Cedric Johnson has always stayed true to himself
Sep. 21—OXFORD — When you do the sort of thing Cedric Johnson did in a game on Oct. 18, 2019 vs. Theodore High School, you'd expect a celebration. At least a fist pump or brief, jubilant scream.
But that's never been Johnson's style. And Kelly Eubanks still can't help but laugh at Johnson's response to one of the most impressive plays he's seen.
Eubanks was the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at Davidson High School in Mobile, Alabama when Johnson was a high school player. The Ole Miss senior defensive end/linebacker is listed at 6-foot-3, 265 pounds now, but he was not always that imposing presence. As a freshman at Davidson, Johnson played running back. He was about 5-foot-11, 185 pounds.
Johnson was always one of the youngest in his class — he turned 18 the September he got to Ole Miss — and while he was big for his age as a child, that was not the case when he got to high school. But somewhere thereabouts his sophomore year, adolescence took its course. As a junior at Davidson, Johnson said he was about 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds. His shoe size, his father Cephus Jr. said, grew from an 11 or 12 to a 15.
Eubanks has long advocated putting a team's best athletes on defense, and Johnson had something you can't teach: speed and quickness.
During his senior season, Johnson's Davidson team played against Theodore, led by Demouy Kennedy. Kennedy was a top-100 player committed to Alabama, the school Johnson grew up rooting for but never got an offer from. Kennedy was recruited as a linebacker but lined up in the wildcat occasionally. It was almost always a chunk play and/or touchdown, Eubanks said.
Kennedy lined up at quarterback on this particular play and ran opposite Johnson, now at defensive end. At the snap, Johnson slanted across the opposing lineman's face and caught Kennedy at the line of scrimmage.
How did Johnson respond?
"He literally got right back up and just went back to the line," Eubanks said with a chuckle.
Johnson, who has 14.5 career sacks at Ole Miss and has spent the last three years as a starter, has never been one to seek out the spotlight. Cephus Jr. jokes that sometimes it's hard to notice his son in episodes of "The Season." Johnson has always preferred putting his head down and grinding.
There were times Johnson admits he questioned if he had what it took in football. But those close to him always believed. That faith — combined with the work he's put in — has led Johnson to things he didn't always think were possible.
"I personally didn't think I could be here. And this goes to my mental growth," Johnson said. "I've been learning I can do more than I think I can do."
Boundless energy
When he was about 5, Johnson would run up and down the park at his older brother's youth football games in a way only children can. He had so much stamina, in fact, it gave his mother an idea.
"My wife said after that, 'You have all this energy, next season you're going to be out here,'" Cephus Jr. said. "'You're not going to be standing on the sideline watching your brother.'"
Johnson started playing football when he was about 6. His older brother, Cephus III, was a wide receiver growing up. Johnson, meanwhile, played running back. While he was young for his class, Johnson was big: he was about 9 pounds, 8 ounces when he was born, Cephus Jr. said.
Both Johnson brothers played basketball, with Cephus III sticking it out a bit longer. The younger brother, meanwhile, played for a year but claims he was "terrible." It was always football for the most part, which is noteworthy given Cephus Jr. never played.
Cephus Jr., who served in the Marine Corps, jokes he was always the shortest person in his household. His wife, Hope, is 5-10 or 5-11. According to the college coaches who wound up courting his sons, a tall mother explains how both sons crossed the 6-foot threshold.
Hope's side of the family is on the tall and slender side, which is where Cephus III — who played quarterback and receiver at South Alabama and Southeastern Louisiana and signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — got his 6-foot-5 frame. Johnson was built like his father: he was more compact.
While they couldn't talk about their respective experiences in football, Johnson and Cephus Jr. always shared a unique bond through video games.
Cephus Jr. remembers playing the Atari 2600 when he was a kid — the one with the single joystick and comically-large red button on the controller. Johnson grew up playing PlayStation with his father, completing games from start to finish. One game that still stands out is "Justice League Heroes" on PlayStation 2. That was one the two played when Johnson was 10 or so and is a game they still own.
Video games, Cephus Jr. said, are inherently a bit isolating. But when playing them together and sharing a passion, it opens conversations into important things. Movies serve a similar function.
While a chat might start off about a new Spider-Man game releasing soon, it leads into important conversations parents want to have. It was — and still is — a way to connect and understand.
"It's just an entry point into other things and other conversations, because I've never played football. So, the entry point may start out in the gaming, and then it'll lead into 'how are you doing physically? How does he feel mentally?'" Cephus Jr. said. "The end goal is the betterment and the health and the love for our children."
The best example
Tight end wasn't Johnson's strong suit in tenth grade. But Eubanks still remembers that burst near the goal line.
As just one half of a passing tandem, Johnson wasn't getting the ball. He also admits he "couldn't block." But there were signs there was more to be unleashed.
During one game, Davidson marched down near the goal line. Johnson ran a seam route. By the time ball got to the quarterback, Johnson was already 10 yards past everyone else. Everyone else was in slow-motion.
"That burst of speed was unmatched," Eubanks said.
Eubanks' initial impression of Johnson was one most people likely have — you notice the broad smile across his face, and you notice he's reserved. Johnson was a coach's dream from the start: always the first dressed for practice, the cliché first guy in, last guy out, and the person sitting at the front of the room.
"I'd say he was good as gold," Eubanks said. "Very mild-mannered, respectful, ambitious and just a pure joy to be around. I don't know if I've ever heard him say a bad word about anyone."
By the time Johnson got to high school, his older brother had blossomed into a star quarterback. Johnson was in the in-between phase. During his sophomore year he started to grow, and Johnson did not waste any time: he wanted to work out with his older brother at QB Country, a training service in Mobile.
Johnson started working out intensely in the offseason following 10th grade, his father said; less than six months later, his arms were bigger, his shoulders broader and his chest more barreled.
During his junior year, Eubanks got his wish and moved Johnson to a defensive end/outside linebacker role in his 3-4 defense. There were growing pains: Learning how to take on the strongly-placed hands of offensive linemen, making sure to stay low when the ball is snapped are things he never had to learn.
In his first season playing defense, Johnson made 35 tackles and had eight quarterback hurries. Eubanks remembers the moment it started to click. There was a play in a game against Mary G. Montgomery High when Johnson correctly dipped his shoulder on an offensive lineman, allowing him to tackle the running back for a 5-yard loss. Coaches reviewed that clip over the weekend with Johnson and compared it to clips of when things didn't go as well.
That was it.
"As a coach, as soon as you say 'Don't be satisfied' they smile and say 'Yes sir,'" Eubanks said. "And I think that's what's made both of them (he and Cephus III) special."
As a senior, Johnson notched 16 sacks, which ranked second in the state. By the time it was all said and done, he was listed at 6-foot-3, 225 pounds and was a consensus three-star prospect. Without a shadow of a doubt, Johnson knew what his next goal was — to play in the SEC.
Johnson grew up rooting for the Crimson Tide while other members of his family shouted War Eagle. It was an Iron Bowl family. But Johnson realized Alabama likely wasn't in the cards given his status as a modest-level recruit.
He attended a camp at Ole Miss the summer before his senior year at Davidson. Johnson was offered a scholarship with a small caveat — they needed him to commit quickly. He took one more unofficial visit 10 days later and committed the same day.
"Back in high school, I'm like, 'I don't know if I can play big boy ball at first,'" Johnson said. "Then I'm just taking it day by day, but working, just working, just working. And then I see that I can play college ball, get my first scholarship. Then I'm like, 'Maybe I can.'"
A life of responsibility
Johnson had never been one to need being with a massive crowd of people. But 2020 forced everyone's hand.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson lived alone when he got to Ole Miss. Meetings and gatherings were largely held virtually. But Johnson has always navigated those spaces successfully, his father said. He's never had issues staying on top of tasks generally relegated to those in adulthood — buying groceries, paying bills and the like.
He still, however, wasn't sure where he fit in the Ole Miss football puzzle. But Rebels coaches had faith, and that provided more confidence. If coaches thought Johnson deserved to be on the field, shouldn't he?
"My freshman year of college, I'm like, I don't even know if I'm going to get on the field. Then they put me on the field," Johnson said. "That headspace, just keeping my head down and putting in the work, I can do whatever I want to do."
Cephus Jr. has a saying he likes to use, that, "The party will be there later." A professional career was now feasible. Now that he knew he could do it, he was going to do it. And that meant doing things the right way.
Johnson is laser-focused on football and his computer science degree: he's not one to be out late taking part in typical college extracurriculars, his father said. It's not that those things aren't OK. It's that Johnson knows the fun will be there later.
"(His thought process is) 'I've going to get what I need to get, get my degree, and I'm moving on, because I think I can do it. I believe in myself.'" Cephus Jr. said.
Johnson was able to see how established veterans went about their business early on. K.D. Hill was one example — when he saw how Hill worked, it's how Johnson started working. And as he saw himself grow and perform, it was further proof of concept.
Hill, who is also from Alabama, taught Johnson how to practice, how to work out, how to succeed. Johnson is now sharing those lessons with younger players.
"When you come into college, you're a young man. When you leave college, you're a man," Hill said. "That's when you begin to learn a lot of things about life, because you're exposed to a lot of things in college, and you begin to know who you are. Are you going to follow that crowd? Or are you going to be unique and be yourself and let people follow you?"
Helping those in need
Johnson knew he wanted to do more in the community. And there was no better person to show him how than Hill.
Hill won the Chucky Mullins Courage Award in 2022. His reaction to winning the award went viral — he called his mother after practice in tears because it meant so much.
Hill was known around Ole Miss for his energy on the field, Johnson said, but also made a difference in the community. Last Thanksgiving, Hill put together a dinner for underserved members of the Oxford community. Hill told his fellow defensive linemen it would mean a lot for them to show up. Johnson and teammates like J.J. Pegues and Tavius Robinson weren't going to miss it.
"Courage, character, leadership, the way you carry yourself on and off the field," Hill said of the award. "Will you be the same behind closed doors?"
The Chucky Mullins Courage Award has been given annually since 1990 to the Rebels upperclassman defender who "embodies the spirit of Mullins — courage, leadership, perseverance and determination." Mullins was a defensive back for Ole Miss and was paralyzed making a tackle in 1989. Mullins became a beloved national figure in the aftermath for his grit, his determination and his heart. He died on May 6, 1991. Winners of the Chucky Mullins Courage Award have the option of wearing Mullins' otherwise retired No. 38 jersey or a No. 38 patch.
Johnson, this year's award winner, already knew Hill's energy was infectious on the field. But to see it extend to enriching the lives of those less fortunate was inspiring.
"Obviously the on-the-field stuff has to do its own thing (with the award). But I feel like the person matters even more," Johnson said. "Just a great spirited person, who's all for the team, and just has a good head on their shoulders."
Hill has continued to display those qualities and inspire in recent months.
Hill was involved in a serious car accident over the summer. He right leg was amputated on the scene, but he never wavered in his faith or positivity. Hill had seven surgeries in two weeks, including two in one day. But within days of the accident, videos emerged of Hill smiling and walking in the hospital.
Hill will soon be getting a prosthetic leg but is already doing pushups and is able to stand up and tie his shoe. He understands his story will be one that further inspires people, including his seven-month old son.
"Obviously (the award) already has weight. But then someone that I knew close, like he goes through this, and he wore that number, it holds even more weight, I feel," Johnson said. "With the 38 alone, when you get that, you're playing for Chucky and everybody else who represented it."
Leadership and courage take many forms. Johnson isn't a rah-rah type. But he will show you how to do things the right way, how to be the best version of yourself and how to thrive. And he'll never stray away from who he is or where he's come from. Those qualities make someone worthy of the Chucky Mullins Courage Award, Hill said.
"You can go from being a nobody, from being bottom of the depth chart and then boom, your junior, senior year, you're dominating on the field. And that just shows perseverance (and) work ethic," Hill said. "Giving back to the community and staying humble and just being who you are on and off the field. Never change."
Eubanks couldn't help but reminisce when thinking about Johnson as one of Ole Miss' representatives at the last two SEC Media Days. The same, quiet kid he met a handful of years ago was now one of the faces of a major college football team.
But that's always been Johnson's story — growth through the ups and downs and staying true to yourself.
"It's much more about doing the right thing when no one's looking," Eubanks said. "That intrinsic motivation is something that, it's rare. And when someone has it and they have the platform that he does and to be able to use it and still be humble about it and just go to work every day, it's truly amazing. And I'm very proud of him for it."
