Ex-QB Brian Johnson Still Directing Utes Offense at BetLM

SALT LAKE CITY (CFB/Newsfeed) — As a kid, Brian John­son was so inquis­i­tive he read the warn­ing label inside his foot­ball hel­met and nearly quit the game.

Nearly 20 years later that thirst for knowl­edge is serv­ing him well instead as he embarks on his first sea­son as Utah’s offen­sive coor­di­na­tor – accord­ing to the Utes, the youngest at the FBS level.

John­son is best known for engi­neer­ing Utah’s 31–17 upset over heav­ily favored Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl, call­ing plays in a no-huddle offense that helped Utah dart out to a 21–0 lead.

Now at 25, the win­ningest quar­ter­back in Utah his­tory is in charge in a dif­fer­ent way.

Never mind that a few of Utah’s play­ers were born the same year, or that the man he replaced – 66-year-old Norm Chow – is old enough to be his grandfather.

“He might be young in age but not in knowl­edge,” said Utes senior wide receiver DeVonte Christo­pher, who was quar­ter­back for the scout team dur­ing Johnson’s senior season.

Fam­ily mem­bers and col­leagues say John­son has always been mature beyond his age.

He com­mit­ted to Utah at 16, and grad­u­ated high school at 17.

He went on to play in 10 games as a true fresh­man for the Utes, back­ing up Heis­man Tro­phy final­ist Alex Smith dur­ing Utah’s 12–0 Fiesta Bowl cham­pi­onship season.

“He’s always been the youngest,” said Johnson’s high school coach, Dick Olin, now Stephen F. Austin’s offen­sive coor­di­na­tor. “He was the youngest senior quar­ter­back we ever had, the youngest backup Utah had. The ‘youngest’ and ‘Brian John­son’ go hand in hand.”

Olin said John­son, Utah’s fifth offen­sive coor­di­na­tor since 2008, will do just fine in his expanded role because of his intel­li­gence, lead­er­ship and charismatic-yet-calm demeanor.

Utah head coach Kyle Whit­ting­ham said he sensed John­son had a great feel for call­ing games in the Sugar Bowl vic­tory. He cited the pre­ci­sion with which John­son exe­cuted but also the feel he had for which plays to dial up.

“He was lights out,” Whit­ting­ham said. “Those first three dri­ves of the first quar­ter were as good as you’ll see in any foot­ball game.”

When Whit­ting­ham had a chance to hire John­son as quar­ter­backs coach at age 22, he didn’t hesitate.

Of course that pre­sented one small prob­lem for Johnson.

“When I was recruit­ing, I couldn’t rent a car,” he said. “Now, since my 25th birth­day (in Feb­ru­ary), they don’t has­sle me about rent­ing anymore.”

Other than that, his tran­si­tion from the field to side­lines has been seam­less, some­thing that must con­tinue if Utah is to improve upon its 8–5 fin­ish in 2011 – its first sea­son in the expanded Pac-12 Conference.

Under John­son, Christo­pher said Utah is open­ing up the offense a lit­tle more with spread sets as opposed to the pro-style for­ma­tions used a year ago.

Yet Olin said John­son won’t feel com­pelled to put his stamp on the offense.

“He doesn’t have an ego,” Olin said. “He’ll do what he must to help them win.”

Despite his youth, John­son said he isn’t feel­ing the pressure.

“I’ve never been one to let that pres­sure get to me,” said John­son, who also is get­ting mar­ried to his col­lege sweet­heart this sum­mer. “I’m more excited than any­thing else.”

That’s a stark con­trast to his first taste at quar­ter­back, when he was sacked in a Pop Warner game, and told his mother, “I’m never play­ing foot­ball again. They almost par­a­lyzed me.”

Turns out the kid who was always ask­ing “why” had read the warn­ing inside the helmet.

John­son regrouped quickly and was at it the next play, and has matured at every level since.

About unnerved as he gets was stand­ing alone late at night out­side the Super­dome, Sugar Bowl MVP tro­phy in hand, after the team buses left with­out him fol­low­ing Utah’s big win.

“We thought we had every­body,” Whit­ting­ham recalled, not­ing some play­ers had gone off with their par­ents rather than back to the team hotel. “But he was in a remote cor­ner, doing some inter­view, and we didn’t know.”

John­son, who called Whit­ting­ham on his cell­phone to arrange a ride, laughs about it now.

“He’s a guy who’s won over the hearts of Ute nation,” Whit­ting­ham said.

John­son already is giv­ing back. When his salary jumped from $ 120,000 to $ 250,000 in his new role, he pledged $ 50,000 to the ath­letic director’s fundrais­ing campaign.

He declined to dis­cuss the pledge other than to say, “I’m really appre­cia­tive of being able to grow up here and play for a great, great pro­gram. It’s some­thing I’m really pas­sion­ate about.”