Staff Photo by Staff Photo by Dan Henry / Chattanooga Times Free Press – UT’s Jacques Smith (55) and Austin johnson (40) scramble to gain possession of a loose ball during the first half of play in Knoxville, Tenn., early Saturday afternoon.KNOXVILLE — What happened was a surprise to everyone in the University of Tennessee football program.
Austin Johnson, the Volunteers’ senior linebacker with the excellent academic record and a reputation among his teammates as a leader, made negative headlines last weekend when he was arrested for public intoxication and disorderly conduct.
Johnson’s run-in with the law won’t lead to any missed practice time or a game suspension, however.
“I think we were all shocked and disappointed when we saw it,” UT coach Derek Dooley said Monday at a news conference preceding the start of the Vols’ preseason camp today. “He’s never really given any indication that he would do something like that, and he probably had one of the best summers from a commitment standpoint and from a leadership standpoint.
“We’re handling that issue internally. There’s several things that we’re going to do with Austin, and I’m comfortable with where we are on that. But he’ll be out there the first day and he’s eligible to play. We hope that we don’t have any more headlines like that again.”