Former Hurricanes Eduardo Clements, Davon Johnson coaching together at Booker T.: UM “starts winning, the recruits are going to come”

When Davon Johnson arrived at Miami as a true freshman wide receiver in 2008 and Eduardo Clements came on board as a Hurricanes running back signee in 2010, neither could have ever predicted where they’d wind up after their football careers ended.

As it turns out they are still on football fields together.

As coaches.

The duo help coach a Miami Booker T. Washington program headed by the legendary Tim “Ice” Harris, who has his own history with the Miami Hurricanes as running backs coach under Al Golden and assistant to Randy Shannon from 2008-10.

So yeah, there’s a little bit of that UM swagger going on at Booker T.

So earlier this month there were Davon and Eduardo, better known as DJ and EC, on campus helping guide Booker T.’s 7-on-7 team during a Mario Cristobal summer camp. Johnson is the offensive coordinator; Clements coaches the running backs.

Clements departed Miami with 378 career rush yards and 183 receiving yards; Johnson had 419 receiving yards including 348 as a senior.

Back when those guys were playing for Miami the campus was quite a bit different. There was no Indoor Practice Facility, no renovations to the Hecht and the locker room was in a different location … and not quite as blingy, if that’s a word.

“It’s way, way bigger, man,” Clements said. “It’s all about elevation, and that’s all I see right now.”

Johnson’s thoughts about being on campus June 8 for the Cristobal camp?

“What kid doesn’t want to come to Miami and play?” Johnson said. “Beautiful sky, always hot. Who doesn’t want to come here?”

Both former players weighed in with their thoughts on the trajectory of this Miami program.

Clements: “The first year (for a head coach) is always going to be the toughest year. So I feel he’s getting the right guys in, the right guys who fit his program. Once he gets that and instills what he wants from those guys, I feel everything will come together.”

Johnson: “I know coach Cristobal has this headed in the right direction, and his message to us is getting the good kids to stay home. He wants to stop letting them leave the State of Florida.”

While Clements and Johnson are part of Miami’s past as players, they are also coaching a couple of guys with Cane offers at Booker T. that could be part of UM’s future: 2025 4-star DBs Ben Hanks, Jr. and Antonio Branch, Jr. Both are heavily favored to choose Miami per the On3 RPM.

“They don’t have to ask me about Miami, I tell them,” Clements says. “The coaches at Miami, they are bringing the game, aren’t playing. I see a different energy right now.”

He adds “I tell them the truth, I’m not here to sugarcoat anything. I tell them at the next level it’s all about a business and branding yourself. I tell them it’s not easy, but the ways to get recruited are way more open now. You can talk to coaches, you can transfer after a year, too, it’s more lenient toward the players. It wasn’t like that when I was (at UM). That’s the good thing and bad thing, because at the end of the day you always want to start where you finish, fight through everything.”

Johnson in particular has a close connection with Hanks – it’s his younger brother on their mother’s side, with a big age difference, of course.

“I talk to him about UM, all the schools,” Johnson says.

So does Johnson run some routes in practice against the two young DBs?

“No,” Johnson says with a laugh. “I don’t have any more routes in me.”

Johnson says he believes keeping the top kids home will come with a simple cure: Winning games.

“Just win,” Johnson said. “The program starts winning, the recruits are going to come.”

Clements also stressed the brotherhood, family aspect that’s always permeated being a Miami Hurricane.

“Duke (Johnson), Clive (Walford), Allen Hurns was my roommate, we all talk – the friendships we built in college, they are everlasting,” Clements said. “These are special bonds, and once you come here the bonds are forever.”

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