‘Stevie got loose’ and loved it, but UK was bigger than a catch. ‘It was like hope.’
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We Meet Again
The Lexington Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com are publishing a series of stories catching up with former University of Kentucky athletes. Click here to read all of the installments published previously.
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Editor’s Note: This article is part of a series in which the Herald-Leader is catching up with former University of Kentucky athletes.
Where were you when “Stevie got loose?”
Don’t know what I’m talking about? Type the phrase into Google and you’ll quickly see it: former University of Kentucky wide receiver Stevie Johnson gets behind the Louisville defense and scores the go-ahead touchdown with less than 30 seconds left in what would finish as a 40-34 upset victory in 2007 over the No. 9-ranked Cardinals, whom a year earlier drubbed them in Louisville.
He gets loose, every time. The play was a 57-yard pass to Johnson from Andre Woodson. Johnson hauled it in at about the 25-yard mark and sped down the rest of the field mostly unabated. It was, of all the clutch plays he made in a UK uniform, the one that Johnson most fondly reflects upon.
“Seeing them lose to Louisville so many times and knowing that that’s the in-state rival, I’m like, ‘We can’t be under this team in the state.’ So when we won like that, I felt like our city just grew. We took over. It was a shift, a complete shift,” Johnson told the Herald-Leader in a recent phone interview,
“I credit all of us for that. That whole class coming in and believing. Because, you know, the year before they beat us like 50-something to I don’t know that the score was. They blew us out at their place (59-28). We came back and held down our home base and we haven’t looked back since. That’s the top one for me.”
Johnson transferred to UK from Chabot College in California ahead of the 2006 season, but he was a bit player that first year: he grabbed nine receptions for 92 yards and a touchdown in the regular season before racking up 67 yards on three catches in the Cats’ Music City Bowl win over Clemson.
His star exploded in 2007: Johnson finished that campaign with 1,052 yards and 13 TDs on 61 receptions, making him one of only five UK receivers to ever put together a 1,000-yard season. Not too shabby for someone who, growing up, fancied himself more akin to Tayshaun Prince than Craig Yeast — he credits his much-ballyhooed footwork (former NFL star Chad Johnson has described it as better than his own) to time he spent on the basketball court.
“He’s from California, playing point guard at like 6-8. I wanted to be 6-8 but didn’t grow that much,” Johnson, who maxed out at 6-foot-2, said of Prince. “He’d come down with that left-hand floater and you’d see that Kentucky blue, it just looked so clean. I just wanted to be a part of that. I didn’t care about no school in California or anywhere.”
Ron Caragher, then UK’s running backs coach, recruited Johnson out of junior college. At that time he didn’t know much about Kentucky aside from its basketball team, but he did some research and learned enough to know he was ready to head to Lexington as soon as his first conversation with Caragher was over.
Don’t think catchy slogans are worth anything? Johnson referenced “See Blue,” a longtime fixture of UK’s marketing mix, while describing why Kentucky — from which, 12 years after getting drafted, he’ll graduate in December — was an ideal fit.
“You’ve been around Kentucky, so you know the complete history and the ups and the downs,” Johnson said. “I was in California. I don’t know the history, per se, I just know I gotta get out of this area. I’m not looking at the college level, I’m just looking at the hood, the community that I’m in. Being able to go away, to ‘see blue,’ … it was like hope. It was new energy. It was like water, limitless energy. That’s how I felt when Coach Caragher came in with that blue on, and came specifically for me.
“Kentucky’s really that special for me.”
After Kentucky
The Buffalo Bills picked Johnson in the seventh round of the 2008 NFL Draft, and he went on to play eight seasons in the league (six with the Bills, one with the San Francisco 49ers and one with the San Diego Chargers).
Injuries shortened his career — a meniscus surgery sidelined him for the entire 2016 season, his last full one in the league — but Johnson quietly put together a strong body of work. He became the first receiver in Bills history to reach 1,000 receiving yards in consecutive seasons, and is the only one to have done it three years in a row (2010-2012). His final tally over eight years: 4,764 yards and 34 touchdowns on 381 receptions.
On one hand, he feels like he could have done more in the pros. On the other, growing up in “the hood,” as he described it, makes him better appreciate the value of what he did achieve, and easier to not dwell on menial subjects like, say, never getting selected for a Pro Bowl.
“We just want to get out and be able to provide,” Johnson said. “And be safe and not have to window shop, I would say, for things. Me even being in those regards is a blessing at the end of the day. I can honestly say through those times of being in the NFL, I wasn’t really thinking about that ‘cause I was so into the business, not wanting to be bothered, you know? I wasn’t able to sit back and look at how God and all that good energy really moves. I was just going, going, going.”
Today
Johnson didn’t play prep football until his junior season when he transferred to Angelo Rodriguez High School, the newest of three high schools in his native Fairfield, Calif. It opened in 2001.
His absence from the gridiron was in part motivated by a passion for basketball and fear for his safety.
“S--t, I wasn’t about to go out there,” he said with a laugh. “They were huge. I was gonna stay on the basketball court until I could get a little bit bigger.”
The desire to be part of something fresh encouraged him to be part of the first football teams at Rodriguez. The same, in a way, could be said of his latest return to home; Johnson in February was named head coach at Rodriguez, the 11th in its history. While he didn’t seek the job — he received a call from the school during the winter while in Denver as part of a function for his youth foundation, Club HBHF (Handle Biz, Have Fun) — and hadn’t really planned on getting into football coaching, period, he’s enjoyed the challenge.
Being a good coach goes well beyond the gridiron. As a Black man who walked the same sidewalks his players do and experienced prejudice at every stop he made along his football career, Johnson hopes to use his experiences to make theirs easier, or at least more understandable.
To see that someone “got out” and then willfully came back to try and help you? That can be powerful.
“It’s more than just football,” Johnson said. “We’re teaching them how to survive. Every kid isn’t in poverty or what-not, but they may go through the same situations. I can open up about my situation and they can learn from it.”
Q & A
(This has been edited for brevity and clarity.)
What do you remember most about Coach Rich Brooks?
“Coach Brooks saved me, actually.”
Johnson briefly described a medical incident involving a teammate, whose name won’t be shared out of respect for his privacy.
“Something happened to him and he was in the hospital. I was going to go visit him and I got pulled over, and a lot of stuff was going on. Coach Brooks, in that moment, he could have went with what the officers were saying, which was false, and I could have been suspended for that entire year, or he could have went off my personality and what my attitude was around campus and the team and him.”
“He knew who I was, he knew my character and he stood up for me. He didn’t suspend me at all and I was able to have that season we speak of, but I could have easily been in another situation of ‘send that kid home,’ or ‘he’s suspended.’ A lot of stuff happened. Coach Brooks, that’s my guy. I love him.”
Was there ever a time when you questioned picking UK?
“Nope. Not one. … Basically, it was my dream school.”
If you hadn’t picked UK, which college would you have gone to?
“Wyoming.”
Wyoming was actually the first college he was going to go to out of high school, but he opted for junior college instead.
“After Kentucky came, I knew I was going to sign there.”
What was your favorite on-the-field memory at UK?
When he got loose against Louisville. (Google it again: It still happens!)
What’s the most recent UK sporting event you attended?
The 2019 loss to Florida at Kroger Field. UK led late in the fourth quarter but the Gators prevailed.
“That was emotional right there. We had that one. But it was good to be there.”
Who’s been your favorite UK player to watch during the last couple seasons?
Johnson shared one for basketball and another for football.
“Tyler Herro. I watched him in high school and thought he was so clean. Football was Lynn Bowden. I remember when he first came to Kentucky, he was just doing special teams, but on his special teams he had vision where he was already making moves 3, 4 yards down the field and beating people that were right in front of him. I saw that and was like, ‘That’s NFL talent right there.’ And then two years later, here he is, playing every position and is a third-round pick for the Raiders.”
Who was your sports idol growing up?
Deion Sanders and Terrell Owens. “I wanted to move the crowd like they did.”
What do you wish someone had told you before you began your college sports career?
“Probably communicating more with businesses, the elders in Kentucky, the established guys. There’s a life to live. There’s a whole bunch of years that you’ve got, and football is going to be so much, but if you build those relationships right then and there, you can always have that for years to come for your family and all that. Partnerships and stuff. That’s something I would have probably did more, getting out and shaking hands with those people.”
What is your biggest regret from your time at Kentucky?
“I can’t think of any at UK. We were young and living. I can’t think of none.”
Which of your former UK teammates do you stay in contact with the most?
Johnson reeled off a long list of names that included Keenan Burton, Jeremy Jarmon, Dicky Lyons Jr. and Andre Woodson.
”We still got pretty much that crew from that class in a big UK group chat. We stay in touch with little things, current events and fun things.”
This story was originally published June 22, 2020 at 7:36 AM.
