"It's for my mom": Marquis Johnson dedicates junior season to late mother
The past two years as Marquis Johnson began to make his mark on the receiver room at Mizzou, there was a consistent presence at the Tiger Walk as he entered Memorial Stadium each week.
But as he walked down to the stadium for the first game of his junior season, that presence was missing.
“My mom, just knowing that she wasn’t at the bottom of that Tiger Walk. Knowing that she wasn’t just there. Like … just seeing my people there and not seeing her, really broke me down,” Johnson said. “And just, it just stung right there, and that’s where it really all hit me.”
Johnson’s mother, Denise Bell, died on April 28 at the age of 39. Johnson has not shared further details about her passing.
But he has dedicated this season to her.
“I probably said it multiple times, it’s for my mom, every time I play, it’s for my mom,” Johnson said.
Leaning on his teammates
But going into the first game without her, Johnson knew he was going to need to lean on his teammates.
“Marquis told the team after practice yesterday he was going to need them,” Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz said. “This is the first time Miss Denise wasn’t going to be here. And, you know, the team just all said, ‘Hey, we got you.’”
The emotions kicked in during the Tiger Walk as fans surrounded the Tigers on their way into the stadium.
But the one who was missing made all the difference.
“I think it was a really, really tough Tiger Walk. He was crying when he walked in. And we just told him to focus one moment at a time,” Drinkwitz said. “Miss Denise wanted to watch him play tonight.”
Honoring her on the field
With his eyeblack reading “4:28” under his right eye and “Love U Mom” under his left, Johnson took that advice and focused on the moment.
The first moment.
With the same electricity Tiger fans have seen from him the past two seasons, he took the top off the opposing defense, opening the season with a 49-yard touchdown on the first pass of new teammate Beau Pribula’s tenure as the ‘Tigers’ quarterback.
“For him to get that opening touchdown was pretty special,” Drinkwitz said. “And then for him to just continue to make plays and be open. The maturity level that he’s displayed in the last four months has been incredible.”
Leadership
Johnson went on to set a career high in yardage with 134. He also had one touchdown and five catches, tying the second-highest mark of his Tiger tenure.
And as Johnson has had to take on a leadership role within his family, he has done the same in the Tiger receiver room.
Going into his junior season without the consistent presences of Theo Wease and Luther Burden ahead of him in the pecking order, Johnson has had to grow into a bigger role. Not just in the offense, but as a team leader.
“I wasn’t really the talkative guy these past couple, two years, when I was here,” Johnson said. “But it, like, being able to be just somebody that people can look to and just ask questions and see, like, what’s going on … it means a lot to me. And I just, I embrace it every day.”
Johnson has embraced the new role in the receiver room and he’s embraced playing this season in honor of his mother. And now he will move forward step by step down the Tiger Walk holding her close.
“First game without her, it meant a lot to me,” Johnson said.
