Though Penn State is known as Linebacker U, the truth is that there have been almost as many Nittany Lion greats to play the running back position.  Though John Cappelletti stands out as the only Heisman trophy winner, he’s just one of a number of stars to line up in the Nittany Lion backfield. And, statistically speaking, he doesn’t even stand up to half of them!

The fifth member of the 44 for 44 is Larry Johnson.

It’s getting somewhat tiring to mention that so many of Penn State’s greats enjoyed tremendous success even before stepping foot on campus, but Larry Johnson was yet another of those high-profile recruits.  Growing up in the shadow of Beaver Stadium, Larry followed his father–who was then the special teams and defensive ends coach–across town: after graduating as a State College Little Lion, the younger Johnson matriculated as a Penn State Nittany Lion.  After an incredible senior season, in which Johnson ran for over 2200 yards with 29 touchdowns, and picked up 7 sacks as a defensive end, Larry Johnson was more than just a legacy recruit, he was a major coup.

Despite the hype, Johnson struggled to distinguish himself from amongst a crowded Penn State backfield.  As a freshman on that vaunted 1999 team, Johnson was an afterthought to the power-running tandem of Eric McCoo and Aaron Harris, managing just 43 carries the entire season, gaining 171 yards and a single touchdown.  Johnson was almost a greater threat as a receiver, where he made 4 catches for 70 yards and scored another touchdown.

Little did Johnson know at that point that Penn State was poised to enter its bleakest period in Joe Paterno’s tenure.  Heading into the 2000 season, spirits were already low, following the implosion which ended the preceding year.  And low spirits were only dampened when Penn State got off to the start they did–a 29-5 loss to USC at the Meadowlands was bad enough, but the Lions rebounded from that effort with a 24-6 drubbing at the hands of Toledo.  Though the Nits were able to handle Louisiana Tech, 67-7, they were outscored a whopping 67-6 the next two weeks, in a 12-0 shutout loss in Pittsburgh and a beatdown in Columbus.  And even worse–during that Ohio State game, promising freshman Adam Taliaferro broke his neck in that Ohio State game. We thought he’d never walk again.

Though Penn State was able to reverse the trend and beat a highly-ranked Purdue team, 22-20, that was one of the only bright spots in a 5-7 campaign.  On a personal level, Larry Johnson found himself bumped up in the depth chart following Aaron Harris’ graduation, receiving the second-most playing time behind McCoo, and as the team’s featured kick returner.  On 75 carries, Johnson rushed for a respectable 358 yards, adding 3 touchdowns.  In the season finale, against Michigan State, Johnson had a career best 10 carries for 94 yards, perhaps a good omen of his future dominance over the Spartans.  Still, that was a far cry from the dominant performances he was accustomed to putting up each week during his high school career.

2001 was yet another miserable season for the Nittany Lions, though it, too, featured one moment of glory, when Zack Mills, the backup, led a 1-4 team to a come-from-behind upset of Ohio State, a win that thrust Joe Paterno past Bear Bryant for the most wins in Division 1 history.  But again, that day was lost in the crippling mediocrity which Penn State seemed mired in.

But for Larry Johnson, it was his first real taste at collegiate glory.  Starting the last 5 games of the season, Johnson passed McCoo to become Penn State’s leading rusher, though, in a sign of the times, that merely meant 337 yards and 2 touchdowns, one less than the three he managed on receptions and kick returns.

After two absolutely miserable seasons, not much was expected from the 2002 Penn State Nittany Lions.  It was in this preseason that some started openly campaigning against Joe Paterno–he had passed Bear Bryant to become college football’s winningest coach, what else could he want?  The then-75 Paterno was just “too old.” He had “lost touch” with the game.  And what could have possibly been expected of Larry Johnson, the once-highly touted recruit who had done little of note in his three years at Penn State?

But it was Larry Johnson who singlehandedly did his part to pull Penn State out of the dark years, and for one season he did just that.  On his way to, arguably, the greatest season any running back ever had, Johnson led Penn State to a 9-win year that was so close to being so much more.  Two overtime losses, against top-10 teams in Iowa and Michigan, were the only blemishes on Penn State’s schedule before a respectable 13-7 defeat in Columbus against the team that would go on to win the BCS Championship the following January.

But Johnson’s path to Heisman contention started much earlier.  In Penn State’s 40-7 trashing of Nebraska, Johnson introduced himself to the nation with a 123-yard, 2-touchdown performance, a feat magnified by the fact that he accomplished that on a mere 19 carries.  Johnson continued to put up workmanlike numbers over the next few weeks–a hundred-yard game here, a couple touchdowns there, before he really broke out as Penn State beat up on a hapless Northwestern team.  In a 49-0 drubbing of the Wildcats, Johnson set a new school record with 257 yards, scoring two touchdowns–and he only needed 23 carries to accomplish the feat.

The record would stand for all of two weeks, until Illinois came to town.  On a season-high 31 carries, Johnson put up 279 yards, as Penn State pushed back the Illini, 18-7.  And that record wouldn’t last for long, either.  As Penn State traveled to Indiana, Johnson, for the third time, set a new school record for rushing yardage, with a whopping 327 yards and 4 touchdowns on just 28 carries.  That said, his performance the next week might have been even more impressive, when he put up 279 yards and 4 touchdowns on an overmatched Spartan defense that never stood a chance.  The only thing keeping Johnson from 400 yards and 7 touchdowns was the fact that Penn State was up 48-0 at the half, and so out he came.  Johnson averaged almost 15 yards a touch in that game–his 279 yards came on 19 rushes.  Two of those touchdown runs were a 78-yard gallop, and a 38-yard score.  He was simply untouchable.

On a whole, the season just seems like something straight out of a video game, even despite a 13-9 loss to Auburn in the Capital One Bowl.  Johnson managed 2087 yards and 20 touchdowns on all of 271 carries, good for a flat out ridiculous 7.7 yards per carry average.  That’s not even counting his 41 catches, good for second on the team, with 3 touchdowns and 341 yards, and the fact that he was the team’s leading kick returner, averaging about 20 yards per return.  Needless to say, Johnson set all sorts of records: the highest yards per carry average ever, and the fewest carries ever for a 2000 yard season. For his work, LJ won the Doak Walker Award as the NCAA’s top running back, and the Walter Camp and Maxwell Awards as college football’s best player.  Despite only receiving the bulk of the carries for one season, Johnson exited Penn State as the 4th all-time rusher, and his senior season rewrote the Nittany Lion history books.  The lone honor he didn’t receive was the Heisman (Carson Palmer of USC took the prize), despite Joe Paterno’s public campaigning.  And remember, Paterno is a guy who never promotes his players for these sort of awards:

“When you guys sit down [to vote for the Heisman], it’s spelled L-A-R-R-Y J-O-H-N-S-O-N, senior tailback, coached by the oldest guy in the history of football. You got it?”

“Anytime he gets his hand on the football he can turn the game around,” Paterno said. “That’s the way he’s playing right now. He’s as explosive as anyone right now that I’ve seen play.”

Johnson parlayed his senior season into a 1st round draft pick, and though he began his career as a backup to Priest Holmes, Johnson quickly established himself as one of the better running backs in the NFL.  A 2-time Pro Bowler who eclipsed 2000 all-purpose yards in both the 2005 and 2006 seasons, Johnson has bounced around the last few years due to off-field issues and declining production.  Johnson is currently signed with the Washington Redskins.

Releated Posts:

1. The Penn State All-Decade Team: Running Backs
2. The Penn State All-Decade Team: Wide Receivers
3. 44 for 44: Kenny Jackson
4. Royster to Return to PSU
5. Penn State recovers from slow start to beat Northwestern

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