Texas forever: TV show part of lure
‘Friday Night Lights’ helped draw defensive back Johnson to A&M
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M defensive coordinator Mike Elko, head coach Jimbo Fisher and author Buzz Bissinger served as the primary recruiters of defensive back Antonio Johnson out of East St. Louis, Ill.
“It was ‘Friday Night Lights’ on Netflix when I realized Texas football is different,” Johnson said with a grin.
Bissinger released the book “Friday Night Lights” in 1990, which turned into a movie which turned into an enduring television series. Aggies are glad it did, for more reasons than being an entertaining production on all three counts.
“I always wanted my mom to move to Texas so I could play football here,” said Johnson, who was born and raised in Illinois. “I knew (football) was just so big here, and through my recruitment when I came and visited, I fell in love with the place, and fell in love with the ‘12th Man.’ ”
Midway through the regular season the lithe, swift Johnson (6-3, 200) leads the No. 21 Aggies (4-2, 1-2 SEC) in tackles with 47
and is tied for second in pass breakups with four. He’s served as the defense’s primary nickelback, and has started all six games this season in Elko’s 4-2-5 attack.
“The urge he has to fly across the field … he’s always around the ball,” A&M linebacker Edgerrin Cooper said of Johnson. “That’s the mentality that he has — no matter the circumstance, he’s just grinding on every play.”
Johnson led the Aggies with a career-high 15 tackles in A&M’s 26-22 home loss to Mississippi State on Oct. 2, and he added six more in the Aggies’ 41-38 upset of then-No. 1 Alabama last Saturday at Kyle Field. Johnson will experience another first this Saturday: playing a college game near his hometown.
“The ultimate task we have now is to beat Missouri,” Johnson said. “That’s personal for me, because it’s so close to home.”
The Aggies, in trying to build on the toppling of Alabama following consecutive losses to Arkansas and Mississippi State to start SEC play, face Missouri (3-3, 0-2) for the first time since 2014. A&M plays in Columbia, Mo., for the first time since 2013, a 28-21 Tigers victory.
Columbia is about 125 miles west of East St. Louis, and Johnson said he spent plenty of time on the Missouri campus while in high school and as his recruitment picked up steam.
“The (Tigers) recruited me pretty strong, and being so close to Mizzou it was easy to go over there and visit,” Johnson said. “I was there a lot, but I wouldn’t say I was (much) into them.”
Johnson, a rangy fourstar prospect at East St. Louis High, received offers from several SEC powers, including Alabama, Georgia and LSU. He first pledged to Tennessee in June 2019 but following an unofficial visit to A&M in July 2019 backed off his commitment to the Volunteers.
Two months later, Johnson pledged to play for A&M, even though he’d not seen a game at Kyle Field in person. He had seen “Friday Night Lights,” however, and along the way appreciated the resilient efforts of Elko and Fisher.
“The relationships I had built with coach Elko and coach Fisher throughout my whole recruitment stayed the same,” Johnson recalled. “Even when I drifted away, they stayed solid and never gave up on me. Even in the tough times, I knew I had them in my corner. That’s what you look for in a coach and in a program.”
Fisher, who in his fourth year has strung together three consecutive top 10 recruiting classes at A&M for the first time since the internet began keeping count of such things about 20 years ago, cheerfully recalled Johnson’s recruitment that had a happy ending for the Aggies.
“Everybody wanted him,” Fisher said. “Those (recruiting) wars now are relentless. You’ve got to trust and believe, and you’ve got to stay true to the (task). It’s just like a game — there are ups and downs, you’re ahead and you’re behind. It’s a competition to get somebody to understand what you can do for them … and how you can develop them personally, educationally, athletically and then (prepare for) life after ball.
“It was a challenge with ( Johnson) for sure, especially for a guy from St. Louis who hadn’t been around here before.”