Johnson proves himself at corner

Scott Johnson may not have had a chance to tune in to Internet chatter the past two months.

If he did, he’d learn that some BYU fans thought he should lose his starting cornerback job to Brandon Bradley BEFORE fall camp started. He’d learn that he wasn’t athletic or fast enough, that he hadn’t earned the position, that somehow Bradley just had to start ahead of him, for many reasons, or just because.

If he’d read all he stuff, he’d learn some fans believed they knew more than Jaime Hill, in how to pick a corner. And this would be from folks who were not watching practice or breaking down film of 11 on 11 drills.

But Johnson has had three stellar games at corner. And Saturday, just to show how smart and versatile he is, he played KAT safety, giving Jaime Hill a chance to play Bradley at corner – putting the best athletes on defense on the field.

But from Day 1, in spring and this fall, Johnson has proven he not only earned the starting spot at corner, but he is the best corner on the team. He’s smart, he’s quick, he doesn’t make very many mistakes and he is a perfect player for the type of zone defense the Cougars run.

Johnson’s tackle of UCLA’s back on an option play that caused the ball carrier to cartwheel over and lose the football, led to one of many big touchdowns on Saturday.

All those defensive plays on a struggling Bruin offense were the result of some “progression” Bronco Mendenhall was looking for in the defense that lost eight starters from a year ago.

A lot of folks bagged on the defense in the Northern Iowa and Washington games. They were a little wide-eyed, got out of position and sometimes tripped over one another.

Johnson said it wasn’t a matter of ability, skills or talent, it was a situation of defensive players making mistakes in assignments – something correctable.

So, the big question on Monday is, did the defense make corrections and improve.

Johnson believes it did.

“It was a lot more position sound. There weren’t as many mistakes, there were not as many people running free from missed assignment and I give credit to coach Hill and all the defensive coaches for figuring out what we were doing wrong and correcting that,” said Johnson.

Against Washington, sometimes BYU’s defense got misaligned at times, said Johnson. “People were supposed to be somewhere else, it was just mistakes.”

As for playing a little nickel back against UCLA, Johnson called the experience awesome. “It was fun knowing what the corner was thinking and then knowing what the safety was thinking and manipulate the defense to help them out.”

And for Brandon Bradley to get in the game at corner? “I love that. I love those guys playing behind me, I love Brandon Bradley and it was great to see him get in the game and play. He played a great game and it helped us get together as a secondary.”

Johnson said football is a game of momentum and the turnovers the defense forced on UCLA made a huge impact in the outcome. “Once we got that rolling, you could just feeling changing out there and it was downhill from there and a matter of maintaining it.”

Johnson said the UCLA game was “fun, very fun.” He had to give the game ball to the offense. “It was a matter of everyone doing their part and when everyone does that, we can be pretty good.”