Urban Meyer adds backstory to Xavier Johnson hero moment in Ohio State vs Notre Dame
Xavier Johnson‘s journey at Ohio State has not been an easy one, but it’s finally paying off for the fifth-year receiver in 2022. A former walk-on, Johnson was placed on scholarship ahead of the 2021 season.
Although he had contributed mostly on special teams the four years prior, Johnson got an opportunity to play on offense Saturday as injuries sidelined Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Julian Fleming. The result? Johnson came away with perhaps the biggest play of the game, scoring the 24-yard go-ahead touchdown with 17 seconds left in the third quarter.
Former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, who coached Johnson in the 2018 season, provided some backstory on the receiver’s road to this point on Urban’s Take with Tim May.
“Xavier was a walk-on,” Meyer said. “We immediately saw talent and we had issues at corner, so we played him at corner. We had issues at safety, then we moved him to safety. Then we moved him to wideout. He’s really intelligent and a really talented player. Selfless as can be. We played him on special teams and I knew. Ryan Day knew, the staff knew that we somehow have to find a place for that.”
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The touchdown Saturday was the first of Johnson’s career, and one of just two catches he made as he totaled 34 yards. Meyer said the score was a result of Johnson recognizing a zero coverage from the Fighting Irish, along with the awareness of quarterback CJ Stroud to do the same.
“I’m watching that game and here we go,” Meyer said. “We’re in that checkmate moment where they’re starting to drive the ball against Notre Dame and Notre Dame makes a decision. They go for the checkmate because they felt that Ohio State was moving the ball and they had to do something drastically to change it. They went with the safety blitz and they blitzed them from depth, which I’m sure wasn’t timed up because they didn’t get there.
“But what was really intriguing by CJ Stroud if you watch that is he understood. Corey Dennis and Ryan Day have told me this: CJ sees the field better than any quarterback they’ve ever had. That’s a pretty strong statement. He saw the zero blitz and instead of panicking — cause a guy was gonna be free — and Xavier had recognized it went to zero coverage with no safety help and instead of CJ panicking and throwing the ball away, he hung in there because they were coming from depth and released the ball. Perfect execution by a second or third string wide receiver. A quarterback working with him. First of all, it was great coaching. But an excellent job by the wideouts.”
After the game, Xavier Johnson explained what his big moment in Ohio State’s win meant to him, and he revealed why he was overcome with emotion after finding the endzone.
“I came in and I was confident in myself,” he said. “Shoot, coming in I was expecting to shock the world as a freshman. Everybody does. They come in and they got all these high hopes and expectations. But I would say that kind of just part of my testimony, like the lord kind of took, I feel like he took football away from me for a second and he gave it back in a way that I could glorify him. So like you said, it was countless nights where shoot, I was thinking about throwing in the towel some nights. There was nights where I felt like I had a foot out the door. But I always relied on my faith in prayer to see where exactly I was supposed to be and I never felt the lord lead me to leave.
“So just kind of seeing how I came full circle, it’s just a testament to his faithfulness. In that moment it was all I could think about, was just how the lord really is. I mean that’s literally it. I was overcome with emotion, but it was emotion from the standpoint of like I’m glorifying the lord right now and I’m in the right position.”