Remember the 439 yards of total offense accumulated by UNLV walk-on quarterback Omar Clayton, a true freshman, against Colorado State last week? Now imagine Clayton as the finished product.
That would be Utah fourth-year junior Brian Johnson, one of the few players in the Mountain West Conference living up to preseason hype. Johnson spent a year in “finishing school” last season as a quasi-coach while taking a redshirt year to rehab from December 2005 knee surgery.
Johnson leads the Utes into Hughes Stadium on Saturday. He is CSU’s worst nightmare in terms of a dual-threat quarterback who can escape the pocket. Unlike Clayton, who won the starting job this week at UNLV off his performance against the Rams, who still won the game 48-23 with the help of five turnovers, Johnson doesn’t make many mistakes.
He leads the MWC in pass efficiency, just as he did as a sophomore before the injury. With an early shoulder injury limiting him to only four full games, Johnson is completing 68.8 percent of his passes and has six touchdowns and four interceptions.
“Clayton did some nice things to exploit the defense,” Johnson said. “A couple of missed tackles turned 6- or 7-yard gains into 40-yard gains. He’s a special talent, but they turned the ball over. If you don’t turn the ball over, it’s different.”
Johnson can serve as an inspiration for CSU running back Kyle Bell. Johnson could have played, and wanted to play, last season. Utah had enough – or thought it had enough – depth at quarterback to allow Johnson a redshirt year. Bell is playing and getting better each week, but in spite of his protests, he’s not back to pre-injury explosiveness.
“My knee is definitely a lot better than it was at this time last year,” Johnson said. “It’s completely a non- factor. I’m just out there trying to make plays.”
He said the biggest leap in his comeback was when he took the knee brace off in spring ball. Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said, “It was obvious in winter conditioning he was back 100 percent with no limitations.”
Whittingham also cites last year, which he said “allowed Brian to see the game from the coach’s eye. He’s bigger and stronger and more polished. He does a good job managing the offense.”
Johnson is not running as much this season because of a shoulder injury in the opener, not the knee.
The Utes were 1-3, including a 27-0 loss to UNLV, with Johnson sidelined. They have won four in a row, the longest streak in Whittingham’s three seasons.
TV time. The Mtn. will broadcast a replay of the Utah-CSU game at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in place of the postponed BYU-San Diego State game.
Natalie Meisler: 303-954-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com
