Auburn running back Kerryon Johnson is healthy, and that could be bad news in Monday’s Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium for a Central Florida defense that hasn’t been at its best in recent games.
“I feel 100 percent finally, or as close to 100 percent as you can get,” Johnson said Saturday.
In perhaps the best endorsement, offensive tackle Austin Golson said Johnson looks like he did the first time the Tigers faced Georgia, in which he rushed for 167 yards in a 40-17 victory at Jordan-Hare Stadium. He followed that with 156 yards in a win against Louisiana-Monroe and 104 in a 26-14 win against Alabama.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, Johnson sustained a shoulder injury against the Tide that limited his effectiveness in the rematch with Georgia in the SEC Championship game. He mustered just 44 yards on 13 carries.
The 44 yards against the Bulldogs in Mercedes-Benz Stadium was Johnson’s lowest output in a season in which he led the SEC in rushing yards per game (120), scoring (10.4 ppg) and all-purpose yards per game (137.1). He was named the conference’s offensive player of the year.
“Well, obviously, whenever he's on the field (and) 100 percent, it's a totally different feeling out there,” Golson said. You know you've got him back there; I mean, there's no question in my mind he's the best back in the country.”
Johnson didn’t reveal too much Saturday when asked if he will leave school for the NFL with a season of eligibility remaining, other than that he will make a decision after the game.
"I'm worried about UCF and that's the honest truth," he was quoted as saying by the website Auburn Undercover. "You start thinking about the future and the present sneaks up on you. I'm worried about getting this job done first. The rest of it will take care of itself."
UCF definitely is worried about Johnson.
Several Knights defenders praised Johnson’s toughness, patience and quickness, saying that they will have to play with discipline and tackle well to keep him from controlling the game.
“If we have a lot of missed tackles, then it's going to be a long day,” Knights linebacker Pat Jasinski said. “I think our tackling has got to be great. Like they have said, I mean, it's a tough task, but we're up for it.”
The Knights’ defense, a scheme that focuses on disruption with quickness through gaps and gang-tackling to create turnovers, will certainly have to play better than it did in its past two games: a 49-42 win against South Florida in which it allowed 653 yards and a 62-55 overtime win against Memphis in which it allowed 753 yards in the American Athletic Conference championship game.
UCF defensive coordinator Erik Chinander said the Bulls and Tigers exploited some things in the scheme that the team spent part of their bowl preparations cleaning up. Some of the problems were related to communication and some with lining up correctly.
But the rest of the Knights’ prep has obviously been spent on the Tigers.
“We have a team full of fighters,” Chinander said. “We've had fighters since we got here, whether we walked in and it was 0-12 or last year when we went from 0-12 to 6-7, and this year to what we've done. We knew we had fighters the whole time. We're going to fight to the end of this game. We're going to fight to the end of the Peach Bowl, and it's going to be an awesome game to watch.”
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