Brian Kelly Talks About Moving Freshman Safety Ju'Juan Johnson To Running Back

by Staff Reporter

September 11, 20246 Comments

SCOTT CLAUSE/USA TODAY Network / USA TODAY NETWORK

Freshman athlete Ju'Juan Johnson made a successful move from safety to running back in LSU's 44-21 win over Nicholls last week.

Johnson switched positions after the Tigers lost running back John Emery Jr. to a season-ending knee injury and looked good in his offensive debut, catching three passes for 16 yards and one touchdown vs. Nicholls.

On Monday, head coach Brian Kelly talked about Johnson's bigger role on the team. Per On3:

quote:
“Well I think first of all he was going to play on all of our special teams,” coach Brian Kelly explained. “And so it was important that we got him involved on one side or the other, whether it was defense or offense. With the way we’re playing our defensive structure he wasn’t going to get a lot of playing time there.”

“We knew on offense there were enough roles that we could get him involved,” Kelly said. “So he’s going to play some running back, some slot receiver. He can do a lot of different things and we can craft an offensive structure around him. And what we’ve found out is he picks things up really well.”

“So it was a decision that we were going to play him as a freshman, he was already involved in a lot of special teams, and he was able to pick things up really quickly,” Kelly said.

Filed Under: LSU Football

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WreckinRams05•23 days

This dude absolutely destroyed Acadiana last year. I think he had over 500 total yards and like 8 tds. He is the real deal

tigersquad89•23 days

Yeah because we don’t need help at safety

Jdublsu•23 days

Bro Cayden Durham runs like a 10.31 100.... there is speed at RB

BabyTac•23 days

Russell Shepard 2.0

Datbayoubengal•23 days

He's going to be back on defense next year

Saunson69•23 days

I fricking made a post saying this should happen and got downvoted to hell and 15 people calling me a dumbass hahahah. I told y'all. This is what should happen. We have 0 speed at RB. Kaleb Jackson takes the handoff and runs straight into the pile making no attempt to bounce it outside or cut, just straight into the center pile.

This is what we need. Speed. Someone who can get outside the tackles because within the tackles is not working.

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