Gator Great safety Todd Johnson excited about direction of Gator program
by Bob Redman, aka “Hollywood Bob”
Todd Johnson has been back to Gainesville quite a bit since his playing days for the Florida Gators from 1998 to 2002. His latest trip back to The Swamp was for the Orange and Blue spring game, where we caught up with him at Johnny Townsend’s benefit for pediatric oncology through UF Health.
Johnson was a head banger of a safety for Florida who went on to play seven years in the NFL. Then, he served as head coach of the high school football team at Sarasota Riverview and is currently an assistant at the same school.
Among a large group of former Gator players in attendance on Thursday, Johnson happened to be in line behind me as I was waiting for my pass to get in. I heard “Hollywood” from behind me and immediately recognized the voice before turning around and seeing Johnson. One arm cradled a football and the other extended with a hand extended to shake mine.
After chatting for a bit, getting inside and getting more comfortable with the setting, I approached Johnson to hear his thoughts about the Gators’ current state of affairs under head coach Billy Napier.
“I’m just excited about the direction of the program and the changes that we’ve seen,” he said. “We’ve all talked as alumni that things needed to be different, and it seems that he’s able to get things done that a lot of us have known needed to be changed over the years.”
An example of this was to find a good parking situation for players with cars. Football players are so time constrained between practice, meetings, classes and studying.
Through decades, players have been ticketed on campus for parking near the stadium while trying to be on time for meetings, practice or other responsibilities. They have had boots placed on their cars and had them towed away because of excessive fines.
It is asking a lot for these athletes to deal with time constraints, yet not provide somewhere to park when trying to be on time. New head coach Billy Napier had the problem solved in the first two weeks of getting the job. He helped secure parking on the north lawn of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium for football players. It happened to be right in the location of Townsend’s benefit for pediatric oncology.
Johnson thought of what it would have been like for his teammates to park in the spot.
“That would be fantastic,” he said. “Thankfully, I lived close and had a scooter, and that worked out for me. It’s a need for the players to be able to have access to parking and not have to deal with trying to find spots and worrying about getting tickets. It’s a legitimate need that he solved so kudos to him and his staff.”
Johnson has fond memories of his playing days at Florida. He finished his football career as a two-time First-Team All-SEC selection in 2000-01 and Second-Team All-SEC pick in 2002. He was named to Coaches’ 1999 SEC All-Freshman Team. He had a career 284 tackles, with 14 pass deflections, nine interceptions, eight fumble recoveries, three blocked kicks, two forced fumbles and two quarterback hurries.
Johnson is also an avid program supporter. He knows that Napier has the right attitude to tackle the issues that have fallen on the program in terms of keeping up with the Joneses.
“Push the line and really do what’s right for the players and not just do things the way we’ve always done them,” he said.
It has just been four months or so since Napier took over the program. He and his staff have tried to tackle so much in that time. Johnson said they have done a pretty good job of trying to bring Gator Greats into the fold and involved back in the program.
“I think he’s done a great job, him and his staff and Vernell (Brown), reaching out to former players,” Johnson said. “It’s events like this, being on campus and having us with the ability to get in there for the spring game and get down on the field. Just as long as they reach out to us and have some events for us, that’s a positive thing. Because we all want to come here and support them, sometimes we just need a little reason to get motivated to get here.”
Johnson is not one that needs a lot of motivation to get beck. He does recognize positive change when he sees it — and he is certainly seeing it now.