Jett Johnson a 'Swiss Army Knife' For Mississippi State Heading Into His Fourth Year
Mississippi State linebacker Jett Johnson is heading into the fourth season of his college football career as a redshirt junior in 2021.
He's had an impressive camp with more than just a few notable plays this offseason, and brings a high level of versatility to the team. That's something special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach Matt Brock spoke to on Tuesday.
"Jett's playing Mike and Will (linebacker)," Brock said. "Jett's an intelligent young man. He's kind of a swiss army knife overall, he can do it all for us. That to me is the thing the Jett Johnson brings. You know where he's going to be, you know what he's going to do and he's going to give you maximum effort every time he's on the field."
Johnson doesn't seem bothered by the adjustment to also playing Will linebacker, and finds that the two positions are similar.
"It’s been fine. The Mike and Will are almost interchangeable," Johnson said. "So, I’ve learned both of those in camp, which has been good, I’ve been rotating at both Mike and Will. I feel that helps my versatility to know both positions. The Will has been fun, I like it a lot."
He's not the only player seeing action in more than one spot and obviously, the more that he and the other linebackers are capable of doing, the better the entire unit is going to be.
"I think (the versatility) can play a big part," Johnson said. "We’ve got a couple of guys dual training, the Mike and the Will. The more defensive savvy you are, at linebacker especially, the better the defensive unit will be."
Bulldogs defensive coordinator Zach Arnett talked about this dual-training roughly a week ago.
“It’s nice to let them specialize and hone in on one specific set of jobs, but anytime you’ve got cross-training, it increases your depth,” Arnett said.
Johnson has spent a good amount of time taking reps with the second-team and gives MSU solid depth at the position, drawing praise from teammates like fellow linebacker Aaron Brule.
"Jett's already been here, but Jett Johnson is looking real good," Brule said earlier this month. "Timar Rogers and Nic Mitchell, they're all coming along pretty well."
Johnson is very much a player who has had to work his way up and wait his turn, appearing in five games last year with three tackles and 0.5 tackles for loss, but he's expected to see a more expanded role this year after all the progress he's made.
He garnered attention in high school at Tupelo, racking up a career 447 tackles with 33.0 tackles for loss, 10.5 sacks and eight interceptions.
We'll get a chance to see just what level Johnson and the rest of Arnett's defense are on when the Bulldogs open the season against LA Tech on Sept. 4.
