Johnson brings hard work, humor to Cavalier secondary
Anthony Johnson understood the situation he’d be walking into when he decided to finish his college football career at Virginia.
UVa coach Bronco Mendenhall has always been transparent about his policy for accepting graduate transfers: He’ll only consider players who he believes can step in and push for a starting role immediately. Some of the Cavaliers have admitted that because of that additional competition, it can initially be awkward when grad transfers first arrive in the offseason.
Including a redshirt year in 2017, Johnson spent the previous four seasons playing cornerback at Louisville. At UVa, Nick Grant and De’Vante Cross both started all 10 games at corner last fall. Both were coming back as sixth-year ‘super seniors’ this year, though with Cross shifting back to safety. The Hoos also had fifth-year senior corner Darrius Bratton returning as well.
So Johnson wasn’t walking into a spot where UVa was looking to plug some holes. He’d be showing up to challenge some established veterans who had been in the program for a long time.
But it was some of those veteran defensive backs who reached out to Johnson on social media while he was still considering where to transfer. As a result, he felt like he already knew a few of his new teammates when he arrived in Charlottesville in January.
“They came in with open arms,” Johnson recalled this week. “They took me right in like I’ve been here four or five years.”
The report from Mendenhall has been that Johnson has been “passionate about football” and “on a mission” this summer. Teammates have praised his confidence, as well as the personality he has brought to the secondary.
“First of all, he’s hilarious,” said Cross. “Team clown for sure.”
“I can’t tell you some of the things he’s said in text messages and stuff,” agreed cornerbacks coach and special teams coordinator Ricky Brumfield.
Johnson credits his family for that outgoing personality, though he admitted that he was initially reluctant to reveal it to his new teammates because he wasn’t sure how they’d react. He couldn’t hold it back for long.
“I would say I was a little soft-spoken when I first got in but it didn’t take me too long,” he said. “Maybe like my second day, once I got the hang of everything, I just was hitting the ground running.”
Brumfield believes that sense of humor helped Johnson make the transition to his new team faster and more smoothly. There’s also another element to Johnson’s personality that has been a key reason why the corner has exceeded expectations since his arrivals.
“What we thought we were bringing in was a pretty good player that’s gonna help with depth and come in and compete to start, but what we didn’t know we were bringing in was a really, really good leader,” Brumfield explained. “He’s a kid that’s eager. He wants to play. He wants to win. And he wants to do everything that he can for the team. He’s a team player and he’s a leader, and we honestly didn’t expect that. We didn’t know that that’s the type of person that he was, and it’s a pleasant surprise.”
Johnson has led by example with the daily work he has put in after practice to hone areas of his game that need extra attention, Brumfield said. He has also been impressed by the way Johnson has taken some of his younger teammates at corner under his wing despite just joining the team a few months ago.
To Johnson, it’s just another example of how his personality is reflected in the way he approaches the game.
“I just try to spread my positivity and encouragement through others and I like to make people laugh,” he said. “Just have a good time while working hard.”
In addition to Johnson, the Hoos also added former North Dakota State cornerback Josh Hayes as a grad transfer this summer. Hayes has missed the past few weeks with an injury but the arrival of those two veteran corners has had the desired effect on the level of competition in camp this summer.
“These are not your regular transfers, guys who didn’t play,” Cross said. “They all played, they all started where they came from, so they’re experienced players too.”
“Everybody wants to play,” said Brumfield. “Everyone says that competition brings out the best in everyone, and when you have multiple guys that can play and have the opportunity to start, it brings out the highest level because you want to play.”
Before Hayes got hurt, the pair of newcomers also brought additional depth to a secondary that is trying to bounce back after giving up 304.4 passing yards per game last fall. That average ranked among the bottom five FBS teams in the country, and the worst by a UVa pass defense according to the archived team stat on Sports Reference that date back to 1956.
In the initial depth chart released on Monday, Johnson was listed behind Grant at the field corner spot, with Bratton the starter at boundary corner. With the Wahoos likely to lean heavily on sub packages that include a fifth defensive back, Johnson should see plenty of playing time in Saturday night’s season opener against William & Mary (7:30 p.m., RSN).
“He just keeps making plays and he works really, really hard and he embraced our culture from the beginning,” Mendenhall said of Johnson on Monday. “He's been the most consistent from the time he arrived until today.”
Johnson shared the story with reporters on Monday of his first meeting with Mendenhall this past offseason. The head coach pitched Johnson on program tenets like ‘Earned, Not Given’ and ‘Will Before Skill’ and talked about areas where the corner’s game could improve. Johnson appreciated that approach as opposed to other coaches in the transfer process focusing on how good he already was.
He also said he almost teared up a few weekends ago when he was among the 32 players who participated in the first round of jersey number selections. Johnson will wear No. 3 for the Hoos. He sees getting selected by his new teammates for one of those early number choices as a reflection of the hard work he has put in since arriving in Charlottesville.
“Them just seeing the player that I am, the leader that I am, and how I can help this team win football games,” Johnson said. “And I was all for it. I wanted to work and earn everything that I would receive.”
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