A two-year starter for Nebraska at outside linebacker (1998-99), Johnson these days trains athletes in suburban Atlanta, including four-star defensive end Robert Beal — who in July verbally committed to Georgia but apparently is listening to other schools.
"We have a shot at him," Johnson told me in an interview right outside Nebraska's locker room not long after Friday's Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tennessee. "I don't know if he's going to pull all the way from Georgia. We'll see."
Johnson thinks John Parrella gives Nebraska a chance. The first-year Husker defensive line coach was a teammate of Johnson's on the Oakland Raiders in the early 2000s.