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Johnny Holland Linebackers Coach 15th NFL season 4th with Texans |
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Johnny Holland enters his fourth year with the Texans as the linebackers coach after spending the previous three seasons with the Detroit Lions. Holland, who starred on the field for the Green Bay Packers for seven years, enters his 15th season as a coach in the NFL.
With Holland's guidance in 2008, MLB DeMeco Ryans led the team for the third consecutive season with 112 tackles. Ryans moved into first on the franchise career solo tackle list with 310, topping Jamie Sharper’s total of 300 solos from 2002-04. Second-year linebacker Zac Diles had a stellar start to the year and finished second on the team with 66 tackles despite missing the final eight games with a broken leg. Rookie Xavier Adibi earned all-rookie honors after tallying 34 tackles, all of which came in the last half of the season.
In 2007, Ryans was elected to start the 2008 Pro Bowl and earned second-team Associated Press All-Pro recognition after leading the team with 127 tackles, including 98 solo stops, two sacks, an interception, a forced fumble and three fumble recoveries. WLB Morlon Greenwood registered his fourth consecutive 100-tackle season, finishing second on the team with 118 stops, including 90 solos, to go along with a sack, a forced fumble and an interception.
In his first year with the team, Holland helped Ryans earn AP Defensive Rookie of the Year honors after one of the greatest seasons by a rookie defender in league history. Under Holland’s guidance, Ryans led the NFL in solo tackles with 126, and his 156 total tackles were more than any rookie in the previous 20 years. Ryans also recorded 3.5 sacks, an interception, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and eight pass deflections. With the addition of Ryans, Greenwood slid outside and finished second on the team with 110 tackles.
In 2005, Holland’s first year as linebackers coach with the Lions, the unit was ravaged by injuries with four linebackers ending the season on injured reserve, including Boss Bailey and Earl Holmes, who entered the season as starters. Holland molded his group into a solid unit and helped the defense hold opposing offenses under 300 total yards in five of the team’s last seven games.
In 2003-04, Holland was a defensive assistant for the Lions, helping Texans defensive coordinator Richard Smith coach the linebackers. Holland began his coaching career as a defensive quality control coach for the Green Bay Packers from 1995-97 before coaching special teams in 1998 and linebackers in 1999. While on Mike Holmgren’s staff in Green Bay, he helped lead the Packers to back-to-back NFC Championships following the 1995 and 1996 seasons and a World Championship in Super Bowl XXXI.
In 2000, Holland re-joined Holmgren in Seattle, where he served as the assistant special teams/assistant strength and conditioning coach. From 2001-02, he returned to his more familiar role as linebackers coach for the Seahawks.
A native of Hempstead, Texas, Holland was a four-year letterman and three-year starter at Texas A&M. He led the Aggies’ vaunted “Wrecking Crew” defense in tackles in each of his final three seasons in College Station before moving on to the NFL as a second round draft choice by the Packers in 1987. Holland posted six consecutive seasons with at least 100 tackles for Green Bay before retiring in 1994. In 1993, after suffering a neck injury in 1992, he led the team in tackles with 145 and helped guide the Packers to their first playoff birth in 11 years.
Holland was enshrined in the Texas A&M Hall of Fame in 1993 and was inducted into the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame in 2000. In July, 2001, he was inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame.
Holland and his wife, Faith, have a son, Jordan, and a daughter, Joli.
HOLLAND’S COACHING LEDGER
2006-09: Linebackers,
2005: Linebackers,
2003-04: Defensive Assistant,
2001-02: Linebackers,
2000: Asst. Special Teams/Asst. Strength & Conditioning Coach,
1999: Linebackers,
1998: Special Teams,
1995-97: Defensive Quality Control,
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