Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

1/15/2012 at 6:20pm

Arkansas has added another former Ohio State defensive coach to its staff.

Buckeyes cornerbacks coach Taver Johnson is joining the Razorbacks as linebackers coach and assistant head coach, just weeks after Paul Haynes joined the staff as defensive coordinator. Johnson and Haynes worked together coaching the Ohio State secondary.

“Taver is an extremely enthusiastic and devoted coach,” said Coach Petrino. “He has a strong work ethic, is a great teacher of the game and is skillful at relating to his players. During his time at Ohio State, he became familiar with the principles Coach (Paul) Haynes has worked to incorporate here. He has also been a part of a program with a culture of consistently winning and will be instrumental in preparing our players to compete for championships.”

Johnson, who spent the past five seasons coaching cornerbacks at Ohio State and was expected to be retained by new coach Urban Meyer, is an Ohio native like Haynes. Both recruited their home state for the Buckeyes, which leads me to wonder if Arkansas will spend more time recruiting in Ohio.

Yahoo! blog Shutdown Corner ranks Ohio No. 4 on a recent list of states that produce the most NFL talent. While Ohio is not a state that can compare with California, Texas or Florida in terms of talent produced, it is much more fertile recruiting ground than Arkansas.

A vacancy was created when Reggie Johnson left to become defensive coordinator at Alabama-Birmingham. Former Arkansas offensive coordinator Garrick McGee is the Blazers' head coach.

Taver's move to Arkansas was initially reported by Ohio media on Sunday afternoon. Ohio State Coach Urban Meyer introduced his staff at a Buckeyes' basketball game on Sunday, but Johnson was not among the assistants introduced, according to the Twitter feed of Kyle Rowland of the Ohio State-affiliated Rivals site. Rowland added that Johnson is headed to Arkansas.

ArkansasSports360.com will update this post.

Tagged: Ohio State Buckeyes, Paul Haynes, Reggie Johnson, Bobby Petrino, Taver Johnson, Arkansas Razorbacks