Stephen Johnson didn’t need to touch the ball for the Wildcats to score their first two touchdowns this past Saturday.
The dual-threat Kentucky quarterback ran out of the huddle and lined up as a wide receiver. He didn’t even run a route when the ball was snapped. Just by lining up in the Wildcat formation, Johnson disoriented the defenders of South Carolina, allowing Kentucky’s running back to scoot up the middle for two easy touchdowns.
Johnson knows how to cause problems, and he’ll look to do it again when Florida’s defense comes to Lexington on Saturday.
“He’s a great player,” Gators linebacker David Reese said. “Last year, I got the opportunity to play against him a little bit because he was the backup.”
For the most part, Johnson was fortunate not to be a major part of Florida’s 45-7 drubbing at home of the Wildcats in 2016. The difference then was the Gators knew he was coming into the game to run the ball, and they were able to hold him to 9 yards on 7 carries in the September matchup. But now, Johnson comes into his date with the Gators having upped his completion percentage from 54.7 in 2016 to 62.7 this season.
Johnson’s reputation has at least one high-profile fan south of Lexington in Gators coach Jim McElwain.
“When you watch what he did in that South Carolina game, he took exactly what the defense gave him,” McElwain said Wednesday.
Florida’s third-year coach cited a late fourth-quarter third down when Kentucky was looking to kill the clock with a seven-point lead. Johnson didn’t see any open receivers, took off up the middle for 54 yards with a path to the end zone and had the wherewithal to slide before he got to the goal line — so the Wildcats could melt more time off the game clock.
“The thing I liked is knowing the situation where they had an opportunity to run the clock out when he went down,” McElwain said. “I mean, this guy is really playing at a high level."
Johnson has already run for two touchdowns on the year and averages 7.3 yards per carry, sixth most of all players in the SEC.
Fortunately for the Gators, they have their own dual-threat quarterback to help them prepare. McElwain said he’s been using Notre Dame transfer Malik Zaire to simulate Johnson.
"(It gives us) an opportunity to ... give them a look at that type of player,” McElwain said. “I think those things really help our defense.”
Nick Washington, a redshirt-senior and leader in the secondary, said keeping eyes on Johnson will be vital for a young defense that’s expected to start all underclassmen at linebacker and in the secondary other than Washington and potentially an injured Duke Dawson.
“We kind of know when it’s going to be kind of a quarterback run versus a pass or when he’s handing the ball off,” Washington said. “So it all plays in the eye keys and knowing when he’s going to do that, when he’s going to take off.”
Florida faced two prominent running quarterbacks at the end of 2016 in Alabama’s Jalen Hurts and Florida State’s Deondre Francois and had mixed results. The Gators gave up just one yard on the ground to Hurts in the SEC Championship game, but let Francois average seven yards per carry.
But despite the inconsistency, Florida linebacker Vosean Joseph has a sense of certainty in his unit.
“We’ve played against quarterbacks that could run before, (and) we’ve stopped quarterbacks that could run before,” Joseph said.
Kentucky quarterback Stephen Johnson carries during the first half as South Carolina's Kobe Smith defends during an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford)
