Vols linebacker A.J. Johnson chases the ball.KNOXVILLE – The legend of Alexander James Johnson began long before he stepped on the campus of the University of Tennessee or played a single snap at linebacker in orange.
How far back you have to go, though, is up for debate.
Perhaps it all started for the player known as “A.J.” during his freshman season at Gainesville (Ga.) High School, a mere 42-mile drive from Sanford Stadium, where the chiseled 240-pound Johnson and the Volunteers face fifth-ranked Georgia on Saturday afternoon.
Gainesville coach Bruce Miller knew Johnson would play varsity as a ninth-grader, but it took four or five games before Johnson really made his mark – and what a mark.
“The score at the time was 35-35,” Miller recalled in a phone interview this week. “In the middle of the third quarter, our defensive coordinator comes to me and says, ‘Look, can I put A.J. in? We can’t stop them.’ We put A.J. in, and they didn’t score another point.