BATON ROUGE — The more Ju’Juan Johnson found the ball in his hands against Southeastern Louisiana, old feelings began flooding back to him.
At Lafayette Christian Academy, for years, the now LSU football sophomore running back was the offense. He had the ball in his hands every play and, more times than not, made things happen.
Against the Lions, Johnson’s carries ticked up and ticked up, ultimately to a team-high seven times and for the first time in a while, Johnson felt more like his old self.
LSU RUNS PAST SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA
“I think getting the ball in my hands, every time I got it, I felt more and more like I should have it,” Johnson said after LSU’s 56-10 victory over Southeastern Louisiana Saturday night inside Tiger Stadium. “It gave me a boost. I think just the trust of (the coaches) giving me the ability to go out there and have the ball, that’s what gave me the boost.
“It gave me the confidence to go out there and just play my game.”
Johnson ran for 39 yards, which doesn’t sound like a lot but is his career high, and he found himself in the end zone twice, a familiar place to him.
“I just think he sees the game really well,” LSU coach Brian Kelly said. “I think his natural instincts took over at that position and I think we all saw the same things. Very impressed with the way he played, the way he ran. He catches the football, he does a lot of really good things for us.”
Because of Johnson’s background, the Louisiana High School record holder for total yards (14,451) and touchdowns (71), and his athletic ability, LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier said having him lined up next to him in the backfield adds another dimension to the offense that defenses have to key in on.
“He’s an unbelievable player,” Nussmeier said. “He poses so many threats, can do so many different things with the ball in his hands. Having him out there makes the defense think about a lot of different things.”
Kelly said as the game rolled on — really, the first half as that’s all the first team offense played against the Lions — Johnson developed the “hot hand.” The hope is that momentum can carry over for Johnson and for him to go out and play his game, making guys miss and finishing runs off the falling forward.
And ultimately score more touchdowns.
“He’s a really good football player and we knew that, right? I think we all knew about him coming out of high school in terms of what he could do,” Kelly said.
“We saw a glimpse of that tonight.”
Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Why Ju’Juan Johnson getting hot hand helps LSU football moving forward
