Piqua, Dayton grad new offensive coordinator at Duke

“Let’s Go!!!!!!!!” Johns wrote on Twitter. “Excited to get to work with @CoachMikeElko and the men of @DukeFootball.”

Duke announced the hiring of Mike Elko, the former Texas A&M defensive coordinator, in December. The Blue Devils suffered three straight losing seasons under David Cutliffe, who coached the program for 14 seasons.

Johns, a second-team All-Ohio quarterback as a senior, graduated from Piqua in 1994. At UD, he ranks ninth in school history with 3,572 yards. He won the team MVP award as a junior in 1996 and again as a senior in 1997. He’s of four players in school history to win the award two years in a row.

Johns started his coaching career in 1998 at Piqua High School as a quarterbacks and moved into the college ranks in 1999, spending three seasons at Northwestern University as a graduate assistant. He then spent two seasons at the University of Richmond before returning to Northwestern for seven seasons.

From 2011-16, Johns coached at Indiana, earning the offensive coordinator title. He held the same position at Western Michigan in 2017 and Texas Tech in 2018 before moving to Memphis in 2019.