Tag: Ohio

LOS ANGELES — Tez Johnson can’t help but gush. Being the leading wide receiver for the unanimous No. 1 team in the country isn’t necessarily the reason why, it’s simply that this charming human spigot does not turn off. 

The words come tumbling out of Johnson like rain drops. The assertions drop like those audio greeting cards. 

You’re not offended, you’re beguiled. 

“We think we are the keystone species,” Johnson said ahead of the College Football Playoff quarterfinal in the Rose Bowl on Wednesday. “We’re the top of the food chain.” 

If there is a face of this Oregon team in this monumental season — and there are several candidates — it is this one-time 128-pound high school receiver.  

Not Phil Knight. 

Not Dillon Gabriel. 

Not even Dan Lanning.

They are posers, aliens from another college football planet. Gabriel has spent six years at three schools. Lanning is a product of western Missouri who made his bones in the SEC.

Growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, Johnson recalls seeing the Ducks on TV at the age of, maybe, 5. Like scores of fans, recruits and players, he was dazzled by the uniforms. 

Most 5-year-olds grow out of childhood obsessions. Johnson took a long and winding road to feed his. In preparation for the Rose Bowl, he can’t wait to tell the world about it.  

“Every day when I walk outside and wear an ‘O’ on my chest, I’m representing not just Oregon but an entire organization,” Johnson said. “When I carry that football, I’ve got the program in my hands.” 

Sounds hokey, but it’s not. In this age when everything, every day distracts from the game and steals from its innocence, Johnson has retained a part of his. 

In a good way. In an inspiring way. If not, the 22-year-old senior wouldn’t be on a podium here in a Rose Bowl interview area reciting his life story once again for those that don’t know it. 

Johnson’s father died from suicide when he was an infant. His mother, Shamika Johnson, basically gave him up as a teenager to be raised by the family of Bo Nix, the former star quarterback at Auburn and Oregon — who is also from Birmingham. 

They still call each other brothers — like real, flesh-and-blood brothers. They combined for a high school championship in Alabama. Nix played for the Tigers, then the Ducks where he became a Heisman Trophy finalist in 2023. He played for five offensive coordinators in five years. 

Johnson played three years at Troy back in Alabama. When he got to Oregon, Nix suggested his brother for Lanning. It worked out. In two seasons, Johnson has caught 164 passes for more than 2,000 yards and 20 touchdowns. 

Johnson can’t believe his fortune, his chance, his life. 

“I’ve been a Duck since I came out of the womb,” Johnson said. “I’m from Alabama, but I love Oregon. That’s who I am. I’ve turned thousands of people into Oregon fans from where I’m from.”

The campaign continues Wednesday in Pasadena, California. This postseason rematch — only the third since 2004 in a major bowl — might be the most attractive quarterfinal matchup. Oregon won the first game by a point on Oct. 12. Johnson was a big reason, catching seven passes for 75 yards including a 48-yard scoring pass from Gabriel. 

“It would have haunted us, too,” Johnson said of Ohio State. “You lose a close game like that by one point like that it’s going to haunt you a little bit.”

Not bad for 247Sports’ 396th-ranked national transfer prospect when he landed in Eugene. At 5-feet-10, 165 pounds, Johnson has become one of the best slot receivers in the country. 

“When I came to Oregon I wanted to be the best thing that ever that ever came through Oregon receiver-wise,” Johnson said. “I wanted to be one of those guys, that receiver everyone talked about 40, 50, 60 years from now. 

“I wanted to be one of those, like, ‘You ever seen Tez Johnson?’” 

He is a child seemingly experiencing every moment for the first time. Johnson wasn’t the first troubled teenager the Nixes had taken in. Before fully believing he was actually being taken in by the family, Johnson slept in his clothes for the first three nights. 

When Nix made his debut for Auburn against Oregon in 2019, Johnson was told by his new “mom,” Krista Nix, that he could come to Dallas for the game only if he cheered for the Tigers.

Johnson couldn’t root against his Ducks, so he stayed home in Birmingham. 

Nix’s much-chronicled college career ended with him throwing passes to Johnson for the Ducks in 2023.  

Playing before his biological family for the first time, Johnson became the Big Ten Championship Game MVP earlier this month with 11 catches for 181 yards in the win over Penn State. 

Who could have blamed him if those rain drops from Johnson’s mouth turned into tear drops on his cheeks?

“I think what I did for my child,” Shamika Johnson once told the Eugene Register-Guard, “is save his life.”

What appealed to 5-year-old Tez now defines him. Former Oregon coach Chip Kelly once said there were 315 different uniform combinations. That would equal six fewer games (309) than the Ducks have played this century. 

It is more than fitting that Johnson finds himself on the Ducks’ “jersey committee” that decides the uniform combo each week. That’s one reason he fell in love watching them on TV. Such a group is needed to sort out the look, the vibe, the feel of what has become a nationwide brand.

Johnson rattles off the names of the uniforms like he’s calling in an airstrike: Warp Speed, Throwback, Egg Shell, Nightmare.

This is one marketing campaign that Knight didn’t carefully craft, but Johnson fell into his lap. 

“No disrespect to women, but we feel like women going into the closet and picking out clothes and trying to get ready for the game,” the receiver said. “You don’t know what to choose from. Then you come out, ‘Let’s hit them with the Kobe cleats.’”

Those special edition Kobe VI UO PE cleats were announced earlier this month for the Rose Bowl. They have been described as “among the most coveted in the football community.”

Oregon has become the classic case of look good, feel good. Feel good, play good. 

Excuse Johnson, then, for “twitching” while trying to go to sleep the other night. His girlfriend had texted him a picture.

“I saw my face on a billboard, and I just broke down crying,” Johnson said.

Oregon has long been the program that backs up the flash with results. Kelly guided the Ducks to the 2010 national championship game. Before that, Mike Bellotti and Rich Brooks carefully crafted a moribund program into a national contender. 

Lanning has performed his own resurrection job. The only undefeated FBS team in the country (13-0) would set a school record with a 14th win by beating Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. 

As for that keystone species, even by Oregon standards, this is one of the best, fast-twitch Duck teams in history. Gabriel finished third in the Heisman voting. Evan Stewart, a transfer himself from Texas A&M, makes it a formidable 1-2 punch at receiver.

An underrated defense without a first-team All-Big Ten selection has gotten back arguably its best player from injury: defensive end Jordan Burch. 

“Oregon, over the years — forever — has been nothing but speed. We’re not going to change for anybody,” Johnson concluded. 

What follows is a stream of Johnsoness about, well, everything … 

On the first round: “As soon as they said Tennessee-Ohio State, we prepared for Ohio State. I think I watched the first quarter of the game and I turned it off. I knew who was going to win.” 

On Dillon Gabriel: “He’s, what, 5-2-something [soaking] wet? We love that guy; like, his energy comes alive every day, the smile on his face is goofy.

“He the oldest guy on the team, but everyone treats me and him like the youngest. That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. He’s a little brother and I’m little brother. I think it’s because of height. I love him to death and can’t wait to get outside on Wednesday.”

On backup quarterback Dante Moore, a UCLA transfer: “He’ll be a Heisman finalist next year. 100 percent. He’s so ready to play. You can just tell.”

Why? Johnson claims to have seen Moore “throw a 60-yard, no-look bomb.”

On the Rose Bowl: “It’s going to be the game of the century. It’s going to be a game everybody remembers.”

Those rain drops have not stopped falling.