Former Memorial running back James Johnson ready for NFL opportunity

[oldschooler]

[quote][size=5][b]Former Memorial running back James Johnson ready for NFL opportunity[/b][/size]
By FRED DAVIS
July, 18, 2008


PORT ARTHUR - No matter how much James Johnson eats, the former Port Arthur high school running back can't satisfy his appetite.

"Not getting drafted just made him hungrier," former Thomas Jefferson/Memorial assistant coach Kary Vincent said of Johnson being bypassed in this year's NFL Draft.

Scouts said his 4.5-second time in the 40-yard dash was too slow, but Johnson thinks his body of work - splitting time with another running back during two seasons at Kansas State - played a part in being bypassed.

The 5-foot-11, 205-pound Johnson is confident he'll make the most of his chance to make the Cincinnati Bengals roster, even if eight other running backs are competing for four roster spots.

"I'm going to make the team," Johnson said in an unassuming way that does not illustrate the 23-year-old's focus and determination. "I'm so close; I'm not giving up."

On a steaming hot Thursday morning in Port Arthur, Johnson hasn't given up after working out and running with about two dozen Memorial players.

He still has some routes to run.

Asked if he's showing the youngsters anything, he humbly said, "they're teaching me a thing or two."

Decked out in a purple Kansas State shirt, a pair of light grey shorts with a purple K-State Wildcats logo on the right leg and black lowtop cleats, there's no question as to who the NFL-bound guy is on the bumpy Memorial practice field.

Johnson and longtime best friend Cornelius Harmon, a former Memorial teammate and a soon-to-be senior quarterback at Texas Southern, go through a handful of routes before calling it a morning.

The Memorial facilities, not nearly as glitzy when compared to those at Kansas State and in Cincinnati, will do just fine for Johnson as he continues to train and get ready for the Bengals camp that opens July 28 in Georgetown, Ky.

"They have a few more machines there that they don't have here, so it's a little different," Johnson said. "But being (at Memorial) just makes you more hungry."

It's no surprise to anyone who knows Johnson that he's back in Port Arthur, working out where he started to play football years ago, where he worked his way to becoming one of the all-time Southeast Texas greats.

"Top Five," said his former coach and current Memorial offensive coordinator, Kenny Harrison, of Johnson's place among all-time local greats.

Not one to be bothered by talk of who's doing this or that, Johnson quietly put together a solid college career at Blinn - a two-year college in Brenham - and Kansas State.

Now, he's ready to make his move at football's highest level, the NFL.

"James knows what he has to do to get to the next level, and he just has to stay on that path," Harmon said.


***


Johnson started playing football as a first grader. By third grade, he played with the fourth, fifth and sixth graders. Even then, he was unsure about football for an unlikely reason.

"I didn't want to get dirty," he said with a half-grin.

Once he got over his penchant for cleanliness, football became a part of his daily life.

As a high school sophomore, he was the starting running back for the TJ varsity by the season's third game.

"He made the most of the opportunity," Harrison said, adding that coaches already knew when Johnson was a freshman they had something special.

"He was the only freshman to play varsity 7-on-7," Harrison said.

While he had a productive sophomore campaign, Johnson excelled as a junior, when he rushed 223 times for 1,395 yards and 16 touchdowns.

That 2001 season was the last before three Port Arthur ISD high schools merged to form Memorial, where he had a rough start to his senior season.

Memorial head coach Dean Colbert kicked Johnson off the team during the off-season and suspended him the first game of the 2002 season.

"I just don't think coach knew how to deal with Port Arthur kids," Johnson said.

The all-district running back finally made his way back on the roster. He played nine games but still rushed 127 times for 1,176 yards for a 9.26 yards-per-carry average.

The time off the team helped put things in perspective for Johnson - with a little help from his mother.

"I talked to Coach Colbert every chance I got," said Johnson's mother, Carrie Bowie. "And I got on James' butt."

Another blow came to Johnson when he failed to qualify academically to attend a Division I school. In this case, he could not play for a school such as LSU, which had been recruiting him.

So, he went to Blinn.

"I was disappointed, but I couldn't lose focus," said Johnson, who redshirted his freshman season to focus on academics.

Over the next two years at Blinn, Johnson rushed for 2,384 yards and was a Juco All-American.

"Those were some of the best years of my life," he said, "I learned a lot and made some lifelong friends there."

The next move was to Kansas State, where he had two years to show what he could do in order to prepare for his dream of playing in the NFL.

"I remember visiting James and his family after (Hurricane) Rita," Kansas State coach Ron Prince said. "With the closeness of that family, and how humble they were after everything, it proved to me the human spirit is unconquerable."

Prince, who had just been hired at K-State to take over a proud, but sputtering program, brought in Johnson as part of his first recruiting class.

"He had a solid first season, but nothing spectacular," Prince said.

Johnson rushed for 428 yards in 10 games that season.

"That season was very poor for me, very below my standards," Johnson said.

As Prince said, Johnson missed time in preseason training camp because he was still a student at Blinn. That missed time contributed to a slow start that season.

To make Johnson's disappointing season worse, K-State ended the season with a 37-10 loss to Rutgers at the Texas Bowl in Houston's Reliant Stadium.

Johnson rushed six times for 20 yards and left with an ankle injury.

"I was happy (going into the game), I had all of my friends and family coming down to see my play," Johnson said.

After the game, different story.

"I was disappointed; I'd let (the family) down. We were a better team than we showed."

The next season, Johnson entered with experience, a returning quarterback and a strong offense to go with plenty of momentum that meant K-State would contend in the Big 12 North.

Despite a loss to start the season at nationally-ranked Auburn, 23-13, K-State won its next three games, including a 41-21 pasting of Texas in Austin, where Johnson ran back a kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown and rushed for another to outdo former Memorial teammate Jamaal Charles.

Johnson thinks the Texas game may have hurt more than it helped the team - "guys got a little too high after the Texas game."

High enough that K-State finished 5-7 after a 3-1 start, including a four-game losing streak to end the season.

However, Johnson finished his season as the Wildcats' leading rusher with 1,164 yards, making school history along the way. He set a record for fewest rushing attempts (159) needed to reach 1,000 yards.

"His leadership and productivity will be missed," Prince said. "James is one of my all-time favorite players."


***


Late in the day Thursday, Johnson, Cornelius and friend H.B. sat in Johnson's sister's home in Port Arthur, watched "Rap City" on her 60-inch televison and bantered like the three were back in high school.

Johnson continued to wear his K-State shorts but changed into a shirt that read, "R.I.P. Pimp C."

Asked what he'd be doing if he didn't play football, Johnson paused for a second and said, "Probably coaching," before H.B. shouted from the front porch, "Dancing."

Cornelius took it a step further and suggested "rapping," and then urged Johnson to showcase his rap skills.

Johnson said he had no idea what either was talking about.

Everybody laughed.

Everyone can laugh before Johnson heads off to Cincinnati, the team everyone in his circle is now a fan of.

"I didn't know what they were before, but I do now!" admitted Johnson's sister, LaKeshia.

Johnson's mother stopped by and talked with her son like she does every day.

"He loves his mama," she beamed proudly. "James has always been determined to do what he's had to do."

Johnson still has plenty of work ahead of him to make the Bengals' roster, yet he's been noted by head coach Marvin Lewis for his tough and aggressive play.

Johnson knows he'll have to make his mark on special teams to latch on.

"Every rookie has to (play special teams)," he said about kickoff- and punt-return duties.

That won't be a problem for Johnson when considering he returned kicks at every level he played and returned some for touchdowns.

"If given the opportunity, I feel I can do anything," he said.

Blessed with a short memory, which Prince says is a credit to Johnson's ability to "not let his highs get too high, and his lows get too low," Johnson spends his time taking care of the present rather than dwelling on the past.

He says Bengal teammate Dexter Jackson, named Super Bowl MVP in 2003 with Tampa Bay, told Johnson to first buy a house with his rookie contract, which would be around $285,000 based on a 2007 rookie minimum salary scale if he makes the team.

But Johnson already knows what he'll do with his money.

"I'm taking care of my mama first," he said. "I'll be at ease knowing she's taken care of."

If taking care of his mother isn't enough, Johnson also has the motivation to make it with the Bengals because of a letter he wrote to his mother when he was in fifth grade - that he'd play in the NFL with the Cowboys.

"I just got the team wrong," he said.

And there's still that appetite problem - a hungry James Johnson with plenty to prove.

"There are guys who are busts in the first round," he said while showing his only real distaste for not being drafted in April.

"I'm going to prove a lot of scouts this year they were wrong."[/quote]




[url="http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/local/former_memorial_running_back_james_johnson_ready_for_nfl_opportunity_07-19-2008.html"]http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/loc...07-19-2008.html[/url]

[Memphis_Bengal]

[quote name='oldschooler' post='680291' date='Jul 20 2008, 09:29 PM'][url="http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/local/former_memorial_running_back_james_johnson_ready_for_nfl_opportunity_07-19-2008.html"]http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/loc...07-19-2008.html[/url][/quote]

Good article and I like his chance at either making the roster or at least the practice squad. They do fail to mention the fight he got in at Kansas State which no doubt contributed to his not being drafted.