It truly is funny how life works. Every instance we think we have the narrative figured out, like a shift in the wind, reality diverges from our vision of what should happen.
Anyone familiar with LSU at the end of the 2019 national championship run knew Joe Burrow’s reign was going to be succeeded by junior Myles Brennan. He had patiently bided his time for the starting quarterback job, and there was not much question that it was his spot to keep into the 2020 year.
Chaos ensued. Brennan played just three games, sidelined by an abdominal tear after the Tigers’ road loss to Missouri, but still finished as the team’s leading passer with 1,112 yards and 60.3% CMP%. A power vacuum developed, and after some trial and error of both freshmen quarterbacks TJ Finley and Max Johnson by the staff, Johnson took the lead with two strong performances against Florida and Ole Miss to bring the team back to .500 for the season.
After spring practice and the arrival of Garrett Nussmeier as another competitor in the room, it was clear someone was going to get cleared out eventually in the era of the transfer portal. Finley was the first to go and has landed on his feet at Auburn. Then, in an unfortunate accident, Brennan fractured his arm while catching himself from a fall on a fishing trip.
So here we are, a week before LSU treks to Los Angeles for a marquee season opener in the Rose Bowl against UCLA, and Johnson remains as the clear starter. It’s just how everyone pictured it in their heads.
But if you were expecting the sophomore to just throw his hands up and feel helpless in a situation he did not see coming, think again. Johnson has been ready thanks to daily dedication to his craft.
“I’ve always believed that I was going to compete every day and be the best version of myself, whether it’s in the classroom or meeting with (offensive coordinator) Coach (Jake) Peetz or on the field,” Johnson said.
Johnson has earned a reputation among his teammates and coaches as a gifted athlete, a driven student and a humble yet poised leader. To be thrust into the undisputed starting quarterback position for a school with as much of a following as LSU requires those qualities to succeed.
The arrival of Peetz has brought some excitement to LSU’s offense, with promises from the young coordinator and Johnson that fingerprints of Joe Brady’s famous spread offense from 2019 will be coating the Tiger offense this year. LSU wants to bring back all the dimensions that potent 2019 offense consistently showed, as well as the flashes the 2020 team showed as well, particularly under Johnson in his two starts at the end of the year. Johnson’s athleticism and awareness allows him to extend and create plays.
“My offensive philosophy is we want to attack the defense on all fronts,” Peetz said on LSU football’s Hey Fightin’ Podcast in March.
With the top athletes LSU recruits annually and the scheme to get them in space, the offense is primed for another potential big season. But there must be a mature, talented decision maker calling the shots on the field for everything to click into place and take off. Johnson is ready for that as well.
“I definitely do feel more mature than I did last year,” Johnson said. “But there’s really never been no wide-eyed part of me. I just feel like I focus more, and I’ve honed in more on the details of what needs to go on and how we need to be a better football team.”
Brennan’s absence over the next few months does leave open some insurance questions for the team. Nussmeier is a talented freshman who just recently threw for 308 yards and three touchdowns in the latest LSU scrimmage this past Saturday, but experience matters, and he should not be expected to be starting SEC games this year. Without Brennan, it is crucial Johnson stays healthy. Johnson says that Brennan will still be an asset to the team off the field while he recovers.
“We all feel bad for Myles,” Johnson said. “It stung for the whole team. He’s a leader on our team. I was just looking forward to competing with him. We push each other, and I’m excited to have him back. He’s going to help us throughout the season.”
The son of former NFL quarterback Brad Johnson and the nephew of former Georgia and Miami head coach Mark Richt, Johnson comes from a football family. He knows how to deal with the pressures that come with it, which has helped with his development this offseason into a viable SEC starter.
“Max carries a little bit of swagger about him,” center Liam Shanahan said. “Just in the locker room, on the field. So I’m not too surprised to see him go out there and make plays because that’s what he does, and to see his progression from the spring to now has been awesome.”
Shanahan is not the only LSU lineman to see Johnson grow in confidence and comfort throughout his time in Baton Rouge. Beyond the classroom and the field lies Johnson the table tennis star. Teammates continue to rave about how comfortable he is in his own skin.
“One of the things he likes to do is play ping pong,” guard Ed Ingram said. “He has little table tennis tournaments upstairs in our players’ lounge. He likes to do that and challenge a lot of players.”
Before Burrow, LSU football had difficulty recruiting and developing consistent quarterback talent. It was undeniable, and while the program had other issues capping its success in the past 13 years before the arrival of the transfer from Ohio State, it is difficult to overlook the shortcomings behind the line as a key limiting factor when teams with similar financial resources reliably made the college football playoffs year after year.
Johnson represents an opportunity to establish a pipeline, one that looks to be in good shape for the future with the talent of Nussmeier and five-star in state St. Thomas More prospect Walker Howard. With the rest of the talent LSU is reputed to recruit annually, having strong quarterback play would be sweet dreams for those haunted by the nightmares of a Les Miles offense sputtering when no air threat kept defenses honest.
In truth, Johnson does not and should not worry about that. His focus is clearly on going into each day with purpose and effort, and the fruits of that labor will bear themselves in time. The ability to change program trajectories should not fall on the shoulders of one player.
Then again, Johnson may be the guy to flip the script once more. Fans are fixated on what LSU’s response to their abysmal .500 season, especially after how dominant the team was the year before. The team, according to fifth-year tackle Austin Deculus, is more united than he has ever seen.
“The major thing you always hear, and I think it’s the most used word of this past team, like going into the season would be the overall camaraderie of this team,” Deculus said. “I don’t think really in the past years, the team chemistry has always been there. For the years I’ve been here, but I think this is the most spoken out. It has been to where how like Coach O says, ‘One team, one heartbeat.’ I think this is the best example of that.”
The narrative may be in the clutches of imagination, but the materiality of LSU’s chances in the SEC is very real. If LSU fans’ hopeful perception of what is to come this season is to come true, Johnson’s arm and wits will be the story.
Just like we all planned it in our heads.