Highly touted freshman quarterback Jeremy Johnson lived up to his hype Saturday in his first start against Western Carolina.
Johnson finished the day completing 17-of-21 passes for 201 yards with one interception.
"It was great I enjoyed every minute of it," Johnson said after the game. "You never know when the opportunity will come, and I just want to give all the praise to my teammates and God."
The decision to start Johnson was not a game-time decision, but it was close. Johnson said he did not find out he was going to start until the team left for the hotel Friday.
"Coach Lashlee called me up to the front of the bus and asked me if I was ready and I said 'yes' and he said well we are going to start you on Saturday," Johnson said. "From that point on I just stayed focused."
Head coach Gus Malzahn was also pleased with Johnson's performance.
"I thought Jeremy did a solid job, and I thought he made some good decisions," Malzahn said. "Our line protected him extremely well, and he's been playing very well in practice and it carried over into today."
Even though the decision to play Johnson was made Friday, Malzahn said he had been thinking of playing Johnson for a couple of weeks.
"He's been in the mix for a couple weeks now, and our starter was not 100 percent healthy and we felt like it was a great time to get him in there and we feel like he can help us the rest of the season."
When players received the news Johnson would be the starter they had confidence he could step in and perform as well as Nick Marshall.
"Everybody was fine with it and we have confidence in Jeremy," said senior H-back Jay Prosch. "He's a guy that practices a lot, and he's always in there, so we were comfortable and fine with it."
Johnson replaced Nick Marshall who was injured against Ole Miss last week, and even with Johnson's performance Malzahn wanted to remind fans who the starter is.
"I want to make this clear that Nick Marshall is our starting quarterback," Malzahn said. "When Nick is 100 percent he will be back, but the great thing is we feel very good about Jeremy and it's great to get him some in game experience."
At this point, following tonight's win, Marshall's status for next week's game is still unknown, but if Johnson is asked to play, coaches and players feel confident he can produce.
"Yeah, for sure," Prosch said. "Nick is our starter, but I definitely believe Jeremy could step up and perform as well."
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