When Auburn’s 2015 season came to a close following the Tigers rout of Memphis in the Birmingham Bowl, a lot of question marks plagued the roster for the next year. One position where there weren’t supposed to be any mysteries, though, was running back.
But then Jovon Robinson, the presumptive starter, got dismissed from the team, and Roc Thomas, a former five-star recruit and the recipient of Alabama’s Mr. Football award in 2013, transferred to Jacksonville State, leaving just one running back with any quantifiable game experience left: sophomore Kerryon Johnson.
The change of being thrust from a change-of-pace running back into could be overwhelming — paralyzing, even, especially with No. 2 Clemson first up on the schedule — but it hasn’t fazed Johnson.
“I prepared every day for this for the past 18 years of my life. I come in, I go to work, I leave, that’s just what I do,” Johnson said. “I feel like we have a lot of people on the team that do that. That was an unfortunate event, obviously, but it didn’t change my mindset at all. I’ve maybe got a couple more carries. To me, it’s just that I’ve got to do my job anyway.”
That job will be a little different from the one he performed the year before. But with that extra year comes plenty of experience.
“(The job) definitely changed. A lot bigger playbook to learn, that’s for sure,” Johnson said. “I think just from last year to this year, I have a lot more confidence in myself. The game is moving slower in terms of reading and pass blocking. I just feel like I’m a much smarter player and a much more patient player, and I just have a feel for what’s going on no matter what now.”
The only other running backs on the roster are Kamryn Pettway, a big, bruising runner who played at H-back during his redshirt freshman season, Malik Miller, a freshman who was Johnson’s teammate at Madison Academy, and Kam Martin, another freshman who was originally committed to Baylor before being granted a release from his scholarship.
Martin, Johnson noted, has a few qualities that remind him of himself.
“Kam’s doing fantastic,” Johnson said. “Kam is a very smart guy. He’s obviously a very fast guy, he’s obviously a very quick guy. But the first thing is he’s smart, so he’s going to be able to fit in wherever they need him to. Wherever they want to play him, he’s going to be able to learn, and he’s very eager to learn. So as long as you’ve got those two characteristics, you’re going to be fine.”
As the de facto old head of the running backs, Johnson will be tasked with providing leadership of a group that will be seeking to produce a 1,000-yard rusher for the eighth consecutive year, and that will start with Clemson.
But what will be going through Johnson’s head when he steps onto the field at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday as the starting running back?
“Win. That’s all that’s going to go through my mind. We gotta win. We gotta win more than we did last year, and I think we will, so there’s only one thing going through my mind, and that’s winning.”
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