Johnson gives Chiefs balance

STEVENSON, Ala. — Deuntae Johnson passed the initial eye test. But when North Jackson football coach Shawn Peek got his first up-close look at the 6-foot, 205-pound athlete, the word his mind kept repeating was “potential.”

“Everybody talked about his potential,” Peek said. “But I told Deuntae that all potential means is that he’s wasn’t very good right then.”

Johnson is one of three transfers who came from Jackson County rival Scottsboro last spring. Another was defensive back Khaleem Jones, who leads the Chattanooga area with eight interceptions.

Johnson gained more than 100 yards in the second game of his junior season in 2009, but injuries limited him to 149 for the year at Scottsboro. His first few days of practice with North Jackson didn’t do much to alleviate Peek’s concerns that he might have a player who looked the part but wasn’t willing to put in the work necessary to realize his potential.

“When he first got here, every time we told him to do something, he had negative body language, like he didn’t want to do it,” Peek said. “He was always saying, ‘Aww, man do we have to do that?’

“He didn’t like to practice and had the attitude that he would just show up on Friday nights and play hard. After he didn’t practice hard the week of our second game, we sat him out. I told him he wouldn’t get back on the field until he started working and practicing hard. Since then, he’s come around and gets after it at practice now.”

Johnson ran for 127 yards and three touchdowns the week after sitting out, and since earning his way back onto the field he has brought balance to North Jackson’s offense. Last year the Chiefs passed for 1,800 more yards than they rushed for, but with Johnson pounding at opponents, the 2010 offense averages 208 yards passing, 203 rushing and 50 points per game.

“I didn’t think I was going to make it those first couple of weeks,” Johnson said. “I had never been around a team that worked so hard. What kept me going was I had a lot of people back in Scottsboro who had told me I wouldn’t amount to anything and that if I came to North Jackson I wouldn’t be playing much. I needed a change and I wanted to play for a winner, so that’s why I came here. I just didn’t know how much harder it would be here.

“Coach Peek told me, ‘How do you think we beat you when you were at Scottsboro? We outwork people here.’ I’ve never had a coach push me so much as the coaches here. That’s why I’ve had the season I’ve had, and really all I wanted to do was just help us win as many games as possible.”

Johnson’s 1,530 yards is just 14 from the school’s single-season rushing record, and he already owns the season scoring record with 26 touchdowns. Last Friday he ran for a career-high 228 yards to help the Chiefs rally on the road in the second half. The second-ranked Chiefs (13-0) will travel again tonight, going to sixth-ranked Deshler (11-2) in a Class 4A semifinal.

“He makes it so much easier to call plays because we can run the ball now,” Peek said. “It’s a pretty simple game, and we can all count to five on this staff. So when we see just five or six in the box, we’re going to feed the big kid the ball. We don’t have to trick people anymore. We can just line up and come right after them with him.”