with him there. we actually went to the state championship to to the Superdome while I was doing that, coaching wide receivers for the varsity. I guess that was my second year in in 02. And so that was pretty cool. That was pretty neat. finally got out of school. got a job as a seventh grade science teacher at a at a school that I I really didn't enjoy. I didn't enjoy science, but I didn't enjoy I I I was really close to to getting totally out of it. I was working at a a park store and they were kind of pushing me to as weird as it sounds, to to come on with them full time and quit school. So I I I was real close. I really was. I just I I hated it my first year. I mean I it was my fault. I went in and thought I was gonna be able to tell them how the cow eats the cabbage or whatever and they were gonna do what I said and it was the total opposite.
Paul Horne: Yeah.
Coach Chad Johnson: and I wasn't ready for that situation, to be honest with you. But I was sitting at a restaurant RJ Gators. They used to have one in Monroe. And I was ready to get out, and and I heard a bartender waitress talking about her sister working at a school down the road. It was a charter school that had just opened. And they started K through eight and they were just about to be their first year of K through twelve and they only had one one coach. And I got her attention or whatever and I said, I'll I'll I'll go coach there. And I she said, Well, here's the number. He's looking for coaches. And Brett Rayleigh was the guy's name. And I called him and went over there and talked to him. And like I said, it was their first year of K through 12. They had temporary portability for the weight room. They didn't have a football stadium built yet, didn't have a baseball field. And he said, we talked for a little bit. And he said, If you if you want the job, it's yours. So I got on with him, offensive coordinator, really wasn't that experienced. head baseball coach after a year. by the time I left, I was strength coach, co-athletic director. It was a 1A school. we were successful there. we had some growing pains our first two years, but our third year we went went to the semifinals. We were one one game away from playing for a state championship. And then we went to the quarterfinals two years after that. like I said, I was I was offensive coordinator. We ran split back veer. that's what I
Paul Horne: Yeah.
Coach Chad Johnson: ran at Sterlington. That was all I knew. And so that was that was a lot of fun. And I finally just decided it was time to get back where I'm at now, Neville. It's a it's a bigger school. With we've been five A. We'll be four A next year. But it was time to move back kind of closer to home and and and I'd been a head baseball coach for seven or eight years and and had three kids and I was fine with just being an assistant. So that's where it led me here. This this school I'm at now is is really rich in tradition. we got twelve state championships. my first three years, fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen, we went to the state championship all three years. we won one state the first two and then got runner up the last year. we won thirty nine games in a row. So I said this is it's pretty easy, But we we hadn't been back. So
Paul Horne: Ha ha ha. Even when you're the best team, even when you're the best, most talented, most favored team, there's no way it's easy, right?
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. No, not at all. Not at all. We had some really good players. I've said we we've got five or six floating around the NFL right now. And it's al always had some really good players. but it it's hard. It's hard. We've the last eight years we've been to the semifinals six times, six out of eight years, one one game away and last year we got beat. we were down by I think it was I think it three points. We got down to like the three and fourth down. We come in, kick a field goal, bad snap. They pick it up, run it back. No, we were up by three. They run it back for a touchdown with a minute and a half left. Just crazy stuff, so it's the gods are gonna be good to us at some point. Yeah.
Paul Horne: That's disheartening. I coach, we had I go I don't know how many years ago, this is probably eight or nine years ago, we were in a playoff game against a team from Charlotte County. And one of those they had a kid who was a complete home wrecker on the other defensive lineman that just stopped everything. And the whole entire game, he'd been playing with the jersey with the sleeves that had been cut off. And his shoulder pads were flapping. And it was zero-zero through the first half. And I'm telling the referee, man, he's wearing an illegal jersey. It's an illegal jersey. And ref doesn't care. So our first ring quarterback wasn't really getting anything done. And we'd practice he'd been we'd been toying with putting it back up in. And sure enough, first series of the second half, we get pinned. A guy picks up the the kickoff on the second half and slips and falls down or runs out of bounds, catching the ball, whatever. We were inside the the f the ten, if I remember correctly. And we put the backup quarterback in to get us some get some juice going. He fumbles the first snap and that kid picks it up and runs it four yards back for a touchdown. So now we're down seven nothing. We haven't nobody's been able to move the ball either way the entire game. So we Back and forth, back and forth, seven nothing, seven nothing, with about three and a half minutes left in the game. I finally get the refs' attention and I said, That kid's jersey's illegal. And he looked at me and he's like, Yeah, coach, you're right. So he makes the kid lead the game. And while he's out getting his jerseys switched over, we went bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, right down the field. And we we get down near the the goal line. And of course, about that time he comes back in. And I don't know, we were about the ten-yard line. I think we jumped off sides or had a holding pen. He moves us back at It's like fourth and goal from like the 15. And it's one of those fantastic finishes where our quarterback's scrambling around and this big old gorilla dude grabs him and he's pulling him down. And as our quarterback's falling down, he lobs, it looks like he lobs a grenade towards the end zone. And our wide receiver catches the ball. He's getting hit. He's getting dragged. He's about the three-yard line. And it's one of those where he jumps out and he reaches forward and he puts the ball out. And as he's putting the ball out to go across the goal line, It slips out of his hand and it bounces on the goal line, goes out of bounds. And the referee runs over and he calls it a touchdown. And we're losing our minds. And so we decide we're going for two. There's no, we can't, we're not going to win in overtime. We're not going to be able score. And
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: this guy's shutting everything down. So we go for two. We line up to run the play. As we snap the ball, they call timeout. Sure enough, our kid turns around, hands it off. Our guy goes in the end zone, gets the two-point conversion. They said, Nope, he called timeout. So I said, All right. We've got run a different play. We just showed us, we just showed
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: our best go for two. We can't run the same play. So we call it, I call it a dump pass to the tight end. Head coach is like, You sure? I said, nobody in the stadium. There isn't a person in the state of Florida expecting us to throw the ball. We threw the ball like two times a game, maybe. I said, nobody's
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: expecting us to throw the ball to the tight end. Sure enough, we come up, we snap the ball, quarterback gets some pressure, he throws the ball, they intercept it in the end zone as the kid catches it. He takes two steps, gets hit by one of our guys, fumbles a ball, we recover it.
Coach Chad Johnson: Mm.
Paul Horne: They say incomplete. As soon as that guy gain maintains possession, it's over. So now we're down seven, six. They lose their minds. Their sideline's going crazy. They get an unsportsman-like penalty, moves the ball up 15 yards.
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: So the coach says, all we're going to onside kick. I said, great. And I've already taken my headset off. I've folded up my game plan. It's in my back pocket. Game's over as far as I'm concerned. We kick the onside kick. It goes, it goes about 12 yards. We get it.
Coach Chad Johnson: I'll get it.
Paul Horne: So now we're we moved it up 15. We're about the 30 yard line, maybe, plus 30. And we got a kid that can bang it from 50. So I'm like,
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: coach, kick the field goal. Let's get the heck out of here. We'll go on to the next round. He goes, We're gonna take one shot in the end zone first. We haven't moved the ball all day.
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: Kid takes a snap, their safety's just standing there flat footed watching, not paying attention. We complete a pass over the top. We end up winning a game thirteen seven. We scored thirteen points in the last forty two seconds of the game. I'm sorry, the last twenty two seconds of the game. Cause that all happened with twenty seconds left on the clock.
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: So from z from twenty four seconds on the clock to four seconds on the clock, we scored thirteen points. And it was one of those things I can't believe what just happened. And I I felt awesome on our side. And I just know that those guys got gutted on the other side. So I can't imagine in a state
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: semifinal game giving up a a Snap recovery for a touchdown. my gosh.
Coach Chad Johnson: With the lead. Yeah. With the lead. A little over a minute left. Just trying to add a little bit. We should have just went for it on fourth down. hindsight. They hadn't moved the ball on our defense. And
Paul Horne: Make him go ninety seven yards.
Coach Chad Johnson: yeah. Yeah. I think the score was and I was wrong. It was actually two years ago. Last year we got beat fourteen to seven. Two years ago, I think we were up maybe thirteen to ten. We were gonna make it sixteen to ten. And just bad snap. We tried to kick it anyway. They picked it up, took it back ninety-five yards for a touchdown, and we ended up losing. So
Paul Horne: Well, that so that leads me to what my next question was going to be is a young offensive coordinator, new coach, you're 20 years old, 21 years old, whatever it is, what was your best teacher? And and and I and I say that question with the thought of losing always taught me the most.
Coach Chad Johnson: Yes.
Paul Horne: and so being in that situation where you snap the field goal and you fumble it and the guy runs it back the next time it's fourth and goal with the three with a three point lead, you're probably gonna go for it.
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. You're gonna you're gonna
Paul Horne: Right. It it
Coach Chad Johnson: go for it or you're gonna really, really coach that holder on it if that ball's anywhere it where it's not supposed to be, you're gonna catch it and fall down on top of it
Paul Horne: Right.
Coach Chad Johnson: and take it, yeah, things you always look back. I've always said that is games where where where we get beat or or we get roughed up pretty good. I can always go back and and I'm gonna find a lot of stuff, just just winning and beating people, pretty soundly. You don't learn anything from that. And and my first like you said, I was twenty two, twenty-three and I wasn't ready to be an offensive coordinator. I really wasn't I I I played a little bit of receiver, didn't play any O line back in high school. I mean I but I was at a school that was just starting and they were patient enough with me that I was allowed some screw up time, so I wasn't ready, but I I was really obsessed with the game and Yeah, looking back now, if I go back and look at some of that film, I'm like, what in the hell was I doing? Like, what what was I thinking? just throwing darts at a dartboard hoping that you hit
Paul Horne: Mm-hmm.
Coach Chad Johnson: the bullseye. But yeah, I I definitely think those games where we got we got beat pretty good and got roughed up, that's the games you learn a lot about what you need to work on. And I always say going back to that thirty nine game win streak, if you if you're not careful, you can relax a little bit. you're you're beating everybody pretty well and pretty good. And I'm not gonna say that that maybe didn't happen sometimes. And, maybe you skip over some stuff that normally you wouldn't because you start taking things for granted and and you're as good as you were and but but that comes to an end eventually, that don't last forever. So definitely learn some lessons throughout all of that.
Paul Horne: I always wanted to make sure that you couldn't beat me the same way twice. However, I lost a game
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah, exactly.
Paul Horne: wasn't that was it. You get one one reason to lose. never gonna get a second one. We had we were playing for a district championship game and and the other team kicked a I it was the longest field goal of the year to tie it up three three, and we went into overtime and I think we did four overtime periods going back and forth. They scored on first down, we scored on second down, back and forth for three overtimes. At the top of the fourth overtime, we went first and we scored. And I was yelling at I was up in the box at the time. I'm yelling at the coach. I'm like, go for two, go for two, go for two. He said, We'll go for two the next time we go second, which would have been the next round. And I was like, All right, well, sure enough, we kicked the extra point. The other team scores. They go out
Coach Chad Johnson: They go on for two years.
Paul Horne: to kick and then they change their mind. They go for two.
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: They run a play. Kid gets it, we lose the district championship forty forty-two, forty-one or whatever it ended up being in four overtimes. And at that
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. Yeah.
Paul Horne: point in time, we said, never again. We will not go past the the first overtime. We're gonna go for two immediately. Because there's no there's no reason to go more than two overtimes. you get to the second overtime and and now you're at a disadvantage because you don't get to go second or first, whatever it is. So sure enough, later on, was probably in 2000 and no, I'm sorry, that was 1999. we're get to like two thousand and twelve, thirteen, fourteen, something like that. Fifteen years later, we're in overtime. Sure enough, we go for two immediately. Now, we don't get it. Right? We went first, went for two, didn't get it. But at the time, we were like, We're not going overtime. There's there's no reason to go beyond the second overtime. Even if we get it, great. If we don't, we don't. That's that's
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: how it's gonna be. And so we learned we don't want to put guys in danger. At the end of that game, you're tired. your focus
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: is starting to wane. There's no use going more than what you need to go. So No, we didn't get it, but we didn't at least we knew that w that's what our going into it. Yeah. But before
Coach Chad Johnson: You you were in control of it. You didn't leave it to somebody else to be in control of it. Yeah.
Paul Horne: that game even started, we knew we were going for two in overtime as soon as we could. And that was something that was
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. I agree.
Paul Horne: something we we learned early and and we lost a game and we lost another game 'cause of what we did, but we knew that's what we were gonna do. We were all on the same page there. It it wasn't an issue.
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. Well I like it.
Paul Horne: I like that I like that no mesh veer coach. That's we we ran the heck out. That was our that was our bread and butter down here.
Coach Chad Johnson: Really.
Paul Horne: yeah, we could probably sit here and talk Nomesh Vier for a while,
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: together talking about reads and getting advantages and shifts and motions and everything to to get your your box the way you want it.
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: what are you doing with your offensive line? are you still running no mesh veer now?
Coach Chad Johnson: No, we're we're so we're LSU twenty nineteen to a T. eleven personnel, shotguns on, duo, a little bit of gap, but our offense coordinator is Steven Ensminger Junior. his dad was offense coordinator at LSU back in twenty nineteen with Burrow and Chase and Clyde and all those guys. So it's the same offense. maybe not quite as much as what they did. But yeah, we our playbook and everything's pretty much LSU yeah. And and
Paul Horne: Same thing. Nice.
Coach Chad Johnson: actually Steve Seniors came, talked to us a few times and helped us install some stuff and it's been good stuff, to see how they did it and put our spin on it. So
Paul Horne: So where are you starting offensive lineman? What is it that you need to get done with those guys in order to be able to execute that play effectively?
Coach Chad Johnson: I mean, man, the first thing I don't care how long they've been doing it is we're we're gonna work stance and start a lot. we're gonna work on our splits, we start out two to three feet and then if we have to if we have to adjust to that based on, our combos and if we're having trouble with this or that or, depending on on how quick the lineman move or whatever, but the general rule, early June, that's that's kinda what we did after spring training is we went straight to stance and starts and and then first first step, first two step footwork. that's what I was upset about, well, two days ago I guess is
Paul Horne: Thursday. Yeah.
Coach Chad Johnson: we've been really hammering it, man, for for five I think we're on week six and go up against the D line without pads, granted. but We just lose our minds, We we're stepping backwards and we're we're supposed to be picking a foot up and putting it back down if we got a backside shade and we're stepping six inches over and we're getting all out of whack. So I hammer on a text message. Have a little group text, and I know they're thinking, Coach, you
Paul Horne: Cause it matters.
Coach Chad Johnson: need to get a you need to get a life, coach, but I'm like, man, I'm watching
Paul Horne: It matters.
Coach Chad Johnson: this and I want to throw up because we've been working on this for five or six weeks. And I feel like we gotta go back to freaking day one because we go out and work with our D line and and you look like you've never done it before. So
Paul Horne: Mm-hmm.
Coach Chad Johnson: we that's my main deal, stance start and and footwork. We're going hammer it, hammer it, hammer. 'Cause I I think when they get their footwork right and and they get confident with it, then it they're just gonna be so much more of a better player overall when they when they have confidence in that. I've I've told so man, when you go home Like you're playing Xbox, you're you're on TikTok, whatever. Look down at your feet and just work on your steps. do it over and over and over to where it becomes, you don't have to think about it. because then it we're running zone. That's mainly all we've ran is zone. We've ran a little bit of duo, but there's only about three steps that we're taking or or three sequences, And you know, we're working covered backside, covered play side or uncovered and So you it's three things that you gotta learn. And you can work on it at home, you can work on it wherever you're at. but the main thing is when you show up at practice and we start doing it, you damn sure better know how to do it. we yeah, we we worked on it enough here, that it's
Paul Horne: That's right. Yeah.
Coach Chad Johnson: it's time to move on, And we work, strike, finish, all of that, but I think it still comes back to your stance and you and you get off your first, your footwork, your first couple of steps. To me, that's That's the the main part of it. So
Paul Horne: Coach Coach Shiftman build in from the ground up. That's the I
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah, yeah.
Paul Horne: I cause if you put you if you put your body in the right spot, the upper body's
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: gonna be able to fight. If you can stalemate the upper body, great. But if you win the lower body aspect of it, y you're gonna win. It doesn't matter what the upper body does. Yeah.
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. It all starts with your feet. Your feet's gonna take you where you need to go. And that's a big problem we see with those especially those taller, lanky guys that's trying to reach and use those arms and like if you just realize that your feet take you there, you know,
Paul Horne: Mm-hmm.
Coach Chad Johnson: then you're gonna be a lot better player. So, I I wanna be a lot better start August than we are right now. So we got three or four weeks to really hammer and and and get it right,
Paul Horne: to beg my guys, make me coach something different, please. Make
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: me coach something different. I would after doing the same thing for days and days and days and days and days and we in a game and you're doing the same thing on Friday night that you did on Monday afternoon,
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: that makes me want to break a shoe off in your butt. I what are we doing?
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. It's like you're telling me that that you don't care what I'm telling you or I'm not getting it across very good. Either way,
Paul Horne: Yeah. Yeah, it
Coach Chad Johnson: it's pointing back to maybe I'm not as good a coach as what I thought I was, you know, like Yeah.
Paul Horne: Yeah. And you're grade out at 62%. So which way is your way is 62%? Maybe this week try it my way and see. Just give it a shot. Maybe yeah.
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. See if it gets better, yeah.
Paul Horne: If it's fifty-eight percent, we'll go back to your way. We'll go we'll let you we'll let you do it. But until
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. Yeah.
Paul Horne: then, I got a track record that shows a lot more guys doing it my way being a lot more successful than you doing it your way. I had we had one kid and it's funny, I I feel like We had a bunch of we had I've had a few transfers over the years. Not a lot. We didn't have a whole lot of offensive linemen transfer into our school, but one of them in particular. And he used to drive me crazy. It was because he spent the first two years at a different school getting coached to do different stuff. And he couldn't break the cycle. He couldn't get out of what was his formidable years and how they had whatever was imprinted on him during those first few years playing high school football. And it used to drive me crazy because they were bad they were bad habits. bad tendencies,
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: bad habits and bad technique and bad execution and it didn't work into our scheme and I don't even know how it worked into their scheme to be quite honest with you. But my gosh, just make me do something different. Hm.
Coach Chad Johnson: I I really think nowadays and I think I got a lot of this from coaching softball. I I love coaching softball. I I tell you like during softball season in the past, that's been my favorite sport. Even more than football. Like it it's it's something to it. I love it. But but I would always talk to those girls about, especially coaching travel ball. I I might get you three times a week and we might work on hitting for forty five minutes, three times a week. That's not enough, and So I would always tell them you have to go back and get with your trainer, get with somebody and you gotta work on it on your own. Well I I've never really looked at it like that in football as much as I have now. that's how that's that's the world we're living in now. we're we're out there working on footwork, maybe twenty minutes a day, fifteen minutes a day, three days a week, whatever it is. maybe it's not enough. Like you need to be doing some stuff on your own. And if you're not, then it just means it's not that important to you. And you're not gonna you're not gonna get any better. You'll get a little better from doing it with us. But I I really think that even in football now, as technical as it's gotten, those those tiny details, they need to take and work on that other places than just just at the school, you know, for the 15 or 20 minutes that we work on it. So I think the ones that do, I've had some tell me, coach, I'm coming up this weekend and I'm gonna work on my steps. You know, I don't check to see that they do, but But you know the ones that do and the ones that don't, you know. So
Paul Horne: Right. Right. I always wanted I wanted my guys to have their toes pointed straight ahead. I d you know,
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: the the guys that always the the doop do doop and their toes are pointing out or toes are pointing in. I always wanted my guys pointing their toes straight ahead and I'd say, look, when you sit down at your desk at school, you sit there all day long and you gotta just flail your legs open and don't care. I said, I want you to look every class, you sit down at your desk, I want you to look down and make sure your toes are pointing straight ahead. When you're walking through the hallways, point your toes. those are little things that I used to harp with my guys, but Again, th those are the reps. They're getting reps just walking around the hallway. They're gonna
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: walk around the hallway five times or six times when they transfer classes each day and they're gonna sit in that desk for forty five, fifty minutes a dime, at least start training yourself to have those toes pointed straight ahead. So when you get on the football field, at least we're starting with toes that are straight ahead. If I gotta correct your toes and bring your toes in so that we can be square in our stance and and and and stay square in the line of scrimmage, I'm fighting an uphill battle just to get to zero. I gotta overcome all these natural hurdles in order to just get you
Coach Chad Johnson: Mm-hmm.
Paul Horne: to zero where we can start making you a better football player, at least eliminate all that for me. Put me out there at zero and let's build from there. Don't make me have
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: to make up all this this backwork to get you going. Golly. all right, coach, so what's
Coach Chad Johnson: Exactly, exactly. So
Paul Horne: your you said stance to start, you're banging that away right now. What when you get out there and you got weather coming in down there in Louisiana, you got a hurricane or tornado or something coming your way, you got to get off the field, what's one drill you're going to get done before that weather gets to you? It's gonna happen.
Coach Chad Johnson: so we're gonna do combos every day. every day. with with zone being our number one one
Paul Horne: Okay. With your zone stuff. Yeah.
Coach Chad Johnson: one scheme. yeah, I I just think it's that important for the two people and and sometimes we'll just randomly work because I do think they all need to be able to play every position except for center, maybe. But I like the left guard and left tackle working together on their combo and, right guard. I just think even though they're all stepping the same that there's something to be said about knowing what that other guy's gonna do and just being able to to work together and become one, with that other person. I I think the more reps you do it, definitely the, with that person, the better better you're gonna be. So we're gonna work work that every day in some form. we do I like to do pods or we'll line up three sections, left tackle and a tight end, then a left guard and a center and a right guard and a right tackle and I'll line up an over front or an under front, odd front. so they'll know I'm gonna be, head up. Right now we don't even have linebackers. We're just working fitting together on a D lineman and we we worked some line we went to the Louisiana line camp down at Nickel State a couple of weeks ago. I wrote about it on my sub stack in the in the journal. It was it's one of the best camps I ever been to. we did did three two hour endos a day. Six hours of indo a day. And but but talking about that, forgot where I was even going with that, but we
Paul Horne: You're talking about your zone blocks.
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah, yeah, we we worked combos yeah, every day and and like I said, they went with different people and all that. They they actually would set the linebacker up and come off and and we do that too, but for right now I told him a couple of weeks ago we're just gonna work on fitting that guy up and driving him driving him backwards before we really worry about him back. Yeah. Yeah.
Paul Horne: Take take care of the first level first. Second level don't matter if you don't tear the first level.
Coach Chad Johnson: I call them the men and the boys. You gotta take care of the men before you worry about the boys,
Paul Horne: When do you h tell your guy to come off on that zone when that linebacker what's the trigger for that guy to come off? What is it?
Coach Chad Johnson: When he can smell his breath. When he can smell his breath. Yeah,
Paul Horne: Okay. All right.
Coach Chad Johnson: yeah. yeah, we're we're not coming off until we have to. so when he when he really threatens, then then we're coming off. So because because we've had
Paul Horne: And you teach him coming off both ways?
Coach Chad Johnson: in the past a lot of times, coming off too early. a lot of times they worry about This was not even long ago. I guess when I started not doing just the D lineman, well we wouldn't even move the D linemen. We just fit up and stand there like a statue with our eyes on the linebacker, no, we're trying to move that dude and put him in his lap,
Paul Horne: Yeah. vertical movement.
Coach Chad Johnson: yeah, yeah. We we can if if we're late fitting off on a linebacker, we can I think we can fix that a lot better than if we're not even getting to the linebacker. So yeah, we come off last possible, last possible second that we can.
Paul Horne: And I agree with you. There's an art to working with the guy next to you and understanding
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: what he's gonna be able to do, where it's just getting the the the physical nature of it and knowing how to fit together. It's an it's an awkward jigsaw puzzle because it doesn't
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: you're not naturally built to fit together on a on a guy on that zone scheme. So you have to feel and get it's just yeah, you gotta be able to read it. Mm-hmm.
Coach Chad Johnson: You know what he's gonna do. He might have a little different shoulder turn or something. Yeah.
Paul Horne: And feel it.
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: You gotta be able to feel it more than see it, because you're not gonna be able to see it.
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. Yeah.
Paul Horne: The front side guy can't see the backside guy, and the backside guy's got his face buried in the in the defensive lineman. He's not gonna be able to see what the front side's doing. Yeah, he's looking the backside, and the front guy's
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. They should have their eyes on the linebacker. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Paul Horne: looking front side, so you gotta make sure that you you can feel that that that midline area where the where the connection's happening. And
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: that's a difficult thing. I I agree that you gotta have a whole lot of reps in there. is there anything that you see people doing that you don't understand the rhythm or the rhyme to why they're doing it? Where you're like, I don't get that drill.
Coach Chad Johnson: No, not right offhand that I can think of. I try not to. it goes back to what we talked about a while ago. I I do think at times you see stuff that maybe you it you don't see it fitting in a game, right away. and I and I'm like you is I want to see it on film. exactly what we're doing. but I I can tell you I haven't seen Honestly, I haven't lately seen anything that that really just threw me off. there might be some stuff that I think's not as important as what maybe what we need to get done. 'cause there's a lot of drills out there, you know it is, and if you try to do them all, then then you're not gonna get good at any of But nothing that I can think of just right off hand of, just what in the heck.
Paul Horne: You you definitely wanna master a few and not be a jack of all trades, but a master of a few instead of instead
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: of being able to be kinda good at a lot of things, you wanna be really good at a few things and and let that
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. And and I have to be careful of that because I I I got A D D and and I get bored, I really do. And I know in the past for sure is I I would like to do new drills just because I was thinking the kids were getting bored with it like I was getting bored with it. now I see that that that routine and getting better at those drills is more important than than something new. they're out there practicing football and I'm coaching football, it's it's what we do. you're not getting bored's okay. That means you're getting better at it. So,
Paul Horne: Yeah.
Coach Chad Johnson: yeah, I've I've had to change myself a little bit, because used to I was always looking for something. And I still am looking for the next best thing. what can I do that's really gonna put me over the top here? And I just gotta be careful, and and hold myself back a little on that. the good old drills that we're doing, they're good good drills. You just gotta be patient and there's no magic pill that you can take and automatically get you a lot better here. You just gotta do the work,
Paul Horne: s sometime that grass isn't always greener over there on that other drill. I I had
Coach Chad Johnson: No, it's not. It's not.
Paul Horne: somebody a couple weeks back said the five one the the five one five stuff, all
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: these five ones five competitions. I I don't I wish I could remember who it was, but they were just they were like, I don't get that. It's and I d I'm a I'm one of those two. It's hard for me to watch guys run around without pads on. And I know there's some merit to it. I know that there there is some value in it, but it just
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: It's terrifying to me that watch guys do full one on one goes without pads on. It just makes me
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. Yeah.
Paul Horne: catch my breath. I I don't like watching it on the social media. They're like, who won this drill? And I I swipe. I don't want to look. I don't I don't care who
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: won or didn't win. If it was holding, not holding, doesn't matter to me. It just makes me so ugh. Yuck. Yeah.
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. And we do it. I mean, we we practice, it's I guess it's what you do now and you gotta be careful with a lot of that stuff. You you can't really pull your guard and go kick the end out or not, it's there's modifications that you gotta have. and the kids gotta learn how to do it. You j y if they're just out there without any instruction and and don't know any better then you could really get somebody hurt. it's it's an art to it. We don't do the five on five. I've heard of that. but we're we're practicing, we're staying up and it's a short whistle, usually quick whistle. but it's it's different, I I know ten or fifteen years ago it we wouldn't do anything like that. You didn't have pads on, you wasn't like gonna go pop somebody, So it's it's changed, I guess, with everybody trying to get ahead and and work year round as much as they can. So but I agree with you.
Paul Horne: Yeah, that's I I think you can get everything you need to get done in the off season, like you're saying, in shorts, working on foot placement, working on hand placement, a guy holding the bag, a dummy, or
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: or even just a guy that you're walking through and d and slowing it down so everybody can feel it and see it and work it and be the proper pad level and have the correct step and the correct width and be on balance and get two steps down before contact and all the all the things that you need to do, all the All the little tricks and trigger phrases that you can use. You can put it all
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: in there and take your time and not be in a rush and a hurry and worry about individual here getting cut because punt team ran over or, whatever somebody's down or has to get their ankle taped and you don't have that guy to the left guard that you need to pull on counter. You can only run counter one way because your left guard's the best. Your right guard can't do it. And you got it all scheduled up for a five-minute period and your left guard has to get his ankle taped. And you're like, well.
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. Take that out. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Paul Horne: Yeah, guess we're not running counter this week. So I get that. coach, we're getting we're coming up on our time limit here and I don't wanna I I appreciate you taking time out of your your Saturday and and and talking to us. So I got two more questions for you and then we're gonna
Coach Chad Johnson: All right.
Paul Horne: revisit your sub stack and and get the socials and all that kind of stuff so that people if if they're looking for you, they can find you and and get that information and add the add to the what is what'd you say five hundred people subscribe monthly subscribers try to get you to five one if we can get you up there.
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. Yeah.
Paul Horne: offensive linemen is characters. You've coached some some pretty good characters. I I know Will Campbell's a pretty good guy to have on your resume as far as as coaching him
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah.
Paul Horne: in high school. And I I I know he had a he had a tough end of the season there, but I no doubt that he's gonna re rebound. I see him out there working out with Lane Johnson and getting stronger with all those guys up in Oklahoma doing their doing their workouts and everything. So no doubt he'll he'll rebound and be just as strong this year as he was last year. Hopefully his knees healed and he can move around and all that kind of stuff. But funniness, the funny factor of the offensive line unit and and the offensive line meeting room and and being with those guys. They're an individual. You have any funny stories to illustrate the character level that these guys reach at any one point in time. And I'm assuming down in Louisiana you got some the big dudes from Louisiana, I bet you are bringing some funny stories to the table.
Coach Chad Johnson: I think I I probably hear funny stuff every day and I just think of it as normal, you know.
Paul Horne: Yeah, that's true.
Coach Chad Johnson: tal talking about Will, I've told this story is Will was he was like another coach. Like he he was a dude and he worked harder than anybody and he He was w when I I came over when he was a junior, I was I came over from linebackers and we ran split back very mold offense. We didn't pass the ball. So he helped me a lot actually on pass protection. I I would he'd been to all these camps and whatever and he helped me out a lot a lot on that. I I I researched a lot and did a lot. but I remember his junior year, we had one senior on the line that year. And we were trying to figure out what our name was gonna be for our unit, our nickname and you know, everybody's got a cool name. And I made a Google Classroom and then did this Google form where it was pick your choices. It was the swamp donkeys, the mud dogs and all this. And then one of them was FFN, Foresight Freak Nasties. Like our street that we're on is Foresight. And So I sent it out and I was like texting them or got on the Google class and like, hey man, y'all go in there and vote. Let me know. I'm gonna get us some shirts ordered. And Will gets on the text message and he's like, Hey guys, there ain't gonna be no effing voting. We're four sight freak nassies. And just like in the way he, he goes about and he's he's so country and big and nobody's gonna argue with him. And I've I've said that every year since then. We're F F N Foresight Freak Nasties and we would put it up for a vote but we didn't because Will said that was gonna be the name and and that's what we've been ever since then. So
Paul Horne: I'm sure if he gets any wind that it's changing that there's another nickname coming, he might make some phone calls and and influence the vote again, right? Well, I it's fun watching the yeah, it's
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah, he might might have to get that get that nix, yeah, pretty quick. So but he was a great guy, yeah.
Paul Horne: fun watching the leader of the pack lead, right?
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah, yeah. And I had him as a senior and Lance as a junior. So Lance was playing right tackle, Will was playing left tackle, and they were both six six, three thirty, three forty, and could move. so yeah, that was a pretty special year. Both of
Paul Horne: That's not fair. That's not fair.
Coach Chad Johnson: five star under armor all Americans, two years in a row. So why it's going on, you're like, This is cool. but you don't really realize how big a deal it is until You know, and I and our running back that year, committed to Nebraska. so we had a good guy in the backfield too. but that was that was pretty cool.
Paul Horne: Well y I was gonna say you don't know that you don't know what you it's it seems easy until they graduate and you have that five foot eleven kid step in to take his shoes. And you can see over him. You're like, Whoa, this is I don't like this. I don't like being able to see the defensive end over there. I liked it when I saw the back of a helmet much better. That's fantastic. Well, coach,
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah. Yeah, they're like my height now, you know. Yeah, it's it's different. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So
Paul Horne: what's your my last question here for you from from my side. is what's your pregame ritual? What are you going through as a coach? How do you go through and get ready before getting ready to walk out on that field? Do you have anything that you go through a I don't know, if you're
Coach Chad Johnson: You know, I'm I'm a I'm I'm I'm a I'm a nerd. I I try to I try to think of too much stuff sometimes, but it it's it's weird because before every game, I don't know why I don't do this earlier in the week, but I'm gonna go through and make me a chart or something on on Google Docs usually that tells every little detail or things that I'm thinking of that I want somebody in the booth to look for. And and usually that's a freshman coach and he knows to come to me before the game and get the paper. He's like, What are we looking for? And I'm like, our left guard is his knees been bothering this week. I wanna see how he's stepping to his left, how he's handling it or whatever. we're worried about this, defensive end on our right side, giving our giving us trouble. let let me know if you see anything that that We might need to be concerned about. And then other just offensive stuff that, see if the dump pass is there or or or whatever. I always make that sheet up right before the game. And then we go out, we do our pregame, and we come back in. And I've always done this. Coaches think I'm crazy. We come back in and we have about 10, 15 minutes before we have to go back out. Well, our office is upstairs, and I always, always come upstairs. Turn the film on and I watch about five or six plays of the opponent right before the game. And they're
Paul Horne: Mm-hmm.
Coach Chad Johnson: like, What in the hell are you doing? And I'm like, never know what you might see. like I just want to check one more thing and see this. And it's just a nervous, not a nervous I guess a nervous kind of deal that I do is is I'm gonna turn the film on and watch five or six plays. That just kinda tells me, okay, you're ready. Turn it off and go down there and get ready to play. So
Paul Horne: Are are you a hoot and holler kind of guy? Are you calm and cool and collected? Okay.
Coach Chad Johnson: I'm pretty calm, pretty calm. I I try to do it to where when I do when I do get going, they kinda know that it's a difference, but no, I I'm I'm not a guy that hollers all the time. holler when I need to, it's probably probably a mixture in between. but not not one of those rah rah all the time guys for sure.
Paul Horne: All right, coach, so as we get ready to get out of here, give me your substack again and any of your social handles there so that we can if anybody's interested in following or subscribing, they can get access to that and figure out where you're at.
Coach Chad Johnson: Yeah, you can follow me on on Twitter on X. That's my main main social. It's at coach underscore Chad John. TikTok, same thing without the underscores at coach Chad John, no underscore. that's my main two main two socials. and then my substack is Game Day Systems with S substack dot com. It has all all of my stuff on there. I think I've I've got over two or three hundred articles on there. but that's that's where I I keep all of my resources and and like I said, we've we're pushing toward three thousand total members. and then we have over over five hundred, close to five hundred and fifty in the vault. those are paid subscribers that that get access to to everything that we have. So yeah,
Paul Horne: Fantastic.
Coach Chad Johnson: that's it.
Paul Horne: Well, I highly encourage anybody listening. If the you if you want to see a bunch of information, go check it out. Go check out that substack. Coach is throwing stuff out there on X Twitter all the time. He has some of the stuff that's in the vault that he puts out there on on X for people to see and some on TikTok as well. So if you follow him on those socials, you'll be able to see some of those samples that he puts out that he referenced earlier, the seven things an offensive lineman needs to know, or or whatever it is, he'll put some of those things out there as well. So they're Interesting reads. It's it does as a coach, it kind of triggers your brain to think about things. What what can I add to this or what what am I missing here? Or that hits what I need. So I highly recommend it. It makes you think. And ultimately a thinking coach is a is a prepared coach and a prepared coach is a successful coach. So definitely want to head down that road. And so as we get done here this afternoon, I just want to remind everybody, you master the trench, you win the war. And coach, appreciate you showing up and and giving us your knowledge.
Coach Chad Johnson: Hey, I appreciate you having me, man. Any anytime I enjoyed it.