- April 16, 2024
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Matt Johnson, center, with his Seabreeze quarterbacks, Sam Gonzalez, left, and Blake Boda. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Seabreeze head football coach Pat Brown.
When Seabreeze offensive coordinator Matt Johnson and head coach Pat Brown roam the Daytona Stadium sidelines in the Sandcrabs’ home football opener next month, they will be on familiar ground.
Johnson led Bethune-Cookman University to the FCS playoffs on the same field 11 years ago. The dual-threat quarterback led the Wildcats to 10 consecutive wins in 2010, running and passing for 2,753 yards and 20 touchdowns.
One of his favorite receivers was Brown, who caught 30 of Johnson’s 151 completions that season.
“(Matt Johnson) is literally one of my brothers. He’s been my best friend since we met.”
PAT BROWN, Seabreeze head football coach
They’ve been best friends ever since.
“Pat Brown is my daughter’s godfather,” Johnson said. “We ended up having some journey after college.”
In fact, they’ve toured the world together. They played together in the Canadian Football League in 2012 and then played for teams 45 minutes apart in Germany in 2013.
And they both wound up in coaching.
“I don’t think I chose coaching as much as coaching chose me,” he said.
Johnson got his start as a grad assistant at B-CU and went on to coach quarterbacks for two years. After earning his master’s degree in 2015, he joined the Fort Pierce Westwood coaching staff in 2016.
He served as the offensive coordinator at Flagler Palm Coast from 2017 to 2019 under then head coach Travis Roland, another B-CU alum.
Johnson took last season off to establish his quarterback development business, “Beyond The Pocket.”
“I’ve worked with a lot of quarterbacks in the area from Little League all the way up to college,” Johnson said.
But this past year his best friend came calling and he couldn’t say no.
“Matt is literally one of my brothers,” Brown said. “He’s been my best friend since we met.”
A dean at FPC last year, Johnson is now a teacher on assignment at Seabreeze High, running the internal suspension room.
He’s also running the Seabreeze offense, mixing in a touch of B-CU’s high-tempo scheme from 2010.
“We’re trying to have an exciting offense and put points on the board,” Johnson said. “We’ll go spread, tempo, multi-sets. We’ve got the quarterbacks and skill guys to do it.”
Brown, who runs the Sandcrabs’ defense, leaves the offense in Johnson’s hands.
“It saves so much time when you don’t have to worry about the other side,” Brown said. “I just know that he’s going to take care of everything. He’s a better coach than he was a player. And that’s hard to do.”
