The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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served him well. He'd taken his hour to immerse in a mini-mourning. "After that? It was gone," Johnson recalled. "I couldn't have any more negative emotions if I wanted to play. Time to get going." That's what he did, but there's only so much even a young athlete can do to speed the process. Following his first ACL surgery, he'd been on crutches. This time, doctors had to graft material from his opposite knee to complete the surgery. That left him, literally, without a leg to stand on. "The first time, same graft, this time, the right knee to the left knee," he mused. "So that kind of sucked. That first two weeks …" Johnson recalled whirling around his house in a wheelchair, popping wheelies out of pure boredom. He grinned even at that memory, not- ing he might be running out of body parts from which to strap up his knees. "It could happen again. Where else can you graft from?" he said, with a laugh. "Take a hamstring … as long as they can keep grafting stuff, I should be fine." Then came the drudgery of reha- bilitation, with the natural feelings of separation from the team. Redshirt junior wide receiver Amara Darboh understands the frustration, having missed a season with a fractured foot. He's been there, suffered through that. "He's a very special individual," Darboh said of Johnson. "When I was hurt, he was, too, around that time. For him to go through it twice … he's very positive and works hard with the trainers. "After it happened the first time, I expected him to bounce right back. The second time, he stayed positive, didn't miss a treatment. He's one of those guys you just expect that out of." That doesn't make it easy, Darboh cautioned. "You've got to be very tough men- tally," Darboh continued. "When you come back, if you were a starter be- fore, it's not like you're a starter right away. You've got to work from the bottom of the depth chart back up. It's tough, and it can be hard on someone who is not mentally strong enough. "He's one of those people that is. He's battling and improving every week." Darboh isn't the only one who noticed. Offensive coordinator Tim Drevno didn't get a look at Johnson in spring football and only began to see what he could do in fall camp. The fourth-year Wolverine, as he eased back in, made an impression. "Tough, determined, a team guy," Drevno said. "Really wants it. He's a football guy, you know what I mean? You can feel it in the gut. He loves the game of football. He's really passion- ate about it. It's exciting to see him, it really is. He really has got some zip to him, doesn't he? It's really neat." RETURN TO THE GAME Football guys are precisely what head coach Jim Harbaugh wants, and he witnessed Johnson never stop competing. He saw Johnson throw himself into the first week of fall