For the first time since the start of the 2011 season, the Lincoln Blue Tigers will have a new head football coach.
Lee Johnson, who started the season as the outside linebackers coach, was named Lincoln's interim head coach after Mike Jones was fired Sunday after five-plus seasons as head coach.
Johnson's first game at the helm of the program will begin at 2 p.m. today when the Blue Tigers host Lane College at Dwight T. Reed Stadium.
"I feel comfortable," Johnson said. "I've been a head coach before, so I understand what the position entails."
Johnson joined the Blue Tigers' coaching staff prior to the 2016 season after spending several seasons coaching in the Canadian Football League and the Arena Football League. Most recently, he served as head coach and general manager of the San Antonio Talons of the AFL from 2012-14.
In three seasons as head coach the Talons, Johnson compiled a 27-27 record, leading the team to a Central Division championship in his first year.
After the Talons folded following the 2014 season, Johnson was hired by the Portland Thunder - also of the AFL - as the director of football operations and the special teams coordinator for the 2015 season.
"Coach Jones brought me in to help out," Johnson said. "He knew I had the experience. We talked a great deal about some of the things we may need. He asked me what I saw and what some of things were that I thought could help us win.
"Basically, I had an opportunity to really sit back and be the outside linebackers coach, and take that time and actually take a good, hard look at what was going on."
The two were teammates at Missouri from 1987-90, when Jones was a running back for the Tigers and Johnson played on the defensive line.
Both players went undrafted in the 1991 NFL Draft. Jones spent 12 seasons playing for five different NFL teams - winning a Super Bowl ring with the St. Louis Rams in 2000 - while Johnson played five seasons in the CFL and AFL before starting his coaching career in 1997.
"It's a funny thing," Johnson said. "I really came here to help coach Jones. Now that the situation is what it is, the only way that I can help coach Jones is (to do) what he asked me to do.
"Coach Jones is a very caring person, and his words to me were, 'Lee, take care of the kids. Make sure the kids have a great experience. Make sure they have a fighting chance.'"
Since becoming the interim head coach Sunday night, Johnson has made some changes on the Lincoln coaching staff. Shyrone Carey has been named the offensive coordinator, replacing Bryant Lee. Carey will serve as the pass game coordinator, while Lance Zeno will be the run game coordinator for the Blue Tiger offense.
"We're adding a little flavor, a different twist to an offense that basically had been run here for about the last four or five years," Johnson said. "We're putting another twist on it, getting another person in and give it a fresh look. We'll see if that can jump-start our offense."
Listen:
Lincoln Blue Tigers Football Podcast [Lane preview, Oct. 1, 2016]