Instead of having him stay on the left side of the field, usually being avoided by opposing offenses, Utah's coaches matched Johnson one-on-one against the best receivers from Oregon State and Arizona State the past two weeks. The strategy worked wonderfully.
No. 12 Utah’s first-team defense allowed a total of three points and Johnson got a lot more enjoyment from those games. He became highly involved in the scheme by covering OSU’s Isaiah Hodgins and ASU’s Brandon Aiyuk, two of the Pac-12′s top receivers, all over the field.
“That’s fun. I know I’m going to get some targets, because they’re ‘the guy,’ so it’s a fun challenge, going against the top guys in the conference,” Johnson said.