"Denver Johnson" is an American football coach and former player. He is formerly the offensive line coach for the Tulsa Golden Hurricane football/Tulsa Golden Hurricane. He was let go when head coach Bill Blankenship was fired on December 1, 2014. He also served as the Golden Hurricane Offensive coordinator for the 2014 season. Previously, Johnson was the head football coach at Murray State University from 1997 to 1999 and at Illinois State University from 2000 to 2008, compiling a career college football record of 69–66.

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We've got three pillars that we're going to try and build this program around. The first is academic integrity. The second is social responsibility. We want good citizens. Third is competitive excellence. When I evaluate our program on those three pillars, I think we're making good progress.

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I found myself the first couple of years that I had to sell things to people. There was a lot of resistance, a lot of resistance on the team and some in the athletic administration.

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I had a great job at Murray State, but I perceived some great potential, and I still do. Dare I say there were some obstacles that we've had to overcome.

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There's the physical component of evaluating kids, there's an academic component, and then you get into the intangibles. You try and get a handle on what kind if kid he is.

169

To be honest, I'm excited again to be head coach here at Illinois State. There was a time here when I'm not sure I could say I was excited. My tenure here has not been an easy one. I feel we've got new leadership in the department, we've got good direction in the program. I feel that we're going to get a little bit of traction here and really become productive.

158

In coaching the old adage is you'd really like to come in behind someone they wanted to run out of town on a rail. (The previous staff) came in here and had great success, unprecedented success in the I-AA era. They set that high-water mark, and we fell short of it. That was disappointing to me. I'm sure it was disappointing to the fans and everyone involved in the program here.

156

Boomer is what you want them all to be.

144

I'm not sure I anticipated how far and how fast this institution would move academically, but I did see it coming. It's not a bad thing. It is a good school. To get a degree here is not an insignificant thing.

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I'm not happy, certainly not satisfied, with what we've been able to get done on the field. We've had some good years. We've had some very competitive games, but we need to break through. We need to have an 8-, 9- or 10-win season before long.

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