Ben Johnson isn’t out to show everybody he’s the smartest guy in the room, even if he often is. He wants to win. It really is that simple. That is what drives his approach to the game. Chicago Bears players have been finding out over the past few months that this head coach is like nothing they’ve seen before. His attention to detail and grinding approach to practice have awakened them to reality. This is how a winning team must operate. Tyrique Stevenson isn’t new to this. The cornerback encountered something similar in college.
Most people know Stevenson made his name at Miami University. His success there led him to become a 2nd round pick to the Bears in 2023. However, before that, he spent two years at Georgia learning under one of the best head coaches of this generation, a coach with whom Johnson has a lot in common.
It reminds cornerback Tyrique Stevenson of playing at Georgia, where he spent two seasons before transferring to Miami.
“I’ve been in a program — [with Georgia coach] Kirby Smart and all that — where the details are the main thing,” Stevenson said, “But I’ve never been where it’s like, ‘We’re going to go inside that detail and fix that.’”
Kirby Smart burst onto the scene in 2017 after a long, successful run as an assistant at Alabama. Since then, he has reached three national championship games and won two titles. He is 105-19 and still only 49 years old.
Being the NFL’s Kirby Smart is hardly bad for Ben Johnson.
Of course, he still has plenty of proving to do. Smart wasn’t great in his first year at Georgia. It took some time to get his house in order. Once he did, the program became a powerhouse. Ben Johnson shouldn’t be expected to knock it out of the park right away. Even if the Bears don’t win immediately, it doesn’t mean his process is wrong. Players often need time to embrace a certain way of doing things. Johnson’s style is hard. It demands a lot from everybody and is unrelenting. Sacrifices are required. The reward is winning a lot of football games. Coaches like this are often able to discover which players are in it for money and personal glory and who want to win. Weeding those guys out is Johnson’s first objective, just like it was for Smart.
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