Carl Johnson leans against the concrete wall of the south end zone tunnel at The Swamp. The sweat and grime from a hard day of practice actually feel good. They are exhibit A, proof that the big guy has put in a hard day of work as the Florida Gators get ready for Kentucky.
He looks around the stadium for a moment before answering a question. He is enjoying this moment, earned by two and a half years of grunt work in the trenches learning his craft.
“This is a long time coming,” says Johnson, a mountain of a man at 6-6 and 340 pounds. “This is what I came to Florida to do.”
He is a wide body with long arms and dancing feet, which is why he was one of the nation’s top offensive tackle prospects coming out of high school. He took a redshirt during Florida’s national championship season and played on PAT and field goal teams along with some mopup duty last year. Now in his third year at Florida, he is playing left guard, forced to move inside because of injuries on the offensive line.
Johnson is turning the move into an unexpected stroke of genius. Since he took over at left guard after Florida’s loss to Ole Miss, the Gators have taken off offensively.
Coincidence? Perhaps, but the stability Johnson has provided on the O-line is undeniable and the numbers bear it out. In Florida’s first four games, the Gators gained 1,437 total yards for an average of 5.89 yards per offensive play. In the two games that Johnson has started at left guard, the Gators have gained 989 yards for an average of 7.66 yards per play.
Johnson has an explanation for what’s happened. He says the Ole Miss loss was Florida’s wakeup call.
“Like coach says, somebody calls you out in your own house what are you gonna do?” Johnson said. “You’re either going to barbeque or mildew. Take your pick.”
If it’s barbeque, it means you’ve gotten the job done. If it’s mildew, you’re sitting around wondering what went wrong.
“Either you’re going to barbeque or you’re going to be sitting in your room crying,” said Johnson. “You’re either going to eat steak or eat some Popeye’s chicken. Take your pick. Me personally … I love steak. I don’t want Popeye’s chicken.”
Johnson’s arrival coincides with the emergence of tailbacks Jeffery Demps and Chris Rainey, who have combined for 401 yards on 381 carries (10.55 yards per attempt). In the last two games the lightning in a bottle freshmen have scored four touchdowns and recorded runs of 75, 48, 42, 37, 36 and 21 yards.
“They’re so fast … all you do is hold your block a split second and they’re gone,” says Johnson with a grin. “Those guys can flat out run.”
Demps weighs in at 185 and Rainey at 180 so you would expect they’re getting the yards on the perimeter but only one of those long runs in the last two games was designed to go outside.
“The biggest thing is Chris Rainey and Jeff’s long touchdown runs, all with the exception of one of those plays in the LSU game was a base inside run,” says Florida running backs coach Kenny Carter. “If they get that crease, even in practice our guys go … oops, gone! It’s an exciting time for our guys and that’s why they’re blocking harder and doing a great job.”
Johnson never planned to play left guard but he did plan to play. After sitting the bench two years, he realized in the spring that time was passing him by and his window of opportunity was shrinking.
He had a couple of choices. He could blame everybody else and look for a transfer or he could work harder and give himself an opportunity to play.
“It was like man I’m not sitting on the bench again … I can’t do it,” said Johnson. “It’s pretty much too late to transfer unless you can get a hardship and I was like it’s time to nut up. You’ve been at Florida for two years and you’re going into your third year. If you can’t play now you may never play so I had to nut up and get the job done.”
But even then he had to catch a break. He got some training at guard during August but midway through preseason camp, he settled in permanently at left tackle to be mentored by senior Phil Trautwein.
“He’s like the general of the offensive line,” said Johnson. “He leads us into battle.”
Left guard was Jim Tartt’s position but his chronic shoulder kept him out of practice in the preseason. Marcus Gilbert, who backs up Jason Watkins at right tackle, settled in at left guard where he started games one and two. Tartt returned for the Tennessee game and played very well, but by the second offensive series against Ole Miss, the shoulder gave out and Gilbert replaced him. Gilbert went down later in the game with a high ankle sprain.
That was Johnson’s chance. He finished out the Ole Miss game, then started the last two against Arkansas and LSU. Before his first start at Arkansas, he got a piece of advice from Tartt that has served as a constant reminder that he has to play hard every single play.
“He said if you can look yourself in the mirror on Sunday morning and you have doubt you didn’t give everything you have,” Johnson recalled. “My goal was to not let my boy down and give everything I had. If I had to pass out at halftime and take six IVs, that was my goal.”
Giving it all on the field had everything to do with why it took Johnson until his third year to get on the playing field as a starter. He looks back on an All-American prep career in North Carolina and Northern Durham and realizes that he was somewhat of a slacker.
“In high school, my athleticism was so past everybody else that I really didn’t have to go hard,” he said. “My half speed was their full speed. You go half speed here [at Florida] and you’re going to be sitting on your butt looking at the sky and wondering what happened.
He saw the sky a few times and it wasn’t a pleasant experience.
“I got put on my butt by Joe Cohen and Ray McDonald,” he said.
That was the first step on a rather humbling path, one that has made him reshape his body and his thinking. When he came to Florida he was a doughboy 370 pounds who never met a Dunkin Donuts or a McDonald’s that he didn’t like. Step one on the path to playing time was adjusting his eating patterns and getting into physical condition. He’s 340 now, big, strong and able to sustain effort on the field because he’s replaced all that baby fat with muscle.
Next was reshaping his attitude.
“I played a little bit last year and that taught me how to be a better player, a better athlete and a better person,” he said. “You come to college so highly recruited and you expect somebody to hand you something so when it isn’t handed to you, you have to learn to fight for it.”
Reshaping his attitude and learning to fight for playing time meant bringing intensity to the practice field. In the past he had days when he was the most intense player out there, but there were far too many when he didn’t give his best effort.
All that has changed.
“The intensity level you have to bring every single play to compete in the SEC … this is not like other conferences,” he said. “This is the closest you can get to the NFL so you have to come every day, every snap, every second [ready to play].”
Confirmation that he’s getting the job done the right way came in the LSU game. It was third and three in the third quarter and the Gators desperately needed a first down to quell the LSU momentum. Florida’s once formidable 20-0 lead was shaved to six points when LSU scored on the last possession of the first half and the first possession of the second half so the Gators couldn’t afford a three-and-out when they finally got the ball again.
This was a Tim Tebow moment. Everybody in the ball yard including LSU knew Tebow was going to run the football and probably straight up the gut. The Gators chose to run the play over the newbie at left guard, Carl Johnson.
“That right there is a lot of trust that the quarterback has in me … a guy that hasn’t started or played a whole lot here,” said Johnson. “Coach (Dan) Mullen for him to say like run behind big Carl we know he’s going to move them … that’s a lot of confidence that I’m going to get the job done.”
Carl Johnson oozes confidence these days. He’s getting the job done on an offensive line that gets to open the holes for some of the fastest and most dynamic players in all of college football in Rainey, Demps and Percy Harvin. He gets to protect Heisman Trophy quarterback Tim Tebow.
It’s quite a responsibility and one he takes seriously. Saturday, he gets his third start, this one against Kentucky, the SEC leader in scoring defense. Johnson knows the Kentucky defense is solid but he is confident.
He won’t predict the outcome.
He just grins and says, “You’ll find out about it 4:30 Saturday. You’ll find out did we barbeque or mildew.”