Texas A&M Football OC Candidates: Kevin Johns, Duke
This one is kind of a layup for being on this list, as Johns was Elko’s handpicked guy to be the OC when he got his first head coaching job in Durham. As OC and quarterbacks coach in Durham, he took a Duke program that had ranked 91st in yards per play the year prior to 38th in 2022: an immediate, huge boost. They fell back to the middle of the pack this year, but that had a lot to do with quarterback injury; something with which many Aggie fans should be all too familiar.
Previous to his stop in Durham, Johns was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach down in Memphis, where the Tigers were perennially a top offense. He’s also been at Texas Tech, Indiana, and—yikes!—Northwestern. Despite a stop in Evanston, though, he is a solid OC. The system he runs is definitely much more modern than what the Aggies have been used to; however, it is also much less one-note than what we saw under Sumlin, Spavital, et cetera. Whether or not Johns makes the jump from Durham to College Station, the fact that this is the guy that Elko identified and hired is altogether encouraging.
That said, though I found this to be the most likely name for the new Texas A&M football offensive coordinator directly after Elko was hired, I think that possibility is beginning to fade a little bit. According to Vegas, Johns is the odds-on favorite to take over the head position at Duke now that Elko has departed, and since he doesn’t have connections to A&M like Elko does, he may be a little more inclined to stay if he considers himself ready for the head position.