Lawrence Johnson, hired last week for Clemson's restructured position, shook hands and shared a few words this past Friday night with tailback C.J. Spiller and receiver Jacoby Ford, both who've excelled in sprints for the Tigers.
Johnson also visited with incoming defensive back, Spencer Adams, an accomplished North Carolina high school hurdler who could bring that talent to Tiger track next spring.
"C.J., Jacoby, Spence, those guys are tremendous track and field athletes,"
Johnson said. "Those guys are very instrumental in our plans to succeed in the ACC and beyond."
Johnson, 33, was named to his position last week and knows what it takes to triumph in the Atlantic Coast Conference. He spent the past four years with Virginia Tech, concentrating in sprints, hurdles, jumps and multi-events for men and women. The Hokies' women swept the indoor and outdoor ACC titles in 2007 and 2008.
Johnson was picked as the Southeast Region assistant coach of the year by the U.S. Track & Field coaches' association.
He's got some big track shoes to fill at Clemson. Not only will he have to follow the success of retired men's coach Bob Pollock, he'll have to deal with melding men's and women's programs that had been headed by separate coaches.
He'll have a staff of five assistants who'll work with both men and women in indoor and outdoor track and field, and cross country.
"The way I look at it, six coaches are better than three,"
Johnson said. "So we're going to combine our knowledge as coaches and hopefully put together some great programs that are exemplary of the university."
The Clemson athletic department decided to reorganize in the mold of eight other ACC teams that have one head coach supervising both men and women. Johnson's confident he could blend Pollock's program with that of women's coach Marcia Noad, who recently completed her eighth season at Clemson leading women's track and field.
"We hope to continue to just build on things that (Pollock) had built since he's been here at Clemson and add in coach Noad's former group into one vision, and I think we can do that,"
Johnson said.
Noad, a former Tiger track athlete, will remain at Clemson as an assistant, Johnson said. Her hiring in 2000 was historic, the first time Clemson had brought in a black head coach.
"She's going to remain on staff. Coach Noad is also an alum here. She was an accomplished athlete here as well,"
Johnson said. "She has a wealth of knowledge about the program that we want to tap into."
Noad did not return several e-mails and messages left for her.
Johnson's hiring cleans up thorny situations that brought Clemson negative headlines.
Pollock had been investigated by the State Law Enforcement Division after he and an assistant were accused of depositing more than $27,000 collected from campus track meets into personal accounts. No charges were brought, in part because full restitution was made.
In May 2007, Clemson acknowledged Noad gave her athletes rules that included the lines, "Pregnancy resulting in the inability to compete and positively contribute to the program's success will result in the modification of your grant-in-aid money. Please consult your coaching staff immediately to discuss."
An unnamed Clemson athlete told ESPN that she had an abortion to stay in school.
Clemson athletic director Terry Don Phillips said then that Noad's intent was for her athletes to make "safe and responsible choices regarding sexual activity"
and not to promote abortions for women to keep their scholarships. Still, Phillips said it was a team rule that shouldn't have existed.
No athlete lost scholarship money because they were pregnant and the rule was removed from the handbook, Phillips said.
Phillips referred all questions about the track program to associate athletic director Barbara Kennedy-Dixon.
Johnson's not worried about what happened before. He's got a restructured program to run.
"We're going to hit the ground running,"
he said. "I don't ever want to have a situation where I'm giving those athletes an excuse, our staff an excuse, myself an excuse to take our time in transition. In track and field, everything we do is fast. We're looking for great things as soon as this cross country season starts."
