Today’s guest on Coach and Coordinator Podcast is Travis Johansen, the newly appointed defensive coordinator at University of South Dakota. Previously, Johansen served as the defensive coordinator at Grand View since 2013. The Vikings were 61-11 in his six seasons with five conference championships, six NAIA playoff appearances and won 2013 national title following a 14-0 campaign. Grand View finished in the top 15 of the national rankings all six seasons including four top 10 rankings.
Johansen was a finalist for Heart of America Assistant Coach of the Year in each of the last two seasons and was a national coordinator of the year finalist in 2015. He was even featured in a Sports Illustrated article, “The Search to Save NFL Defenses,” this past November. Grand View ranked as one of the top NAIA defenses throughout Johansen’s tenure and produced seven defensive All-Americans.
Coach Johansen joined the podcast today to talk about his famous positionless defensive concept as well as discuss some of the pillars of his defense.
Show Notes:
2:03 Coach’s start
4:23 Key lessons Coach learned on his journey
6:37 Pillars of coach’s defense
9:31 Coach’s definition of toughness
12:29 Changes to the game
13:13 The culture that is developing at South Dakota
16:40 Evolution of defenses
20:56 Schematically putting together the defense every year
24:21 How his new way of thinking of defense affects his recruiting
27:38 How to prepare players during the week to play different techniques
32:11 Teaching the big picture
34:56 Defining coach’s defense and how he makes it his own
37:23 Tips to coaches who would want to run a similar scheme
39:25 Winning edge
41:19 Connect with coach
Connect with Coach on Twitter @CoachTJohansen.
