Oct. 5, 2017
By Greg Ostendorf
AuburnTigers.com
AUBURN, Ala. -- `Touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. Don't settle. Don't settle. Touchdown.'
That's what goes through Kerryon Johnson's mind when his team gets down into an opponent's red zone. It was that way when he was at Madison Academy and scored 25 touchdowns as a high school senior, and it's been that way since he's been at Auburn.
The junior running back scored three touchdowns as a freshman, 12 touchdowns as a sophomore (one passing), and this year, he already has nine touchdowns through the first five games, including eight in Auburn's last two games.
"I just start thinking about those times last year when we got down there, and we kind of came up short and had to kick a field goal," Johnson told AuburnTigers.com this week. "Touchdowns win games, especially in the SEC, especially when we play good football teams. Touchdowns win games. Field goals are great. We obviously have a really a good field-goal kicker, but we want to keep him off the field if we can."
Johnson currently leads the SEC and ranks second nationally with nine touchdowns, and he's only really played in two-and-a-half of Auburn's five games this season. On Tuesday, he admitted that he's still not quite back to 100 percent healthy since injuring his hamstring on a long run during the first half of the season opener.
But Johnson has been on a touchdown run of historic proportions the past two weeks. He is the first Auburn player to rush for eight touchdowns in back-to-back games through records dating back to 1996, and his five-touchdown performance against Missouri two weeks ago matched Peyton Barber's mark from the 2015 game against San Jose State and was one shy of the single-game record (6) set by Carnell "Cadillac" Williams in 2003.
It's a far cry from his freshman year where it took Johnson six games before he scored his first career touchdown as an Auburn Tiger -- a six-yard run on the road at Kentucky.
"It was probably four or five games in, so at that point, I was frustrated," Johnson said. "Coach [Tim] Horton kept telling me, `It's coming. It's coming.' I was used to scoring 30 touchdowns in high school. We did a Wildcat play, the quarterback came in motion, I faked it to him and ran a buck sweep into the end zone. It was awesome. It was probably one of the highlights of my career so far.
"It was just kind of reassurance that `Hey, I've still got it. This is where I belong. This is what I know how to do.'"
Since then, Johnson has certainly shown he belongs. He's currently averaging a touchdown every 5.3 carries. If he can stay healthy and keep up this type of production, there's a chance he could make a run at Tre Mason's single-season touchdown record set back in 2013.
However, when Johnson looked up that number recently and saw that Mason scored 23 touchdowns that season, even he was a little taken aback.
"Watching him, I was aware he scored a lot," Johnson said. "But when I really saw the number, I was like `Dang, that's really a lot.' Especially at this level against this competition. That's incredible."
It should come as no surprise that Mason was Johnson's favorite former Auburn running back to watch.
"Obviously, I go back and watch the Ronnie Browns, the Cadillacs, but my guy recently was definitely Tre Mason," Johnson said. "I loved Cameron Artis-Payne. I actually like PB (Barber) when I was here. But when I watched Tre Mason run, he just runs with such a determination. He was explosive. Every time they needed a play made, he would make it."
Johnson is quickly emerging into that guy for Auburn this season. If there's play to be made, he is making it. And if the goal line is in sight, he's crossing it.
`Touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. Don't settle.'
Greg Ostendorf is a Senior Writer for AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @greg_ostendorf