SEATTLE — One of the first calls James Johnson got after his successful debut as a college football player was from a 31-year-old assistant football coach at Palomar Junior College named Greg Taylor.
Taylor’s message?
That Johnson, a true freshman who caught a touchdown pass on his first collegiate reception and finished with a game-high six catches, hadn’t played well enough.
“He just said, ‘… Don’t just catch six, catch 12,” said Johnson, a University of Washington freshman who made quite a debut in Saturday night’s 31-23 loss to LSU. “‘And score two touchdowns.’”
Who does Greg Taylor think he is?
Johnson’s brother, legal guardian and toughest critic — that’s who.
Johnson is an 18-year-old who grew up in the rough part of Inglewood, Calif., but his toughest obstacle might be living up to his older brother’s expectations.
Taylor took Johnson into his home about five years ago, after their mother gave up full custody so that her youngest of 14 children could get out of the Los Angeles area.
As Johnson explained after a UW practice Tuesday afternoon, the area where he grew up was “just a lot of riff raff. And a lot of my brothers got into the wrong things. And she didn’t want that for me, so she moved me down to San Diego. She knew that with my brother, good things could happen.”
Johnson ended up at Valley Center High School, outside of San Diego, where he started out as the only African-American at the school.
With the motivating hand of his older brother pushing him in the right direction, Johnson developed into a standout student and a star athlete. By the time he was a 6-foot-1 senior, Johnson averaged more than 20 points per game on the basketball court, qualified for state as a hurdler and led the Valley Center football team to a California Interscholastic Federation Division IV title.
He gives most of the credit to Taylor.
“A lot of who I am today, and the way that I play, is because of what he taught me,” Johnson said Tuesday. “I love him to death. I probably wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t in my life at that time.”
Despite his accolades on the football field, where Johnson earned all-state honors, he elected to wait before choosing a college. Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Arizona State, Washington State and San Diego State all offered scholarships, but only SDSU was willing to let Johnson play on the offensive side of the football. Johnson wanted to get out of California, and so he let his college choice linger well into his senior year of high school.
When UW’s new coach, Steve Sarkisian, made a visit in December, Johnson felt an immediate connection.
“All the other schools — no offense; they’re good coaches — I just didn’t feel in my heart that I’d found the place that I could go and succeed at,” Johnson said. “I hadn’t found that until I met Coach Sark.
“… When he came to my house, I felt it in my heart. I don’t know if that sounds weird, but I just got a really good feeling.”
Johnson visited the UW campus in January and signed with the Huskies a few weeks later. He was one of Sarkisian’s first recruits, and he has not disappointed.
Johnson showed a commitment to learning the offense and gradually worked his way up the depth chart. His eye-opening practices screamed for immediate playing time, and Johnson ultimately earned a start in Saturday’s opener.
And then, playing against the 11th-ranked team in the country, Johnson proved that he belongs.
“To be honest,” he said of his performance against LSU on Saturday, “it was a lot easier than I thought it would be.”
Sarkisian said that Johnson’s practice habits have set him up for success. The true freshman never got “fazed” by big moments in practice, Sarkisian said, so it wasn’t a complete shock when the true freshman made big-time plays against LSU star defensive backs Patrick Peterson and Chad Jones in Saturday’s game.
“I just think he goes out and plays,” Sarkisian said. “It doesn’t matter, who, what, when, where or how — ‘this is what I’m supposed to do, here comes the ball, let me catch it and go make my play.’”
New UW receivers coach Jimmie Dougherty knew Johnson before most recruiters, having worked with him at a football camp while serving as an assistant coach at the University of San Diego. Dougherty wasn’t surprised by Johnson’s debut, nor does he expect the freshman to be a one-game wonder.
“The sky’s the limit for the kid, no doubt about it,” Dougherty said. “And he’s going to keep working hard. He’s not going to let any of this go to his head (despite) the fact that he played well in his first collegiate game.”
And if Johnson does start to get a little too full of himself?
Leave it to a 31-year-old assistant coach at Palomar Junior College to knock him back down to size.
Notes
Safety Greg Walker got the bulk of the work with the starting defense at Tuesday’s practice. Walker and Victor Aiyewa are listed as co-starters on the team’s depth chart after Walker struggled in Saturday’s opener. … Cornerback Matt Mosley (knee) and linebacker Matt Houston (biceps) returned to practice, while starting defensive end Darrion Jones (leg/ankle) continues to sit out. … Two defensive linemen have been moved to the other side of the ball. Defensive tackles Craig Noble and Nick Wood are now playing offensive line.
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