Former A&M QB Jerrod Johnson shares thoughts on Aggie football
Key quotes from Jerrod Johnson interview
“I have been all over the place just living this crazy life. I have been to Baltimore and then was signed with the Cowboys for a couple of days. If I am back in Houston, I am helping coach at St. Thomas and I am training a couple of my quarterbacks in season right now. Things can just change so quickly week to week, so we will just see what happens. I am just trying to stay close to the game and learn more about football.”
“I am excited for our defense. We have had some great offense over the years and what not, but I love our safety play. As a quarterback and somebody who loves offensive football, when you have three safeties who can do what they do, and they are coming downhill with bad intentions, you have something special. I am just excited to see the defense play the way that it has. That is what I am excited about.”
“I think that A&M football has improved in strides, leaps and bounds from when I was playing. I think the depth in our front seven is awesome. We always had players when I was there but the difference is the depth. In order to survive the war in the trenches in the SEC, you have to be seven or eight deep on the offensive line and six or seven deep on the defensive line. The games are so physical that you have to depend on a bunch of different guys. Size, strength and athleticism are things that you need to have in order to compete in the SEC. That is the biggest difference, the size and athleticism as a total from the guys in those groups. We had peaks and valleys when I was playing and we had a lot of good players but we weren’t as deep to compete with the SEC defensive lines that were rotating six or seven guys every three plays. That is the biggest thing that I have seen is the ability to recruit to where your seventh guy doesn’t have to be an all star but he still needs some size, strength and physicality so he can spell the starters for a couple of plays.”
“I like how A&M is spreading the ball around. A bunch of guys are getting touches and the key to the success is how many times can you get it to your guys in space and make the defensive backs tackle our receivers and try to get our running backs to the second level. Coach Mazzone has done a great job spreading the ball around and getting Christian Kirk the ball and putting guys in situations to be successful. I really have been impressed with Trevor Knight, too. In this offense something that is really taken for granted is the accuracy of the throws on bubble screens or the RPOs. He is reading the defensive end; if he keeps it there is a passing route right behind it. Those plays only go as far as the quarterback’s ability to put the ball in the right spot to catch and run. He has done a great job being accurate in all of those throws turning a three-yard throw into a 30-yard gain. I have been impressed with how diverse it has been spreading the ball around. I really have been impressed with Trevor Knight’s accuracy in the RPOs.”
“I think the cohesion in the offense will only get better. I think you can see the strides from week one to the weeks that followed. I think what it is going to come down to is the running game, because schematically they do a lot of good stuff in the run game and the run pass option stuff. If Trevor can complete passes on 3rd and nine the offense will excel. If we lose a couple of yards on first down, how consistently can Knight drop back in conventional passing concepts and sit in there and read the coverage and deliver the ball downfield. The only way to get better at that is reps and he has gotten better. His pocket mobility is huge but his ability to stay in the pocket and make the right reads and deliver the ball is huge. I have seen improvements from week one and on and I am optimistic for what the future holds for him.”
“I remember Dave Kennedy saying when Von first got to A&M that from the jump he was the most impressive guy on the team when it comes to athleticism and strength and conditioning. You get spoiled seeing a guy like that everyday. Honestly I didn’t realize until I was bouncing around the NFL, that I have yet to see another guy like Von Miller. You would think that every team has a guy like that and that every team has a defensive player that is pretty good. I think it was a play in a scrimmage my senior year when we had a screen pass and the running back got around Von and he retreated and jumped up and he picked it off and almost took it back for a pick six. That was when I was realized he was pretty good. Since I have bounced around different NFL teams, I have never seen a person do the things that he does and I have a whole other appreciation for being around him every day to going to the NFL and seeing guys from all over the country and knowing that there isn’t anyone else like Von Miller. He deserves everything that he has. We have the same agent and he has really put a lot more into studying coverages and his body and for now he has figured out the schematics of the game instead of just going for the quarterback. He is a problem for the rest of the NFL and now you don’t see too many guys come out like Von Miller and that is special.”
“My brother Marquis played football at Prairie View and got his masters as a graduate assistant at Eastern Michigan and now he is an Assistant Strength Coach at the University of Tennessee. So, my whole family will be coming up this time and they will be wearing orange, but I wont do that. To see him coaching against A&M will be good. I want the Vols to be big, fast and strong but I am still pulling for my Aggies.”
“I think the team will be excited to get into AT&T Stadium. That place is special in it’s own right and I got the chance to be there for the one game that I was there in the preseason and it is just different. It is a good place to play and I think that they respect Arkansas. I think the one thing they have to do is come with their minds right and expect the game to go down to the wire and be a physical game. If they can anticipate those things A&M will be just fine. Arkansas’ style of play is so physical that you have to buy into the fact that you know you are going to be sore after the game. They have to pull out a win any way that they can.”