<p>In Attendance: Sandra McKee (Baltimore Sun), Christian Swezey (Washington Post), Corey Masisak (Washington Times), Bill Wagner (Annapolis Capital), Joe Gross (Annapolis Capital), John Evans (Associated Press), Ron Snyder (Baltimore Examiner), Tony Roberts (Blue & Gold Illustrated), Pete Medhurst (CSTV), David Ausiello (gomidshipmen.com), Chris Vito (Norfolk Pilot), Craig Stouffer (Washington Examiner), Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, Fox 45 in Baltimore, WLJA (Channel 7) in Washington</p>
<p>Johnson: Now that Wagner’s here I think we¹re ready to get started. It seems like yesterday that we were just doing this, but it¹s good to be back and we are ready to get camp started. I’m really excited about this upcoming year. I think as a group our guys have had the best summer since I’ve been here. We had a large group that stayed here and got in a lot of workouts. They came back and tested very well and they have done some good things so we are excited about getting started. We also realize that we have lost a lot of key players off of last year’s team so we are going to have a lot of new guys. That can be a positive too. I know the coaching staff is excited about some of the young guys we have in the program and the ability they have. At the same time, this team hasn’t won a game yet. We are an unknown quantity just like everybody else is at the start of the year. We are excited about the year and we feel like we have the nucleus to have a good football team if everything comes together. We are anxious to get out there and start practice. Questions?</p>
<p>Wagner: Can you talk a little more about what you have to do to rebuild the defense?</p>
<p>Johnson: We lost a lot of key players off the defense. We lost a lot of guys that started for three or four years and they made a lot of plays for us. We are going to have some new faces out there, but I really think we have a chance to be better athletically than we have been on defense. There will be some growing pains. This team reminds me a little bit of where we were a couple of years ago when we lost nine or 10 starters on offense and we had eight or nine guys back on defense and we ended up having a great year. I think we have the players to be good on defense. We are short on experience, but I think they have some athletic ability.</p>
<p>Snyder: The schedule looks a lot tougher this year compared to last year. Wake Forest, Rutgers, Pitt, Notre Dame, it should be a challenge.</p>
<p>Johnson: It’s always a challenge here. We have to get ready to play no matter who we are playing or we are going to be in trouble. As far as the schedule goes right now I’m worried about Temple and that’s it. We will take the first couple of weeks of camp and try and get our systems in on offense and defense and try to solidify the depth chart a little bit and then we will take the last two weeks and get ready for Temple. The opening part of camp for us is going to be big. We need to get the depth chart cemented so we know who is going to be playing, especially with a lot of new faces. As far as the schedule goes Temple had the best recruiting year in the MAC and they have a lot of guys coming back, Rutgers will certainly be in the Top 25 to start the season and they have a Heisman Trophy candidate in Ray Rice, Ball State had the Freshman of the Year in the MAC at quarterback, Air Force is Air Force, that is always tough, Wake Forest is the defending ACC champion, Pitt has had Top 15 recruiting classes the last several years, Notre Dame, Delaware is going to be a Top 15 team in I-AA, they are all good teams. Northern Illinois was in a bowl game. The schedule will be challenging, there is no question about that. We just have to take care of our business. I usually don’t worry about who we are playing. If we can execute what we are doing we will have a chance against anybody we play.</p>
<p>Stouffer: Can you talk about all the non-Saturday night games you have on national television?</p>
<p>Johnson: It will be interesting to see. We will have to tweak the schedule a little bit, but we are fortunate in that the first two games are Friday night games so you really don’t have to change the schedule that much, we will gear camp to a Friday night opener instead of a Saturday. We will go off the same schedule the next week. We have an open date before we play Pitt on a Wednesday so we can adjust to that so I don’t know if it’s going to be a big difference in getting ready to play. We get ready the same way whether the game is on national television or radio. If you look at the past few years our guys have risen to the challenge for the most part when we¹ve had a big game and I’m sure they will be excited to play on national television.</p>
<p>Snyder: What’s the hardest part of rebuilding the defense?</p>
<p>Johnson: The hardest part is making sure you have the right personnel for what you’re trying to do. That’s why I’m excited. A lot of guys over there haven’t played yet, but having been here for six years I can see that we have guys that run better, are a little bigger, are a little faster than what we’ve had. Now, will they be better football players? That’s why you play the game. We’ll see. We have personnel on defense. They don’t have a lot of experience, but athletically I feel good about where we are. We have some new guys in the secondary, but athletically they are as good or better than anybody we’ve had back there. At linebacker, Clint (Sovie) and Irv (Spencer) have played some. It’s going to be hard to replace David Mahoney and Tyler Tidwell; they played a lot of games at outside linebacker, yet we have some guys that have a chance. Mattt Wimsat has been a backup and he’s going to get a chance, Matt Humiston has a chance, we have some young guys that nobody knows that I’m excited about. They are good athletes. Jordan Eddington, Matt Nechak, there are a lot of guys that nobody has heard about that I think can be pretty good football players. They will have to grow into it a little bit and how quickly they grow into it will determine how much success we will have, especially early.</p>
<p>Vito: It seems like the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy has found a home here in recent years. Is that still a priority?</p>
<p>Johnson: It’s always been one of the main goals of the team. Later on tonight the captains will get the team together and they will come up with the goals for this year’s team. I’m big on letting the players come up with their own goals. I’m sure that will be one of them. Winning that trophy is one of the most important things we do here. It’s a rallying point for the alumni and former players. Navy went way too long without winning that thing and our guys kind of like having it. We are going to try and defend it the best we can.</p>
<p>Wagner: The flip side of the defense is the offense where you have a lot of experience returning. Do you think you have more experienced guys playing key spots than you’ve had in a while? You have two quarterbacks back, two
fullbacks and a ton of slot backs.</p>
<p>Johnson: I think we have some depth. If everybody stays healthy we have some good athletes on offense. The difference between the offense and defense right now is the offensive guys have game experience. There will be some real competition for the positions and I think any time you have competition it makes everybody better. We are anxious to get started. So much of having a successful season is getting the right blend together and staying away from injuries. You never know what’s going to happen until you start playing. We have the big P word. We have potential. The question is can we translate that into being a good football team. We still aren’t going to intimidate anybody. When we get off the bus the other team isn’t going to run for cover. I guarantee you that everybody that plays us has us circled as a win. They all think that they should beat us and that’s not going to change no matter who we play.</p>
<p>Ausiello: In baseball they say it’s important to be strong up the middle. Can you talk about what you have up the middle on offense and how important
it is to be good there?</p>
<p>Johnson: I think that’s probably a good analysis, especially with the offense we run. We moved Antron Harper to center and I think that will be a good position for him, I think he¹s a natural in there. We have a couple of other guys that we are going to rep at center so we can get some different combinations. I would like to get to the point on the offensive line where we are playing our best eight players and it might be that four of the best eight our tackles so we are going to have to cross-train some guys at other positions. Antron can be as good as we¹ve had at center. He hasn’t done it yet, but the potential is there for him to have a great senior year. At quarterback, Kaipo is coming back and he played well at the end of the year and I was really pleased with Jarod Bryant and Troy Goss both this spring. I thought they had good springs and I’m sure that will be a good battle in fall camp. Adam Ballard had a really good year last year until he got hurt and then Eric Kettani came in and did some good things so I’m sure that’s going to be a battle. We feel like we have some guys at those positions to be good players. We will just have to wait until we play and see what happens. Certainly the experience is there. You want to be good up the middle. </p>
<p>Ausiello: On the other side of the ball with Nate Frazier, does that put more pressure on him as a sophomore looking to contribute up the middle on defense?</p>
<p>Johnson: It depends on what we are doing. Nate could end up being a defensive end, he could be the nose guard, he could slide and be over the guard, he’s probably going to be an inside guy, but I don’t think there’s any more pressure on Nate than there is Jordan Stephens or Andrew Lark or Kyle Bookhout or Chris Kuhar-Pitters. Nate is listed as a starter heading into fall camp, but he hasn’t played a down yet. I don’t want everybody building him up like he’s the second coming of Deacon Jones. Let’s watch him play first. He may get beat out before the season starts. There will be a lot of guys competing in there.</p>
<p>Vito: How about the first game against Temple. It seems like it has the makings to be an emotionally charged game with Wayne Hardin trying to fill the stadium and Roger Staubach coming back to flip the coin. How do you envision that game going down?</p>
<p>Johnson: That will be fun for the fans, but we probably won’t know who is flipping the coin or any of that. We will be getting ready to play. I’m sure Temple thinks it’s a chance for them to win a game. We talked to a couple of recruits this summer that came down who had also visited Temple and they told us that everything on their campus was Beat Navy. It is all geared to that first game and they are trying to build the program. I’m sure if you are them it’s a great opportunity to open the season against a team that you think you can beat. Last year in the second half they played us even. It will be a tough game for us. We have a lot of young guys that will be playing in their first game so we will see how they react when the lights come on and the bullets start flying. It will be a big game for both teams. If you aren’t ready to play the opening game then you’re going to be in trouble. It’s going to be a long year.</p>
<p>Masisak: Is everybody healthy?</p>
<p>Johnson: Right now they are. It’s a good time of the year for that. We have a couple of guys that have a mild case of mono, it seems to be going around the Academy, but as far as injuries we have a few guys coming off post-op, but I think if we had to play tomorrow we would have everybody but Rashawn King. I don’t know if he will be able to play in the first game, he’s coming off surgery. He¹s worked really hard this summer and he looks good so I wouldn’t count him out.</p>
<p>Wagner: The other guys that sat out the spring are all back?</p>
<p>Johnson: They are all ready to go, yeah.</p>
<p>Wagner: Did you make any notable position changes since the end of spring practice?</p>
<p>Johnson: We are always moving guys in and out. I have to talk to some guys today about moving and trying some different positions. All that is about is trying to get your best players on the field. If I see somebody that I think has a chance to be a good football player and they are buried at third or fourth team at their current position and could be a starter or second team at another position I’m going to call them in and talk about it. We are going to have a lot of guys that we are going to have to cross train. In the secondary we are going to have guys that are going to play corner and safety and on the offensive line we are going to have some guys that are going to have to play multiple positions.</p>
<p>Snyder: You talked about teams thinking they should beat you, don’t you think that’s changed the last four years?</p>
<p>Johnson: I don’t think so. If you talk to whomever in the coaching profession they feel like they should beat Navy. Duke is a great example. If you talk to the people at Duke they think they should beat us. That’s one of the games they think they should win, because they look at us, Virginia Tech, Florida State, Clemson and Miami on their schedule and Navy is the one they have to beat. That’s just the way it is. It’s reality. If you look at all the fans that pay attention to all the recruiting gurus we aren’t ever going to have a Top 50 recruiting class so I don’t think anybody is afraid of us. It’s kind of good. I kind of like it that way. I would rather it be that way. Our guys understand who we are. They know how we’ve won. If this group doesn’t understand that they will figure it out real quick.</p>
<p>Ausiello: Can you talk about Justin Davis and how he fits into your coaching staff?</p>
<p>Johnson: Justin really meshes with the staff and he has a pretty good background. Coach Amstutz at Toledo, who was an assistant coach at Navy, really thought a lot of Justin and told me he wanted to hire him there if he had a spot and since Justin has gotten here Toledo did offer him a job, but
he decided to stay here. He¹s a good fit with the staff. He has good experience and will help us out. His position does a lot of film breakdown and he was familiar with the system we use so it was a good fit.</p>
<p>Wagner: Along those lines can you talk about how you’ve been able to keep your staff intact yet again, which is something really rare in college football these days?</p>
<p>Johnson: We’ve been very fortunate. We’ve lost one guy in six years and he left to be a head coach. I think you have to give Chet and the administration credit for that because they have stepped up and tried to make it a good working situation for these guys. I think our staff genuinely gets along with each other and I think everybody enjoys working with each other. They know my expectations of them and it’s been a good fit. We are fortunate that everybody has stayed together. That certainly helps.</p>
<p>Stouffer: Coach, you could argue that last year’s graduating class did as much as any graduating class in the history of the Naval Academy. What would it mean for this group to exceed last year’s group.</p>
<p>Johnson: That’s the plan, for them to exceed last year. We talked about it last night. This group has things to accomplish that nobody else has been able to do. Nobody in this group has ever lost an Academy game; this group can be the senior class that beats Army six years in a row. Nobody else has done that in the history of the series. If they can put together an outstanding season they can have the most wins of any class in a four-year history. That’s what we hope for. The younger classes who are supporting that will then have their turn to break that record when they are seniors because they are all part of it. When you build a program that’s kind of the way it works. Year after year the next class has a chance to get where the previous one was or surpass them. I would agree with you that the last class was probably unparalleled in the long history of Navy football.</p>
<p>Stouffer: Does that margin get slimmer and slimmer each year to surpass the previous class?</p>
<p>Johnson: It’s certainly harder each year because you have to win more games, but I don’t know if it’s getting smaller because if you’ve been a part of the previous three years you have more wins to start with. This is something that is kind of new to the program. I was looking at the press guide the other day and Scott has a thing in there about Navy Football by decades and since the 50s Navy has had one decade where they finished with a winning record (50s). The 60s had two Heisman Trophy winners and they didn’t have a winning decade. I was surprised by that. This decade we don’t have a winning record since we started out on the back end. These guys have a chance to do that. There are a lot of things we can find to play for. A lot of things. </p>
<p>Wagner: We spent a lot of the off-season talking about your candidacy for other jobs and talking about rumors are you happy to be standing there with a Navy shirt on?</p>
<p>Johnson: Yeah. As long as I beat Army this year they will let me stay one more year. A lot of that stuff you guys drum up in the press and I get a chuckle out of it. I jokingly told somebody that it’s better to be talked about for other jobs than people talking about who is going to take your job. That’s not much fun. That just comes with having a successful program. It’s a credit to the players and the assistant coaches. I wouldn’t read too much into that stuff.</p>
<p>Wagner: Do you have any walk-ons?</p>
<p>Johnson: We have a lot of guys in the program that have walked-on at one time or another. This year we kept seven or eight plebes. Greg Veteto is a great example. He came out of the Brigade and started every game for us last year as the punter.</p>
<p>Ausiello: In your five years at Navy can you pick one point as your high point and one point as your low point?</p>
<p>Johnson: It would be hard to pick one. The second year when we beat Air Force at Redskins Stadium really flipped the two programs. If I have to look back the two programs kind of passed each other in the night on that day. That was positive. Somebody asked me yesterday about the toughest game we’ve lost since I’ve been here. They are all hard but the one that stuck with me the longest was the Tulsa game here. That one was a killer. They are all tough. It’s not any fun to lose.</p>
<p>Wagner: In the beginning of the spring you weren’t too pleased with the work ethic that had been shown, but it seems like that was better this summer.</p>
<p>Johnson: I think we had the best summer we’ve ever had. Coach Brass did a great job this summer with those guys and they did a great job of staying here and sacrificing their leave time. The administration worked with us on cruises and summer school and all those things and we had a great turnout. When I met with everybody after spring we talked about everybody trying to make 25 workouts during the summer out of 36 possible workouts. That gave everybody time to go home for two weeks. We only had seven guys on the whole team that didn’t make 25 and probably three of those guys were locked in to military training where they just couldn’t make it. It wasn’t because they went home. We had 28 guys that made 30 or more and we had six that made every single one of them. The turnout was pretty good.</p>