There’s No Age Limit to Being Great
Aug 28, 2024 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
The young man sat down and smiled brightly, lighting up parts of the room that didn't shine, long blonde hair trimmed to shoulder length, shoulders pressed forward atop a table draped with black cloth, looking like a guy who was eager and willing and ready to take a quarterback exam, to go watch film, to find holes on the football field that hadn't yet opened to his prodigious mastery, that king of the chessboard who moves like a king shouldn't be able to move, jumping three and four spots at a time, spinning, floating back one spot, then launching himself diagonally, the ball tight against his belly, as he moves and shakes, and does those things that the great ones do.
There's no age limit to being great.
Avery Johnson has played in seven games in his college career and has started once under center. He rushed for five touchdowns in a single game. At Texas Tech. When he was King of Lubbock. Everyone knows how he did things he wasn't supposed to be able to do at this early age. And yet he did it. Again. And again. And everyone remembers his first start. He took a bite out of NC State in the Pop-Tarts Bowl late last year in Orlando.
Consider those previews for the big screen, as the 6-foot-2, 192-pound Johnson, the pride of Maize High School, as if from warm, tightly cropped, slow-motion cinematography, takes that initial jog out of the tunnel at 5:58 p.m. Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, the echoes of cheers from 50,000 fans filling his ears before the sophomore quarterback makes his first start at a game played in Manhattan, Kansas.
"I've prepared for this moment my whole life," Johnson says. "I'm super blessed to be able to go out there and be able to play the game that I love and to be able to play at a school like Kansas State where the fans have so much support. I don't feel like there's any pressure. I just have to go out there and do what I've been doing my whole life, and that's just having fun playing a game."
Yes, he'll jog onto the field surrounded by teammates as the 18th-ranked Wildcats open the 2024 season against UT Martin, and there could be a thousand things running through the head of the 19-year-old who a year ago pondered when this day might arrive. But no. Johnson is a gamer. And age ain't a thing. He's ready to roll.
What's going to be running through Johnson's head as he takes the field for the first time as starting quarterback?
"The only thing that goes through my mind," he says, "is what it's going to take to win."
These K-State football home openers can be an interesting thing — particularly for a quarterback in his first start in the Little Apple. Michael Bishop completed 3-of-14 passes for 93 yards in his first start in Manhattan — a narrow win over Ohio in 1997. Jonathan Beasley went 9-for-22 passing for 132 yards and one touchdown and one interception in a blowout against Temple in 1999. Ell Roberson went 7-for-10 for 181 yards and one touchdown against New Mexico State in 2001. (Bishop, Beasley and Roberson each were limited on the ground.) And Collin Klein went 13-of-21 for 128 yards and one touchdown and one interception while adding 78 rushing yards on 25 carries in a last-minute win against Eastern Kentucky in 2011.
Yes, K-State football home openers proved to be an interesting thing for many of the Wildcats' all-time great quarterbacks making a first start in a game played in Manhattan. Maybe it's the crowd. Maybe it's the lights. Maybe it's simply a matter of getting in sync. Whatever, it is what it is. Which makes Saturday's home opener intriguing.
"If you know Avery, I'm not worried about how I manage things," K-State head coach Chris Klieman says. "Cut the kid loose and let him go play. The kid is really good. I'm not managing anything. I'm going to encourage him, tell him I love him, tell him how much I believe in him, and go play, go do what you do, you've been waiting on this opportunity. He'll make plays within himself.
"Man, I'm just as excited as you guys are."
The excitement floods the Vanier Family Football Complex this week. It certainly builds as senior right tackle Carver Willis discusses his quarterback and how much his quarterback means to the team, and how much the team means to his quarterback. Standing inside the team meeting room, Willis points at different areas of the theater chairs.
"Over here, this is where the defensive backs sit," Willis says. "The wide receivers sit toward the middle."
Willis points to his left.
"Over here, this is where the offensive line sits. In the front row, it's me, and over there is Hadley Panzer… And in the middle seat sits Avery Johnson."
Willis pauses.
"And Avery sits in that seat for every single team meeting and every single unit meeting. Avery cares. He cares a lot."
A star quarterback sitting between two offensive linemen? Every meeting? All the time?
That might not happen some places.
Johnson isn't some people.
"Avery is very much — there are some guys, and we all know it, and I'm not saying we have them here – but we all know the four- and five-star that shows up and doesn't work," Willis says. "Avery shows up. He is that talented, and he says, 'Now, I'm going to work on top of that.' The respect that he's earned in the locker room for things like that allows him to lead in the capacity that he does, and it allows everyone to have a trust level that's extremely high."
Johnson has formed an unbreakable trust with new co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Matt Wells. By now, Wells' story has been well-chronicled, how he was head coach at Texas Tech, and how he spent the past two seasons as offensive analyst at Oklahoma. Johnson first met Wells via FaceTime shortly after the Pop-Tarts Bowl. They instantly connected. And they remained virtually inseparable between January and March. They watched film for hours.
"I mean, every day at 3 p.m., Avery would sit in my office this offseason and ask, 'Coach, what are we going to go over today?'" Wells says. "Avery Johnson just has a hunger and a desire to be great."
This is the official beginning. We are on the ground floor of what could be one of the most phenomenal seasons by a K-State quarterback in history. It isn't pressure. It's a partnership between a quarterback and his football. It's about trust. It's about schemes and formations and reading defenses and foreseeing what isn't yet there. Yes, there will be stories written about Johnson someday. And someday soon. And they will be about the quarterback and the football and the young man doing what he's done his whole life. That time will come. And there'll be the soft, fuzzy video of him jogging out of the tunnel, of that young man in the No. 2 jersey screaming past defenders, of that young man in the No. 2 jersey leaping into the arms of Willis and other offensive linemen after a touchdown pass.
For now, it's an interesting thing about Johnson. One day, somebody labels him a Heisman Trophy contender. The next day, he's ranked at the 10th best quarterback in the Big 12 Conference.
"The only battle is me competing with myself every day," Johnson says. "I wouldn't say there's anything I have to prove to anyone because I know what I'm capable of and everybody inside this building knows what I can do whenever I have the football in my hand."
Everybody knows inside the building. And everybody else is about to find out. And it starts with this one start on Saturday. And it starts with no nerves. And it starts with loving coaches and loving teammates and loving fans. There's no telling how all of this will end this fall. That's the beauty of this game.
For now, the young man is sitting at the table, eager and willing and ready. He explains that he has waited his whole life for this moment.
"I'm just excited to get back onto the field," he says.
What happens next is up for debate. He can run, he can pass, and when need be, he's the king of improvisation with the ball in his hand. As Wells puts it: "He's uber-talented." And Saturday, he will make his first start in a game played in Manhattan. And there will be music. And there will be fireworks. And there will be Johnson putting on a show on the field. He's young, and he's ready, and there's something important – very important – to remember throughout this season.
There's no age limit to being great.
The young man sat down and smiled brightly, lighting up parts of the room that didn't shine, long blonde hair trimmed to shoulder length, shoulders pressed forward atop a table draped with black cloth, looking like a guy who was eager and willing and ready to take a quarterback exam, to go watch film, to find holes on the football field that hadn't yet opened to his prodigious mastery, that king of the chessboard who moves like a king shouldn't be able to move, jumping three and four spots at a time, spinning, floating back one spot, then launching himself diagonally, the ball tight against his belly, as he moves and shakes, and does those things that the great ones do.
There's no age limit to being great.
Avery Johnson has played in seven games in his college career and has started once under center. He rushed for five touchdowns in a single game. At Texas Tech. When he was King of Lubbock. Everyone knows how he did things he wasn't supposed to be able to do at this early age. And yet he did it. Again. And again. And everyone remembers his first start. He took a bite out of NC State in the Pop-Tarts Bowl late last year in Orlando.
Consider those previews for the big screen, as the 6-foot-2, 192-pound Johnson, the pride of Maize High School, as if from warm, tightly cropped, slow-motion cinematography, takes that initial jog out of the tunnel at 5:58 p.m. Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, the echoes of cheers from 50,000 fans filling his ears before the sophomore quarterback makes his first start at a game played in Manhattan, Kansas.
"I've prepared for this moment my whole life," Johnson says. "I'm super blessed to be able to go out there and be able to play the game that I love and to be able to play at a school like Kansas State where the fans have so much support. I don't feel like there's any pressure. I just have to go out there and do what I've been doing my whole life, and that's just having fun playing a game."
Yes, he'll jog onto the field surrounded by teammates as the 18th-ranked Wildcats open the 2024 season against UT Martin, and there could be a thousand things running through the head of the 19-year-old who a year ago pondered when this day might arrive. But no. Johnson is a gamer. And age ain't a thing. He's ready to roll.
What's going to be running through Johnson's head as he takes the field for the first time as starting quarterback?
"The only thing that goes through my mind," he says, "is what it's going to take to win."
These K-State football home openers can be an interesting thing — particularly for a quarterback in his first start in the Little Apple. Michael Bishop completed 3-of-14 passes for 93 yards in his first start in Manhattan — a narrow win over Ohio in 1997. Jonathan Beasley went 9-for-22 passing for 132 yards and one touchdown and one interception in a blowout against Temple in 1999. Ell Roberson went 7-for-10 for 181 yards and one touchdown against New Mexico State in 2001. (Bishop, Beasley and Roberson each were limited on the ground.) And Collin Klein went 13-of-21 for 128 yards and one touchdown and one interception while adding 78 rushing yards on 25 carries in a last-minute win against Eastern Kentucky in 2011.
Yes, K-State football home openers proved to be an interesting thing for many of the Wildcats' all-time great quarterbacks making a first start in a game played in Manhattan. Maybe it's the crowd. Maybe it's the lights. Maybe it's simply a matter of getting in sync. Whatever, it is what it is. Which makes Saturday's home opener intriguing.
"If you know Avery, I'm not worried about how I manage things," K-State head coach Chris Klieman says. "Cut the kid loose and let him go play. The kid is really good. I'm not managing anything. I'm going to encourage him, tell him I love him, tell him how much I believe in him, and go play, go do what you do, you've been waiting on this opportunity. He'll make plays within himself.
"Man, I'm just as excited as you guys are."
The excitement floods the Vanier Family Football Complex this week. It certainly builds as senior right tackle Carver Willis discusses his quarterback and how much his quarterback means to the team, and how much the team means to his quarterback. Standing inside the team meeting room, Willis points at different areas of the theater chairs.
"Over here, this is where the defensive backs sit," Willis says. "The wide receivers sit toward the middle."
Willis points to his left.
"Over here, this is where the offensive line sits. In the front row, it's me, and over there is Hadley Panzer… And in the middle seat sits Avery Johnson."
Willis pauses.
"And Avery sits in that seat for every single team meeting and every single unit meeting. Avery cares. He cares a lot."
A star quarterback sitting between two offensive linemen? Every meeting? All the time?
That might not happen some places.
Johnson isn't some people.
"Avery is very much — there are some guys, and we all know it, and I'm not saying we have them here – but we all know the four- and five-star that shows up and doesn't work," Willis says. "Avery shows up. He is that talented, and he says, 'Now, I'm going to work on top of that.' The respect that he's earned in the locker room for things like that allows him to lead in the capacity that he does, and it allows everyone to have a trust level that's extremely high."
Johnson has formed an unbreakable trust with new co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Matt Wells. By now, Wells' story has been well-chronicled, how he was head coach at Texas Tech, and how he spent the past two seasons as offensive analyst at Oklahoma. Johnson first met Wells via FaceTime shortly after the Pop-Tarts Bowl. They instantly connected. And they remained virtually inseparable between January and March. They watched film for hours.
"I mean, every day at 3 p.m., Avery would sit in my office this offseason and ask, 'Coach, what are we going to go over today?'" Wells says. "Avery Johnson just has a hunger and a desire to be great."
This is the official beginning. We are on the ground floor of what could be one of the most phenomenal seasons by a K-State quarterback in history. It isn't pressure. It's a partnership between a quarterback and his football. It's about trust. It's about schemes and formations and reading defenses and foreseeing what isn't yet there. Yes, there will be stories written about Johnson someday. And someday soon. And they will be about the quarterback and the football and the young man doing what he's done his whole life. That time will come. And there'll be the soft, fuzzy video of him jogging out of the tunnel, of that young man in the No. 2 jersey screaming past defenders, of that young man in the No. 2 jersey leaping into the arms of Willis and other offensive linemen after a touchdown pass.
For now, it's an interesting thing about Johnson. One day, somebody labels him a Heisman Trophy contender. The next day, he's ranked at the 10th best quarterback in the Big 12 Conference.
"The only battle is me competing with myself every day," Johnson says. "I wouldn't say there's anything I have to prove to anyone because I know what I'm capable of and everybody inside this building knows what I can do whenever I have the football in my hand."
Everybody knows inside the building. And everybody else is about to find out. And it starts with this one start on Saturday. And it starts with no nerves. And it starts with loving coaches and loving teammates and loving fans. There's no telling how all of this will end this fall. That's the beauty of this game.
For now, the young man is sitting at the table, eager and willing and ready. He explains that he has waited his whole life for this moment.
"I'm just excited to get back onto the field," he says.
What happens next is up for debate. He can run, he can pass, and when need be, he's the king of improvisation with the ball in his hand. As Wells puts it: "He's uber-talented." And Saturday, he will make his first start in a game played in Manhattan. And there will be music. And there will be fireworks. And there will be Johnson putting on a show on the field. He's young, and he's ready, and there's something important – very important – to remember throughout this season.
There's no age limit to being great.
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