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Top five sports stories of the year: No. 2:

Published: Friday, December 28, 2012 6:41 PM CST

Football: New regimes: Flower Mound, Lewisville name new head coaches

BY JUSTIN THOMAS, jthomas@acnpapers.com

Speculation of Flower Mound signing former Southlake Carroll coach Todd Dodge to the same position proved to be unfounded.

But while the Jaguars didn't ink Dodge, they did hire a coach with ties to Carroll, as well as Hebron, naming former Dragon Dane Johnson to the position.

Johnson was a star running back and defensive back for Carroll from 1991-93 before going on to play collegiatelly at Texas Tech.

As a coach, Johnson spent five years at Hebron - where he was a defensive coordinator under current coach Brian Brazil - before restarting the football program at Boerne, where he was head coach for the past three seasons, leading the squad to the playoffs in just its second season. While at Hebron from 2004-08, the Hawks claimed four consecutive district titles and won the Class 4A Division II State Championship in 2007.

"LISD is a great school district and place to be," Johnson said. "The community is very supportive and is hungry for a winner. I think working in this district and then leaving for a few years, you can really see the difference, and I'm looking forward to being back in LISD."

While Johnson - who takes over his role as coach Jan. 30 - is excited to get started, he knows there are challenges ahead of him.

For starters, he takes over a Flower Mound squad that has surrendered 44.8 points per game over the past two seasons.

Offensively, however, the Jaguars have been elite, scoring 43.6 points per game.

Under Johnson, Flower Mound will continue to use the spread offense, while emploring a 3-4 scheme on defense.

"It's been a team that can put points up and we obviously want to continue that," Johnson said. "But I believe defense wins championships and we want to have two solid teams out there on offense and defense. My philosophy is to get the best players out there and put us in good position to win. I want to be the best team in the area, I don't care how we do it. We can win 2-0 or 85-0.

"I think we can start competing for district titles every year. We want to contend every year, that's our goal and we have to instill that mindset."

Johnson will also face off against Hebron Brazil at least once a season.

"That's something I'm not really looking forward to," Johnson said. "Coach Brazil and I are still good friends, we'll just have to go against each other once a year."

Like Flower Mound, Lewisville hired a defensive mind in former Katy defensive coordinator Gregg Miller.

Coaching for 12 seasons at Katy, leading the defense of a squad that won 11 district titles and reached the state title game six times - with four championships - Miller comes with a winning pedigree which he hopes to bring back to Lewisville - which won state titles in 1993 and 1996.

"It's a great 5A job," Miller said. "It has a tremendous history. Everbody knows the history of Lewisville and as a first-time head coach, I couldn't ask for more than a great program like this and the opportunity to put it back where it is supposed to be and where it has been in the past.

"We want to embrace the tradition that was here in the 90s and build off that. Every team wants to win a state championship and they've done it here. We need to take some of the people that were involved in that and show them to these kids. We need to let them know these guys were champions and they want us to be champions. Instead of us just closing the door and going to work, we're going to build the thing up and embrace our community."

Miller also knows the challenges being a defensive coach in Texas brings.

"It's a never-ending process," he said. "It starts with a combination of knowledge of the kids and being able to adjust on the fly. If you have the foundation, then you can change things during the game to get you out of games, especially with the spread and the many blocking schemes there are now.

"We have to get the coaches set and get everyone on the same page, so we're telling the kids the same thing for four years. That's the key to me: consistency and a foundation of knowledge with our defense."

Offensively, the Farmers will run a pro-style offense that featured both the I-formation as well as two-back sets.

"We'll spread it out some and run a lot of gun," Miller said. "We played around with all of it at Katy. I told the kids this morning 'Everyone is talking about us not throwing the ball. But we have one quarterback playing in the NFL (Cincinnati's Andy Dalton) and another one that's playing for a college championship at Eastern Washington (Bo Levi Mitchell). You don't get those scholarships by handing the ball off."

"We're going to have quarterbacks and receivers develop. But I want to be able to control the ball, control the clock and keep the defense off the field. I don't want to go into a game and try to win 51-49 ... that's half losing, almost, if you ask me."

While success will ultimately be determined by wins and losses, LISD athletic director Randy Mayes is pleased with the hires.

"We wanted to get great character guys who had a love and respect for kids," he said. "All of the candidates were like that, but these two just really stood out."

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