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Te XAN S
Johnny Holland
Linebackers Coach
14th NFL Season • 3rd with Texans
coaches
Johnny Holland enters his third year with the
Houston 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
14th season as a coach in the NFL.
The linebacker corps was the strength of the
defense in 2007, led once again by MLB DeMeco
Ryans. In his second year, Ryans was elected
to start the 2008 Pro Bowl and earned secondteam
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 fouryear
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 C O A C H I N G L E D G E R
2006-08 Linebackers Houston Texans
2005 Linebackers Detroit Lions
2003-04 Defensive Assistant Detroit Lions
2001-02 Linebackers Seattle Seahawks
2000 Asst. Special Teams/ Asst. Strength & Conditioning Seattle Seahawks
1999 Linebackers Green Bay Packers
1998 Special Teams Green Bay Packers
1995-97 Defensive Quality Control Green Bay Packers
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