JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Only 3% of high school football players continue their playing career in college.
Then only 1.6% of collegiate athletes find themselves on an NFL roster. If you’re lucky enough to beat the odds, an even smaller percentage of players transition from on the field to the sidelines as a coach.
For Jacksonville native and former Ed White offensive lineman Kaleb Johnson, he finds himself in a unique position learning from his hometown NFL team’s coaches as part of the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship program.
“Being from Jacksonville, having my college career, being a former player, this is awesome,” Johnson said. “Getting the opportunity to get in and be around the Jaguars. Being a long-time fan of the team and seeing where they’re going and what Coach [Doug] Pederson is doing, I love it.”
The Bill Walsh Fellowship is a program designed to give minority coaches an opportunity to learn and participate in an NFL setting. A number of coaches currently in the league have participated in the fellowship, including Jaguars defensive quality control coach Tee Mitchell, a Bolles graduate. All 32 teams are part of the program. In order to apply, applicants have to be a former NFL player or have coaching experience in high school, college or pro football.
“You can’t put value on it,” Johnson said. “There’s no price tag you can put on it. Being around your childhood team, being a long-time jaguars fan, the things that they’re doing. There’s no words I can give you for this one.”
This is Johnson’s first time working with an NFL team. He joined the staff for organized team activities and has the opportunity to learn from the different offensive position groups. After four voluntary practices, he’s already learned a lot.
“A lot of it is communication,” Johnson said. “A lot of the terminology, they put a title on some of the stuff. Some things that we’ve done we just haven’t been as detailed in our coaching with it. Other things, technique-wise, some drills trying to make our guys better players.”
Johnson will take what he learns back to Gainesville where he works as a quality control offensive assistant for the University of Florida.
“I kind of taken it from the approach of ‘how can I become a better offensive line coach?’” Johnson said.
It was always Johnson’s dream to play for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
“My first jersey ever was a [Tony] Boselli jersey,” Johnson said.
His dream with the Jaguars didn’t come true, but Johnson did play in the league for seven different teams over four years. In college, Johnson was a four-year starter and played in 50 straight games for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
Now looking forward to this season, Johnson says fans of both the Jaguars and Gators should be excited for successful seasons.
“The camaraderie that this team has right now, I can see some good things happening,” Johnson said. “Obviously I’m talking from the offensive perspective. I’m very excited for what they’re going to do. Obviously the Gators is what the Gators is. Coach [Billy] Napier is doing a good thing down there and I’m helping where I can and we’ll be competitive.”