Allowing Himself to Play Free
Sep 30, 2024 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Chapter One of the book "It Takes What It Takes" is titled, "It Takes Neutral Thinking." The 272-page book is authored by Trevor Moawad. He is credited as "the world's best brain trainer." In the realm of pro football, he is known by some as the mental health coach for NFL quarterback Russell Wilson. Wilson once threw four interceptions against the Green Bay Packers in the 2015 NFC Championship Game. Yet he kept the faith. He kept his composure. He showed little emotion. He rallied the Seattle Seahawks to a 28-22 victory and a spot in the Super Bowl.
"I'm usually pretty calm, but going through that game, and going through the ups and downs of it — a lot of downs," Russell told Sports Illustrated. "More so than normal. But just staying the course, and continuing to believe in the guys I have around me, and continuing to believe in the playcalling. … Having four turnovers by me, that's tough. But at the same time, I never doubted our guys."
Which brings us to a beautiful Saturday fall afternoon at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. No. 20 Oklahoma State held a 10-7 lead and carried momentum when sophomore quarterback Avery Johnson on first-and-10 at the K-State 25-yard line tossed a short pass that fifth-year senior cornerback Korie Black intercepted at the 33-yard line. The Cowboys ultimately kicked a 31-yard field goal to make it 13-7.
Johnson, who had a tough, two-interception performance in a 38-7 loss at BYU in the Big 12 Conference opener, could've become spooked again.
Instead, the 6-foot-2, 192-pound native of Wichita, who scored on an 11-yard run earlier in the contest, went onto account for four more touchdowns in the best game of his 13-game college career.
Johnson continued to work. He maintained his faith ("Powered by Jesus" were the words on the purple T-shirt he wore to postgame interviews), and he continued to believe in his team in the face of adversity.
Most importantly, he continued to believe in himself.
Seven minutes after tossing the interception against the Cowboys, Johnson found sophomore wide receiver Jayce Brown, his roommate, darting downfield with no defender within 17 yards. Johnson threw a perfect strike, and Brown caught the ball in stride and walked into the end zone for a 55-yard score, the longest pass play of the season.
Johnson and No. 23 K-State, 4-1 overall and 1-1 in the Big 12, never looked back.
Afterward, Johnson gave credit to Trumain Carroll, or "Coach Tru," who is the Director of Strength and Conditioning for Football at K-State. A 19-year veteran of the strength and conditioning field, Carroll also is an ardent motivator and developer of team leadership.
Earlier in the week, Carroll presented Johnson with a gift. It was a book titled, "It Takes What It Takes." And, in a way, it changed the game for Johnson before he even led No. 23 K-State to a 42-20 victory at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
"(Carroll) picked out a few pages for me to read in that book, and the pages talked about when Russell Wilson threw four picks in the playoffs and how his back-against-the-wall mindset never changed, and he was up leading his guys, head up, all the confidence in the world in himself, and he just went out there and played free and they ended up winning the game. That just gave me a lot of confidence.
"Things aren't always going to go my way, and the biggest thing, especially for a young quarterback, is how are you going to respond when adversity hits. I did a poor job last week of responding in adverse times. A big focus this week was not letting any pressure get to me this week and just go out there and play free and play my game."
And he did.
Johnson had career highs across the board — 19-of-31 passing for 259 yards with three touchdowns and one interception to go along with five carries for 60 yards and two scores. He threw touchdown passes to tight end Garrett Oakley (19 yards), Brown (55 yards), and tight end Will Anciaux (2 yards) on a jump pass in the end zone. In all, Johnson completed passes to a season-high eight pass catchers. That includes wide receiver Jadon Jackson, who had a career-high five catches for 55 yards.
After throwing the interception, Johnson led the Wildcats on five touchdown drives over the next eight possessions.
Suddenly, the BYU game seemed like an aberration.
"Certainly, there are going to be some season challenges that go from game to game and week to week from different structures," associate head coach and quarterbacks coach Matt Wells said prior to the season. "There's going to be a soreness factor. There's going to just the grind of the season that he's going to go through as a starter for the first time. I'm proud of him. I'm excited for him. He'll have a really good year."
K-State head coach Chris Klieman knew this time was coming.
"On Thursday, Wells and I talked about this, he may have been 32-of-35 on Thursday," Klieman said. "I grabbed him on Friday morning and said, 'That's as on-point as I've seen you in a practice.' It was really good throws in tight windows. I see a guy who's gaining a lot of confidence, so we were going to be more aggressive, especially on some early downs.
"I thought he delivered today."
Johnson has completed 61.1% (77-of-128) passes for 879 yards with nine touchdowns and four interceptions through five games. He also has 44 carries for 321 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
Johnson and Arkansas' Taylen Green are the only Power 4 quarterbacks with 800 passing yards and 300 rushing yards this season.
"Avery is Avery," senior left guard Hadley Panzer said. "He does some pretty exceptional stuff in practice, and we get to see that on game days as well. He may have been in a slump last week, but we really see what he can do and what we can do as a team."
Here's a great thing about Johnson. And there are a lot of great things about Johnson. But Johnson just continues to develop each week. It's pretty remarkable to witness. He doesn't play like a quarterback with just six starts under his belt. He doesn't talk like a 19-year-old, either.
"I've been my biggest critic, and I'll always be my biggest critic," he said. "I think it was getting to the point where it was holding me down a little bit and I was being a little bit too hard on myself. Our coaches say it all the time, that I can't put the weight of the world on my shoulders and have to let everybody else on the field and in the facility help me out, and not try to do too much when I have the ball in my hand.
"A lot of the people in the facility and a lot of my teammates put a lot of confidence into my brain this week, and it allowed me to go out there and play free."
Chapter Two of "It Takes What It Takes" is titled, "It Takes a Plan."
After tackling the power of neutral thinking, there could be some more preferred reading in Johnson's near future.
Armed with on-point throws, speed and elusiveness, it appears that plans are coming together for one of the biggest threats in the Big 12.
It becomes intriguing to see what the prodigy has cooking next.
Chapter One of the book "It Takes What It Takes" is titled, "It Takes Neutral Thinking." The 272-page book is authored by Trevor Moawad. He is credited as "the world's best brain trainer." In the realm of pro football, he is known by some as the mental health coach for NFL quarterback Russell Wilson. Wilson once threw four interceptions against the Green Bay Packers in the 2015 NFC Championship Game. Yet he kept the faith. He kept his composure. He showed little emotion. He rallied the Seattle Seahawks to a 28-22 victory and a spot in the Super Bowl.
"I'm usually pretty calm, but going through that game, and going through the ups and downs of it — a lot of downs," Russell told Sports Illustrated. "More so than normal. But just staying the course, and continuing to believe in the guys I have around me, and continuing to believe in the playcalling. … Having four turnovers by me, that's tough. But at the same time, I never doubted our guys."
Which brings us to a beautiful Saturday fall afternoon at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. No. 20 Oklahoma State held a 10-7 lead and carried momentum when sophomore quarterback Avery Johnson on first-and-10 at the K-State 25-yard line tossed a short pass that fifth-year senior cornerback Korie Black intercepted at the 33-yard line. The Cowboys ultimately kicked a 31-yard field goal to make it 13-7.
Johnson, who had a tough, two-interception performance in a 38-7 loss at BYU in the Big 12 Conference opener, could've become spooked again.
Instead, the 6-foot-2, 192-pound native of Wichita, who scored on an 11-yard run earlier in the contest, went onto account for four more touchdowns in the best game of his 13-game college career.
Johnson continued to work. He maintained his faith ("Powered by Jesus" were the words on the purple T-shirt he wore to postgame interviews), and he continued to believe in his team in the face of adversity.
Most importantly, he continued to believe in himself.
Seven minutes after tossing the interception against the Cowboys, Johnson found sophomore wide receiver Jayce Brown, his roommate, darting downfield with no defender within 17 yards. Johnson threw a perfect strike, and Brown caught the ball in stride and walked into the end zone for a 55-yard score, the longest pass play of the season.
Johnson and No. 23 K-State, 4-1 overall and 1-1 in the Big 12, never looked back.
Afterward, Johnson gave credit to Trumain Carroll, or "Coach Tru," who is the Director of Strength and Conditioning for Football at K-State. A 19-year veteran of the strength and conditioning field, Carroll also is an ardent motivator and developer of team leadership.
Earlier in the week, Carroll presented Johnson with a gift. It was a book titled, "It Takes What It Takes." And, in a way, it changed the game for Johnson before he even led No. 23 K-State to a 42-20 victory at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
"(Carroll) picked out a few pages for me to read in that book, and the pages talked about when Russell Wilson threw four picks in the playoffs and how his back-against-the-wall mindset never changed, and he was up leading his guys, head up, all the confidence in the world in himself, and he just went out there and played free and they ended up winning the game. That just gave me a lot of confidence.
"Things aren't always going to go my way, and the biggest thing, especially for a young quarterback, is how are you going to respond when adversity hits. I did a poor job last week of responding in adverse times. A big focus this week was not letting any pressure get to me this week and just go out there and play free and play my game."
And he did.
Johnson had career highs across the board — 19-of-31 passing for 259 yards with three touchdowns and one interception to go along with five carries for 60 yards and two scores. He threw touchdown passes to tight end Garrett Oakley (19 yards), Brown (55 yards), and tight end Will Anciaux (2 yards) on a jump pass in the end zone. In all, Johnson completed passes to a season-high eight pass catchers. That includes wide receiver Jadon Jackson, who had a career-high five catches for 55 yards.
After throwing the interception, Johnson led the Wildcats on five touchdown drives over the next eight possessions.
Suddenly, the BYU game seemed like an aberration.
"Certainly, there are going to be some season challenges that go from game to game and week to week from different structures," associate head coach and quarterbacks coach Matt Wells said prior to the season. "There's going to be a soreness factor. There's going to just the grind of the season that he's going to go through as a starter for the first time. I'm proud of him. I'm excited for him. He'll have a really good year."
K-State head coach Chris Klieman knew this time was coming.
"On Thursday, Wells and I talked about this, he may have been 32-of-35 on Thursday," Klieman said. "I grabbed him on Friday morning and said, 'That's as on-point as I've seen you in a practice.' It was really good throws in tight windows. I see a guy who's gaining a lot of confidence, so we were going to be more aggressive, especially on some early downs.
"I thought he delivered today."
Johnson has completed 61.1% (77-of-128) passes for 879 yards with nine touchdowns and four interceptions through five games. He also has 44 carries for 321 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
Johnson and Arkansas' Taylen Green are the only Power 4 quarterbacks with 800 passing yards and 300 rushing yards this season.
"Avery is Avery," senior left guard Hadley Panzer said. "He does some pretty exceptional stuff in practice, and we get to see that on game days as well. He may have been in a slump last week, but we really see what he can do and what we can do as a team."
Here's a great thing about Johnson. And there are a lot of great things about Johnson. But Johnson just continues to develop each week. It's pretty remarkable to witness. He doesn't play like a quarterback with just six starts under his belt. He doesn't talk like a 19-year-old, either.
"I've been my biggest critic, and I'll always be my biggest critic," he said. "I think it was getting to the point where it was holding me down a little bit and I was being a little bit too hard on myself. Our coaches say it all the time, that I can't put the weight of the world on my shoulders and have to let everybody else on the field and in the facility help me out, and not try to do too much when I have the ball in my hand.
"A lot of the people in the facility and a lot of my teammates put a lot of confidence into my brain this week, and it allowed me to go out there and play free."
Chapter Two of "It Takes What It Takes" is titled, "It Takes a Plan."
After tackling the power of neutral thinking, there could be some more preferred reading in Johnson's near future.
Armed with on-point throws, speed and elusiveness, it appears that plans are coming together for one of the biggest threats in the Big 12.
It becomes intriguing to see what the prodigy has cooking next.
Players Mentioned
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