Preparedness led to stellar day from QB
BOCA RATON — Long before De’Andre Johnson got the call to come into Florida Atlantic’s rivalry game with FIU in the second quarter on Saturday night, the redshirt junior quarterback now with his third college team was taking the correct approach.
It’s a lesson any coach would love to drill into the head of a backup quarterback, or anyone, really, who hasn’t gotten their opportunity to do what they feel they’re capable of in any walk of life.
“My mindset the whole season was ‘stay ready,’ so you ain’t got to get right. I’ve been ready,” Johnson said. “Each week I prepared like I was the starter.”
And that’s how he was able to rally the team to a 42-7 scoring run since his insertion in the 49-14 Shula Bowl victory. He led the offense with his own running ability, helped open lanes for running backs Devin “Motor” Singletary and Kerrith Whyte due to his rushing threat and threw a pair of touchdown passes.
“It’s something that I knew I was capable of doing,” he said. “My teammates knew I was capable of doing this. They believed in me the whole year.”
Singletary used the word “juice” to describe what Johnson brought to the offense.
“He [brought] a lot of energy,” said wideout Jovon Durante, who had a beautiful toe-tap in the back of the end zone for a 28-yard touchdown from Johnson on a fourth-and-11. “He came in. He was the field general, [brought] a lot of energy. His first run was explosive, so that kind of carried over to the whole game.”
Fifth-year senior left tackle Reggie Bain described his demeanor in the huddle.
“It was like a calm confidence that he knew what he was doing and you knew he was ready to go,” Bain said.
Said center Junior Diaz: “He made a smooth transition from him to Chris [Robison]. They make it easy for us. We make it easy for them. Just as long as they get the right cadence, then we’re good to go.”
Despite the game Johnson had, coach Lane Kiffin has not committed to starting him at home against Western Kentucky on Saturday evening.
“I’m just executing what Coach Kiffin is designing up – him and [offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr.],” Johnson said. “Whichever way I can contribute to the team is what I’m and committed Whatever helps win.
“We’re sticking to the same script, same practice schedule, pretty much the same rotations. Just making sure that everybody’s ready when their number’s called.”
Said receiver DeSean Holmes: “I feel like everybody we have are good quarterbacks. They’ve been thrown in the fire, so all we have to do is go and rally around them.” dedicated to doing. the team
Al-Shaair’s farewell: Senior linebacker Azeez AlShaair tweeted a farewell of sorts on Tuesday morning ahead of his surgery on the torn ACL and MCL in one of his knees that cut his collegiate career short. He was injured in practice before the Oct. 20 Marshall game. .
“First I just want to thank God for everything I have been blessed with,” he wrote. “Even all of what I might have believed to be detours have been the path I was supposed to take all along.”
Thanking everyone from friends, family, coaches and the university, he continued: “My entire life I had always been a negative person never felt like good things would happen to me no matter what I did. Then I began to play football and it was as if all of that negativity just flipped and I began to see positive things come out of my life.”
He alluded to hearing from his first college coach with the Owls, Charlie Partridge, that he could be the foundation for FAU. He said his experience under Partridge and Kiffin was “everything I could have ever imagined.”
“To all my teammates I love y’all boys and truly appreciate y’all for the special memories we have been able to create in the last four years.”