Why a veteran college basketball coach has joined a Power Five football staff

Not long after Virginia Tech announced the hire of James Johnson as its new director of high school relations last week, a friend in the college basketball coaching world sent Johnson a message.

The text was said jokingly but was likely similar to what many thought when they first heard about this longtime college basketball coach taking this new job in football.

“You do know the ball they use isn’t round, right?”

The move isn’t a standard one, a basketball coach of 27 years — including as a head coach at Virginia Tech — being hired for a job in football.

Nevertheless, Brent Pry and the Hokies believe they could see quick benefits from this outside the box move and from having Johnson in this role that’s largely focused on building relationships with high school coaches, top recruiting targets and people in their inner circle.

Often, a team will target a current or former high school coach or maybe an ex-player from that school for this type of role. The goal is then to try and avoid hiring someone too close to retirement in terms of their mindset, someone with too little of an understanding of the recruiting and relationship-building parts of the job or someone that just isn’t ready for the schedule and demands that come with working for a high level college team.

With Johnson, who spent time around Virginia Tech the last year through a relationship with chief of staff Michael Hazel, the Hokies see someone with a “great personality,” tons of relationships with carryover throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, decades of recruiting experience at a high level (even if it’s in a different sport) and a “genuine care” for Virginia Tech.

All of that contributed to Johnson coming up as an idea for the role later on in the search and then to him eventually being the hire last week.

His job isn’t to coach. The goals are essentially for him to build relationships, gather information and hopefully be in position to have some influence on the decisions of Virginia Tech recruiting targets.

“I was going through our (recruiting) board with him the other day trying to get him caught up and it’s funny, JJ somehow, some way has a connection to like every kid or that high school or that coach,” Virginia Tech senior director of player personnel Mike Villagrana told On3. “And I’m just getting him rolling, so I’m really encouraged. I think he’s really going to help us. And I think if anybody knows JJ, you know his personality and his energy is awesome and it’s going to bring value to any program.”

In addition to his time at Virginia Tech as a head coach from 2012 to ’14, the 51-year old Johnson also spent five years with the Hokies as an assistant under current ESPN college basketball analyst Seth Greenberg (2007-12). He has also had jobs at places such as Penn State (2003-05) and NC State (2017-22) as well as stints under current Miami coach Jim Larranaga with both the Hurricanes (2015-17) and at George Mason (2005-07).

Johnson was an assistant for the 2005-06 George Mason team that reached the Final Four.

“A cool thing that I didn’t even think about at first was that he’s known to be a recruiter on the basketball side and well, he’s recruited and been in a lot of these schools, so he knows a lot of the guys and administrators and the coaches in these schools,” Villagrana said. “… So he can call a school and ask about a kid and get an unbiased opinion. So that’s another layer and it makes it more valuable.

“So on the day-to-day, he’ll be on the phone, calling people and just working the phones. And he has all these relationships and he’s already been bringing a bunch of guys to the table as far as recruits, which is really encouraging. And when we have visits, his presence during the visits is going to be huge, making these families feel at home.”

Ultimately, Johnson turned down several college basketball job opportunities before accepting the position on the football staff at Virginia Tech.

He estimated that he was contacted about double-digit jobs since his time at NC State, including one that was offered even just in these last couple weeks. 

Instead, he’s now back in football for the first time since playing as a high school wide receiver and defensive back three decades ago.

He’ll be part of trying to help Pry rebuild this one-time national power that’s finished with losing records four of the last five years, including three of the final four under former head coach Justin Fuente.

“(The decision) had a lot to do with the time I spent around Coach Pry during the last year and seeing his vision that he has for the program,” Johnson said. “My thoughts, my beliefs and my vision align with his. And I recruited the geographical footprint in basketball my whole career. That’s my area, and recruiting and relationships are a big part of the job, and that’s what I do. I’ve been doing that for 30 years. Developing relationships with coaches, developing relationships with families, developing relationships with kids, talking, communicating, getting information, gathering information, dispersing information to the rest of the staff, I think those are strengths of mine.

“Obviously I recruited over the years at a high level at some high level schools, so that made it make sense to me. And I think it made it make sense to Coach Pry with with my skill set.”

Even if the ball is a different shape than the one he’s worked with for most of the last 30 years.

“There was a lot of deliberation throughout the process,” Johnson said. “Coach Pry and I really talked about ‘Alright, I’ve got to think about that I’ve got 30 years in basketball’ because this is not going to be a one-year deal and then jump ship and get back into basketball. I wanted to make sure that Coach Pry understood that if I made this decision and I come over, I’m going two feet in and I’m going to really dive into this thing and really try to help the program the best I can and then see where this thing goes.

“I’m not trying to be a coach on the field or a coordinator or a position coach or anything like that. I just want to do the best I can for Coach Pry and then see where it goes.”