4,000 yards and 54 touchdowns. Those were former Louisiana high school quarterback Ju’Juan Johnson’s rushing numbers at Lafayette Christian Academy at the quarterback position before arriving on campus at LSU as a four-star recruit earlier this year.
Despite undergoing a position change to defensive back once arriving to LSU, On3 still ranked Johnson as the ninth best prospect in the state of Louisiana. Johnson was named Louisiana’s Mr. Football in 2023 and First-Team 4A All-State in 2023. During his four years as the starting quarterback at Lafayette Christian Academy, he led them to four straight appearances in the state championship game.
LSU head coach Brian Kelly did not view Johnson as a high school quarterback and therefore the position change.
Another previous high school standout that may come to mind here is former Cypress Ridge High School standout Russel Shepard who was a five-star recruit in LSU’s class of 2009. After his freshman season, Shepard was changed to wide receiver by head coach Les Miles. Shepard’s immense talent as an athlete saw him on the field even still.
Johnson appears to be taking the same path as Shepard did- a former standout high school quarterback making a position change at LSU.
Why is LSU switching Ju’Juan Johnson to running back?
The LSU Tigers are extremely thin at the running back position with only three scholarship running backs currently available. Starting running back from last season, Logan Diggs transferred to LSU. After that, emerging sophomore Trey Holley underwent legal issues that are still on-going at least for the next couple of weeks. And the latest is sixth year senior running back John Emory Jr. tore his ACL in practice.
This leaves the three scholarship running backs with senior Josh Williams being the only running back to shoulder any kind of substantial workload or classified as anything above sophomore class for the Tigers heading into the rest of the 2024 season. Sophomore Kaleb Jackson and true freshman Caden Durham are the other two available. Between the two of them, Jackson was obviously the only one that was even on the roster in 2023 and only had 21 carries.
While Jackson’s offseason was impressive and Williams has been there done that, you still inevitably need to add depth to a running back room beyond three scholarship backs. And that is why adding Johnson made sense in the eyes of Kelly.
What did Brian Kelly say about the running back position?
In a press conference on Thursday evening, the media kept asking Kelly about the running back position asking if there would be anyone added. Kelly kept steering away from the question with his answers than can be heard on LockedOn LSU with host Matt Moscona, but eventually did state that Jackson was being switched to the position.
“We moved Ju’Juan Johnson to running back…he is going to play some running back for us and he gives us the fourth back. He is an exciting player. He can do a lot of things,” Kelly said.
The fourth back in the rotation may be all Johnson is being billed as right now, but we have seen players in the past take off after position changes. Do not be surprised if Johnson is the next.