Recruiting and building the next Griz football team

MISSOULA – Seeley-Swan High School 2018 graduate Keaton Johnson grew up around sports and attended the University of Montana Griz Football games.

"Certainly growing up, going to the games with my family and my family being passionate about it too, it is ingrained into me now," Johnson said. "They were walking super heroes or legends. You look up to those people."

Even though he never played football, Johnson worked his way up with the Griz Football team - from computer work during the week as a freshman, into game day responsibilities to travel organizations on the big side of operations to now as the new director of recruiting.

"I could never really have imagined what I'm doing now, partly because the job didn't exist," Johnson said. "It is really crazy to me to think about how cool the opportunity I do have really is."

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Johnson has always been athletic participating in basketball and track throughout middle school and high school. However, due to a heart condition and being on blood thinners, he was not allowed to play football.

"Due to the physical nature of football and the commonality of concussions, you are almost guaranteed to get a concussion or a few good ones throughout your career as a football player," Johnson said. "With thin blood that leads to brain bleeding and that is really dangerous."

Johnson poured his energy and time into basketball in high school, even though it was still "risky" to play. However his love of football never died.

"Not being able to play football in high school and in college pushed me to want to do a little bit more and kind of make a difference, even if it was just small at first," Johnson said. "I think it is the best sport in the world, especially college football. It is the camaraderie, the passion and the tradition behind college football. I love everything about it. Griz Football specifically has always had all of that. That is the kind of stuff I grew up around and [I] learned to love it."

Johnson started attending UM in 2018 pursuing a degree in business management and entrepreneurship. In the spring of 2019, he started helping out in little ways with the Griz football team.

"I felt like I had a lot of free time and was not being as productive as I could be," Johnson said. "I always followed Griz football and cared a lot about it so I thought if there was an opportunity to just go in and do something, like maybe I could experience something that not a lot of people get to."

He started assisting the operations manager in the office. After having his last heart surgery, he returned in the fall of 2019 and really plugged in. He made the itineraries and meal plans for the home or away trips and send the team away with a ready plan. Sometimes he helped pre-game with VIP tours.

"I got to be more trusted within the coaching staff so I would take on more duties," Johnson said. "I think they figured out they could utilize me in some unique ways because of my skill set."

Johnson understood Microsoft Office Suite, specifically Excel and graphic design. This gave him the ability to understand the power and utility it had for the team to organize recruits and promote their program.

He also had an innate ability to remember names based on players' stats and film. Since he followed Griz football since he was young, he could recall a name of a past player or new recruit that coaches described.

After two years of volunteering for the team, UM Griz Football hired Johnson in August of 2021 as a student manager. He worked with operations, traveled with the team and was on the field helping the quarterbacks. While he was paid an hourly wage, it had a season cap. However Johnson said with meals, clothing and other incentives, he felt he was paid well.

In December 2021 Johnson started working on the transfer portal. This involved recruiting players from other colleges that "entered the portal" if they are looking to transfer schools.

"The transfer portal has become really, really popular," Johnson said. "We had to have some organization for all the guys that enter it from other teams so if we did feel like we needed a person at a specific position or something like that we could search through that and be able to filter that."

Johnson set up an organizational structure and then would make suggestions to the coaches that fit the team's needs.

"They realized that I had a knack for recruiting," Johnson said.

Johnson graduated in December 2021 with his Bachelors in business management and entrepreneurship.

In March 2022, Griz Football added three new staff members to the coaching staff including a director of recruiting. The director of recruiting is a full time position that helps out with all recruiting activities and assists the recruiting coordinator.

The coaches encouraged Johnson to apply for the position. Johnson had already been working on the skill sets he needed for the job and he got it.

Johnson now manages the transport portal recruits and recruits high school students. The coaching staff picks out players that they like and he sends them letters. He also follows those players on Twitter, watching their film and accolades.

"There are guys that will kind of explode their senior year but for the most part, the guys we really like, we like because of their junior year film," Johnson said. "We already have our 2023 class scouted out."

Johnson manages all official and unofficial visits. The team pays for all official visits for players they have made offers and are recruiting really hard.

"We emphasize development of these kids so heavily," Johnson said. "We want them to be at their peak performance when they are 21, 22, and 23 and not when they are like 18."

Johnson enjoys making a big difference with something he is passionate about. While the head coach makes all the offers, he has influence and can highlight certain aspects of players he likes. However building relationships with the players who have already been offered a place on the team and getting them to commit is a niche Johnson fills.

"I've taken on a lot of responsibilities and added a few different things that we really didn't do before but we see as valuable now," Johnson said.

Johnson also enjoys being around an amazing group of young men every day.

"With the facilities that we have, the game day atmosphere and the fans that we have and the team in general, we are always going to be good," Johnson said. "It is really hard to mess up recruiting from that aspect. It speaks for itself a lot of time. That is why we like to stay out of it and just let guys know where they stand with us. We will generally get the guys we really want."

Johnson credits discipline for his success with the football team.

"It is easy to be disciplined when you love doing it but showing up to practice everyday, going into the office between classes to get some extra stuff done and not getting paid for any of that, the only days I missed I was in the hospital for heart surgery," Johnson said. "Discipline and doing what you are suppose to do when you are suppose to do it will get you pretty far."

Johnson said as much as his heart condition has not been fun, he felt like he worked through it fairly easily. Six months of physical therapy after his last heart surgery "it all sucked." But this last year he was back playing basketball recreationally.

"I haven't let it affect me as much as it probably could," Johnson said. "I'm still able to do everything that I really love. Maybe the part that I've taken away from those experiences in the hospital so many times is how easy I do have it compared to other kids that I have seen in there with terminal cancer or whatever. I walked out of there just fine but some of them didn't. I consider myself pretty lucky with everything I've been though."

Johnson added, "I'm really appreciative of the rest of the coaching staff for taking the chance on someone who has never played before and never been a part of something so big. Giving me those opportunities and those bigger responsibilities just made me grow within that role. If they didn't do that, I probably wouldn't be as well off as I am now."

For all the Griz fans, Johnson will be on the field for the first game Sept. 3. He assumes he will be on the offensive phones again this season relaying information from the offensive coordinator to the quarterback.

"It's going to be a fun season," Johnson said. "We are going to be fun to watch."