JOHNSON ON THE VERGE
U.Va. tailback has speed, now he's looking for game time
By Dave Johnson
Daily Press
Published April 10, 2003
CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Michael Johnson was 5 years old when Walter Payton retired,
so he never saw the man they called "Sweetness" in his prime. Payton was the
complete package, a rare combination of speed, power and instincts. Johnson, a
190-pound sophomore, has only the speed at this stage of his career.
So one of his assignments this spring has been to watch video of Payton and some
of the game's greatest runners. His fellow tailbacks at Virginia are doing the
same, just as a promising guitarist would be wise to study Eric Clapton or
Stevie Ray Vaughan.
"We're looking to add sophistication as a runner to his game," Cavalier coach Al
Groh said. "He's so fast that, for a long time, he's just been able to take the
ball and run faster than everybody and get to the goal line. There are a few
more things involved as you move up. We've taken the opportunity to show them
some of these backs on tape, not to pattern themselves after but to see as a
model."
Speed got Johnson this far. In three seasons at Heritage High, he rushed for
4,394 yards and scored 99 touchdowns, usually by simply outrunning the defense.
In the spring of his senior year, he won the Group AAA meet in the 100 meters
with a time of 10.59 seconds. He might not be the fastest player Virginia has
recruited, but he'd have to be one of the fastest.
Right away, he showed it. His first carry at Virginia went for 8 yards. His
fourth touch was a 38-yard punt return. But in the third game of his freshman
season, Johnson sprained his left ankle, the same ankle that had bothered him
for much his career at Heritage. He sat the next four games and after returning
got 13 carries the remainder of the season.
"Frustrated? Yeah, because it was my first time taking a serious injury like
that," Johnson said. "I had ankle injuries and stuff like that before, but it
was nothing serious. It was disappointing because I was so used to playing, and
I was playing a lot in the early part of the season until I got hurt.
"As the season progressed, I would have learned more because I would have seen
different games, seen more defenses. I was thrown off course a little bit, but I
didn't take it to heart. Injuries do happen, so I just tried to learn my plays
so if I did have to go in, I'd know what to do."
He got a couple chances in the final weeks. He scored his first touchdown in a
blowout of Maryland on Nov. 23 and set up a score with a 16-yard run against
West Virginia in the Continental Tire Bowl. But it wasn't the freshman year
Johnson was expecting.
"He just had to grow up and take the fact he was hurt," said Cavaliers
linebacker Darryl Blackstock, a teammate of Johnson's at Heritage. "When you're
in high school, you get hurt, you still play. You don't care. You can still beat
out the man next to you and beat out your opponent. But they were looking to the
future with him."
Is Johnson's future now? Blackstock thinks so.
"You see what he did out there today?" he said after practice last week. "Juke
inside, go outside, juke inside and take off outside like he never made a move.
I was like, he's still got it."
The Cavaliers want to see more of it, which is one reason for the videos. (His
one-word review of Payton: "Dang!"). Johnson also is trying to gain weight and
strength, devouring peanut butter and jelly sandwiches almost daily. He hopes to
play this season at 192 pounds and eventually hit 200, which was Payton's
playing weight during his heyday.
Virginia is so deep at tailback that Tony Franklin, a PrepStar All-American, is
working this spring at cornerback. Sophomore Wali Lundy, the only tailback to
play every game from scrimmage last season, returns. So do juniors Alvin Pearman,
who is recovering from knee surgery, and Marquis Weeks, who is splitting time at
fullback.
They're all ahead of him, Johnson knows. In some ways, he's starting over again.
"Right now, I'm looking to work hard because this is my first spring practice,"
he said. "This is my first time ever playing this time of the year. Usually I'm
in track right now. I'm just trying to get my body ready so I will be ready to
go this season. Hopefully I'll learn some more and get more crisp at what I need
to do."
(Not so) great escape by Dean
By AL FEATHERSTON : The Herald-Sun
afeatherston@heraldsun.com
Apr 9, 2003 : 11:51 pm ET
CHAPEL HILL -- Dean Smith led the media on a merry chase around the building
named after him Wednesday night. But the episode ended in embarrassment for the
former North Carolina basketball coach.
Approximately a dozen reporters and two television crews were camped out in the
parking lot of the Smith Center, hoping to catch either Smith or athletics
director Dick Baddour for a comment about the UNC coaching search.
Baddour was in his office, but his No. 1 parking space was vacant. So reporters
kept an eye on Smith’s green BMW.
A few minutes after 5 p.m., security guard Ronnie Sykes came out and started
Smith’s car. About half the crew of reporters followed Sykes as he drove Smith’s
car up a sidewalk and around to the far side of the Smith Center. After leaving
the car parked there for about 10 minutes, Sykes returned to the car and drove
it to another spot just outside the will-call windows at the Koury Natatorium,
which is located next to the Smith Center.
The razzle-dazzle didn’t shake the media horde. More than half a dozen reporters
were waiting when Smith finally emerged and walked towards his car.
The legendary coach — now in his sixth year of retirement — spoke briefly with
the waiting reporters. He joked about forming a new staff with former coach Bill
Guthridge as the head man.
"Bill is the new head coach," he joked. "Michael [Jordan] and I and Phil Ford
are going to come back and be assistants. I’m the third assistant."
Smith didn’t want to talk about the coaching search.
"Dick [Baddour] is the only guy who can say anything," he said.
But he did talk about his contacts with Kansas coach Roy Williams, starting
Monday night in New Orleans after Kansas’ national championship game loss to
Syracuse.
"We did have a good visit," he said. "Monday night, we commiserated about the
game. We had a lot of fun, despite the loss. At 3 o’clock, I left his suite. And
he called me [Tuesday] night when I got in."
But Smith refused to discuss Williams’ thinking.
"I can’t really talk ’cause I’ll say something and the next thing I know, it’ll
be in the Kansas City paper," he said.
Smith was asked about the firing earlier that day of Kansas athletics director
Al Bohl.
"That has nothing to do with Roy ... nothing whatsoever to do with Roy," he
said.
The reporters finally let Smith leave, but he wasn’t gone long. Within five
minutes, he pulled back in the parking lot, sliding into Baddour’s parking
space. He smiled at the astonished reporters as he climbed out of his car.
"You guys shook me up so much I forgot my briefcase," he said sheepishly.
Unfortunately, his keys to the Smith Center were in the briefcase and Smith
couldn’t get in the building that is named for him until a reporter called the
UNC sports information office and got them to send someone out to open the
locked door and let him in.
LAWRENCE, Kan. - Al Bohl was fired Wednesday as Kansas athletic director after less than two years on the job, then he fired away at who he believed was the source of his demise.
Kansas basketball coach Roy Williams.
"A source close to the athletic department believes that I am one of the misfortunate people in America who personally have endured the results of Roy Williams' hatred and vindictiveness," Bohl said.
Bohl stood in the driveway of his Lawrence home and spoke after Kansas chancellor Robert Hemenway met with reporters and introduced interim athletic director Drue Jennings.
"I understand the realities of the athletics pyramid of popularity," Bohl said. "I believe the Kansas basketball coach had the power to hold his athletics director in his hand like a dove: He had the choice to either crush me with his power of influence, or to let me fly with my visions for a better total program.
"He chose to crush me."
Hemenway offered a different interpretation, denying that Williams had delivered an "Al or me" ultimatum. Williams is being heavily courted by North Carolina - official permission for the Tar Heels to contact Williams came at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday - and his decision is expected today.
Williams also met with former North Carolina coach Dean Smith and former Kansas coach and Philadelphia 76ers coach Larry Brown in his hotel room after the loss Tuesday night to Syracuse.
"This was not a Roy vs. Al decision," Hemenway said. "Roy Williams has never once said to me that Al Bohl should be fired. He's never once said to me that if Al Bohl doesn't go, I will."
Bohl didn't agree.
"My family and I have witnessed malicious, unfounded attacks on my character and on my model of running a business," Bohl said. "We don't have to beat around the bush anymore."
Williams' only comment Wednesday came through an athletic department release.
"We had difficulties, and we were not as cohesive as the athletic department needs to be," Williams said. "This made the atmosphere somewhat difficult."
Williams then was made aware of Bohl's comments at his home but declined to respond through an athletic department official.
While stressing that Williams didn't have input on the Bohl decision, Hemenway didn't downplay the coach's importance to the university. That point was driven home to the chancellor three years ago when 16,000 fans showed up at Memorial Stadium to hear that Williams had turned down the North Carolina job, and when thousands gathered at Allen Fieldhouse on Tuesday when the team returned from the Final Four in New Orleans.
"We have a model of success for KU athletic teams in our basketball program," Hemenway said. "The reception in the fieldhouse (Tuesday) made it clear how fans feel about Williams. We'll do whatever we can to have him remain KU's basketball coach."
Although Hemenway asked for Bohl's resignation Wednesday morning, the decision to fire Bohl came perhaps even two months ago, according to an athletic department source. Hemenway confirmed that once the basketball postseason started in early March, no move would be made until after the season to avoid distraction.
Without citing specific incidents, Hemenway said Bohl was out because of an ineffective leadership style and lack of support across the Kansas athletic landscape.
"There are many, many reasons for this decision, (but) it's fair to say that if you're going to be a successful A.D., you have to have a constituency of alumni and donors who are supportive of you," Hemenway said.
That hasn't been the case. While the Jayhawks were at the Final Four, Bohl was booed at a pep rally. He's been criticized for his rah-rah management style. He had associate A.D. Richard Konzem inform football coach Terry Allen and baseball coach Bobby Randall of their dismissals. Current football coach Mark Mangino, whom Bohl hired, has said his boss didn't deliver on some promises to upgrade the program.
Bohl challenged the idea that Mangino was dissatisfied with his performance and encouraged reporters to seek out the football coach. But Mangino's only comment came through a statement, saying he was sorry Bohl was no longer in the athletic department and wishing his family well.
Bohl's relationship with Williams is so strained that the coach found ways not to shake hands with him after games.
Bohl drew Williams' ire only months after the athletic director started. Bohl fired football coach Terry Allen with four games left in the 2001 season.
Allen not only was Williams' friend, but Williams also had only weeks earlier served on an ethics and sportsmanship committee sponsored by the NCAA and National Association of Basketball Coaches that publicly denounced firing coaches before the end of a season.
"It's true that there were conflicts between the coach and athletic director, and it was certainly true during the Terry Allen situation," Hemenway said.
Bohl had three years remaining on his contract, but he'll be paid only for the next 14 months, according to a university spokesman.
Hemenway said Kansas would not use an outside firm to find a replacement. Bohl was hired after the search firm of Heidrick & Struggles produced four final candidates who were interviewed by the university's search committee.
"I want to be able to devote more of my time personally to the search for a new A.D.," Hemenway said. "I plan on being more involved than I was last time.
"This is a really important job, with the hopes and dreams of literally hundreds of thousands focused on KU and the athletic program. I was on ESPN in New Orleans. It wasn't because I'm handsome or have blow-dried hair."
Hemenway said that the possible infractions that are being investigated at Fresno State while Bohl was the athletic director there - serious enough that the school withdrew from NCAA Tournament consideration this year - did not play a role in this decision.
"I looked into it, but this decision was made on the basis of KU," Hemenway said.