A mistake is only a mistake if you fail to learn from it.
It’s no secret that this site loves Southern Cal this season. Well, not loves, but projecting 9-3 and having a preseason ranking of #12 would indicate that there is at least some ‘like’ to the equation when calculating the Trojans 2025 projection. This team is going to have some fun this season, especially through the first seven games. The eighth will end in heartbreaking fashion, but I’ve already written that and no need to spoil the story if you don’t know what happens November 1st in Lincoln.
Head Coach Lincoln Riley isn’t thinking about November 1st just yet. Rather, his focus in the early goings of fall camp seem to be on the little things, especially in the Special Teams. Riley personally oversaw the group on Tuesday as they executed directional punts and kickoffs as well as the return men soundly securing the ball and exploding the other way with their head up, ready to be explosive when the gap opens.
Junior Wide Receiver Makai Lemon looked the most comfortable, natural, and explosive with the ball in his hands, and it would be logical to think that he will at least begin the year returning the punts. But one other also stood out amongst the group of returners–Freshman Defensive Back James Johnson.
Johnson hails from Douglassville, GA and Douglass County High where he played Running Back and Defensive Back as well as returning some kicks on special teams. NC St, Penn St, Oklahoma, LSU, Miami, Texas A & M, Louisville, Colorado, Tennessee, Texas, Ohio St, and more than a dozen other schools offered him a position before he committed to Lincoln Riley and USC this past Winter.
From the high school film that I’ve just watched via 247Sports, he has exactly the skill set that Riley is looking for in the return game–he runs with his head up and when he sees the sliver of a gap open, he’s explosive. In his highlight runs, he is seen being patient and shifty through traffic, but as soon as he knows he’s free, accelerates like he just ate a Mario mushroom leaving opposition out of the camera frame.
Although he “plays with a chip on his shoulder” and touted as a “hard hitter on defense,” I do not see him making an impact in the deep Trojan secondary this season. However, Johnson could be exactly what the Trojans need to spell their star slot receiver Lemon without sacrificing much of the explosiveness. Johnson will obviously not have the experience that Lemon does, but that does not mean he will lack in moxie or confidence. At the end of the day, you need both to be an elite returner. I see Johnson as just that.
Will he make a freshman mistake? Most likely but so do seasoned seniors at times. Mistakes will happen. The ball will slip a time or two, so just be sure to have the guts, vision, and skill to make up for it on the next one. This youngster seemingly does.
I’ll use the PGA Tour as an example. Does a PGA Tour Pro make a mistake and hook the ball into the leaf and root riddled forest 50 yards left of the fairway from time to time? Absolutely. World number one, Scottie Scheffler is not immune to such situations. You know what most top 100 golfers in the world do after finding themselves with such a horrific lie and without an easy shot towards the green? They somehow, someway find a club that allows them to hit some sort of recovery shot and save par. Not me and you or Kevin Na on occasion. No, we will find ourselves hacking two to three punch shots out to the fairway, before saving double bogey if we are lucky. Except Kevin Na. He famously scored a 16 on a Par 4 at the Valero Texas Open back in 2011. I think it still goes down as the worst score on a Par 4 in PGA history, but that’s a question for the golf fans of the world.
My point is that just like the PGA Pro makes a mistake now and again and has the guts, vision, and skill to hit a recovery shot, an elite punt returner must be able to do the same. If a punt gets fumbled away on one possession, don’t hang your head. Simply have the guts, vision, and explosive skill to make up for it on the next one. Makai Lemon has this, but he will be needed on every snap for the offense so finding a suitable backup is paramount. Freshman James Johnson is that guy for me. If Coach Riley doesn’t trust him fully by the beginning of the season, he will soon after. My personal belief is that when James Johnson gets his chance to play, he will make an impact.
There are lots of teams, players, and coaches that I like this season, and Southern Cal, James Johnson, and Coach Riley certainly fall into that category. Best of luck in the freshman campaign James.
It’s early out here in the desert. The fuzzy twinkles her nose at a fly while aimlessly sprawled across the yard that has just been dampened by its daily eight-minute refreshing sprinkle. A distant yappy dog is opinionated, a car door slams, the ‘whirr’ of cars on 7th becomes more constant–suburbia awakens with the rising sun.
A relatively cool summer breeze blows up from the south. The green treetops glow golden from the sunshine bath as the lifegiving orb stretches its reach as far west as possible.
Not a bird or a squirrel, just the fuzzy and me in this back garden oasis. Two flamingoes face south, and one faces north. All three silent as the granite peaks and stationery as a sunken boulder. The three add color to this garden–two pink, one peach. Surrounded by Mulberry Trees, lush Hibiscus bushes, and a lone picturesque crepe myrtle, the breeze rattles the leaves, the mind calms, and the fuzzy sleeps.
And just now–a delivery truck obnoxiously beeps as it backs down the entirety of our narrow suburban street. Still, there is peace in our garden and peace in my heart that this is right where I am supposed to be.
Hard hitting, pad crunching tackling will take place today across most Fall Camps today. Some will be in their 60 million dollar practice facilities and others will be suffering in the ‘dog-day’ conditions. Either way, keep getting better men. The season kicks off not this Saturday, not the next, but the next!! High School football kicks off officially in eight days. On this early, early Thursday morning, I’m chomping at the bit.
Until next time,
Find the Humor and Keep on Movin’
Whit W.