ALL-TIME BOBCATS TOP 25: #18 Ryan Johnson
8/23/2022 2:00:00 PM | Football
Ryan Johnson was a battering ram of a back when he needed to be, with good speed and short space quickness
Ryan Johnson checks in as out 18th-ranked Bobcat of all time based on the vote of fans after an initial screening by a Blue Ribbon panel, but his high points are unrivaled in program history. His MSU career rushing record, CoSIDA Academic All-America of the Year honor in 2001, and hallmark games in Ogden as a junior and Missoula as a senior cement his place as a Bobcat legend...
Ryan Johnson, RB, 1999-2002
ALL-TIME TEAM: None previously
HONORS: 2001 CoSIDA Academic All-America of the Year (for all of college football), and CoSIDA Academic All-America in 2000, 2001 and 2002; 1st Team All-Big Sky in 2002, 2nd Team All-Big Sky in 2001
A CLOSER LOOK: Championships aren't won overnight. Montana State's run of Big Sky titles in the early 2000s took root in 1998, when Cliff Hysell and his staff added championship caliber student-athletes in a quantity not recently attainable because of renovations that led to the transition of Reno H. Sales Stadium to Bobcat Stadium.
When plans and architects' renderings became a beautiful new stadium and the first serious facilities upgrade since 1973, recruiting success followed. Several future stars joined the MSU program that winter, but none would shine as bright as running back Ryan Johnson. In fact, very few in Bobcat history impacted the MSU program that significantly.
After redshirting in 1998, Johnson flashed as a redshirt freshman. He gained 352 yards on just 71 carries, averaging 5.0 yards a carry, and it was apparent that only injuries could keep Johnson from stardom. Carrying the load for an offense that struggled to complete passes during the winless 2000 season, and surrounded by a cast of young players that would help lift the programs to levels it would have been hard to even dream about just five years earlier, Johnson gained 665 yards as a sophomore.
And then things started cooking. Through player development supplemented with a key transfer, the offensive line of Brent Swaggert, Mataio Toilolo, Nic Stevenson, Mike Quast and Brian Choi was forged. After being stonewalled in the opener at UAB by a defense littered with NFL talent, and having lost 16 straight games, Johnson rose to the occasion in week two at Weber State. He dominated the Wildcats defense in every way imaginable, rushing for 243 yards, the second-best single game total in school history, and scored two touchdowns. Both came in a fourth quarter that saw the Cats outscore Weber 19-0, including the clincher with less than three minutes to play, as MSU barged into the win column for the first time since 1999. It was an exhilerating win that became a familiar blueprint for the Mike Kramer era.
The 2001 season was an up-and-down affair. Johnson gained 237 yards two weeks later against Cal State Northridge, then two weeks after that began a five-game string with more than 100 yards rushing. That remained the most in school history (shared with Bobcat greats such as Steve Kracher and Cody Kirk) until Troy Andersen (speaking of Bobcat greats) strung together six in a row in 2018. He finished that season with 1,537 yards, a mark not eclipsed until Isaiah Ifanse's spectacular 2021 season. Johnson was lauded as 1st Team All-Big Sky that season.
But everything else fell into the category of less-consequential in early December. That's when the College Sports Information Directors of America feted Johnson - who had already been named 1st Team Academic All-America - was the Academic All-America of the Year. It was an unprecedented honor for a Big Sky Conference player, and gave Johnson status as the top student-athlete in all of college football. It was a remarkable achievement that towers over the MSU program even after a couple decades of context.
That set the stage for a 2002 season that was, by any measure, curious. No one really knew what to do with this miracle team that came from the depths to snatch a share of the Big Sky title. And no one could quite figure out what to make of Johnson's breakout junior season.
The questions, or at least curiosity, was allayed early. Johnson didn't burst out of the gates in 2002, he obliterated them. He gained 216 yards in the opener against Saint Mary's, then after three slow starts he missed the Central Washington game with an injury. That proved disastrous, as MSU lost to the Division II foe.
A week later, everything had changed. Kramer and offensive coordinator Don Bailey pulled the trigger on a quarterback change, inserting Travis Lulay into the starting lineup, and in a narrow and controversial lost at Idaho State Johnson gained 119 yards. A week later he again shattered Weber State's defense, gaining 159 yards, and in the miracle wins against Sacramento State (113 yards) and Eastern Washington (142 yards) he fueled the offense. Montana State survived a home game against Portland State without an injured Johnson, but the best was yet to come.
On a snowy day at Washington-Grizzly Stadium, everything Johnson had put into his football career came into focus and was on display for the world to see. He threw his battered body into the Grizzlies' dominant defense 39 times, and his 132 rushing yards provided the balance and ball control the Bobcats needed on that day. While MSU's defense was suffocating UM, Johnson and the Cat offensive line exerted their will. Time and again. It was a dominating effort given the bitter conditions and the game's meaning, and the team's first win in this ancient rivalry will be celebrated as long as Montana State plays football.
So will Johnson's effort, and so will Johnson's career. He gained 3,646 yards in the Blue and Gold, the most ever. He built on the promise of that freshman year under Cliff Hysell, gaining steam until it culminated with that brilliant performance in Missoula that led the Cats to one of the program's most significant regular season wins. It features some brilliant individual and team moments, including an award signifying that he was college football's best student-athlete in 2001.
FROM TEAMMATE TRAVIS LULAY: "RJ was another one of those guys, a Bobcat legend, just a super physically gifted guy. He was another guy, in a different way, that his athletic persona was different than how he was interpersonally. He always came across as serious, maybe a little stiff, and he put the pads on and he had great burst, great top speed, and he didn't look like a guy that could turn it over as quickly as he could. He was one of the first guys that was a welcome to college moment, there are grown me non this team. When I reported that fall I went up to say hi to the coaches offices and he was coming out and I thought, this is what Big Sky football players look like? He's huge.
"His moment will forever be that '02 Cat-Griz when he just shouldered so much of the load that day. The weather was awful and we were so limited on offense, so that day really belongs to Ryan and the offensive line. And he'd been banged up that year, too. So for him, in a November game in the snow, that was a deserved shining moment, the pinnacle of RJ's career."
FROM FORMER BOBCAT ASSISTANT COACH KANE IOANE: "Ryan is one of the best student-athletes I've ever encountered or been around. You talk about a 4.0 (GPA) guy who went on and did amazing things off the field but is still one of the best running backs I ever faced as far as trying to bring him down, whether it's in the hole, in short space or trying to run him down and get an angle on him, because he was a guy that had the size to run you over but had amazing speed to be able to make you miss and hit the long run. He's one of the best running backs I've ever seen in person, and one of the best people I've ever been around. He is a tremendous human being in terms of how he represented Montana State as a student-athlete in so many different ways."
Ryan Johnson, RB, 1999-2002
ALL-TIME TEAM: None previously
HONORS: 2001 CoSIDA Academic All-America of the Year (for all of college football), and CoSIDA Academic All-America in 2000, 2001 and 2002; 1st Team All-Big Sky in 2002, 2nd Team All-Big Sky in 2001
A CLOSER LOOK: Championships aren't won overnight. Montana State's run of Big Sky titles in the early 2000s took root in 1998, when Cliff Hysell and his staff added championship caliber student-athletes in a quantity not recently attainable because of renovations that led to the transition of Reno H. Sales Stadium to Bobcat Stadium.
When plans and architects' renderings became a beautiful new stadium and the first serious facilities upgrade since 1973, recruiting success followed. Several future stars joined the MSU program that winter, but none would shine as bright as running back Ryan Johnson. In fact, very few in Bobcat history impacted the MSU program that significantly.
After redshirting in 1998, Johnson flashed as a redshirt freshman. He gained 352 yards on just 71 carries, averaging 5.0 yards a carry, and it was apparent that only injuries could keep Johnson from stardom. Carrying the load for an offense that struggled to complete passes during the winless 2000 season, and surrounded by a cast of young players that would help lift the programs to levels it would have been hard to even dream about just five years earlier, Johnson gained 665 yards as a sophomore.
And then things started cooking. Through player development supplemented with a key transfer, the offensive line of Brent Swaggert, Mataio Toilolo, Nic Stevenson, Mike Quast and Brian Choi was forged. After being stonewalled in the opener at UAB by a defense littered with NFL talent, and having lost 16 straight games, Johnson rose to the occasion in week two at Weber State. He dominated the Wildcats defense in every way imaginable, rushing for 243 yards, the second-best single game total in school history, and scored two touchdowns. Both came in a fourth quarter that saw the Cats outscore Weber 19-0, including the clincher with less than three minutes to play, as MSU barged into the win column for the first time since 1999. It was an exhilerating win that became a familiar blueprint for the Mike Kramer era.
The 2001 season was an up-and-down affair. Johnson gained 237 yards two weeks later against Cal State Northridge, then two weeks after that began a five-game string with more than 100 yards rushing. That remained the most in school history (shared with Bobcat greats such as Steve Kracher and Cody Kirk) until Troy Andersen (speaking of Bobcat greats) strung together six in a row in 2018. He finished that season with 1,537 yards, a mark not eclipsed until Isaiah Ifanse's spectacular 2021 season. Johnson was lauded as 1st Team All-Big Sky that season.
But everything else fell into the category of less-consequential in early December. That's when the College Sports Information Directors of America feted Johnson - who had already been named 1st Team Academic All-America - was the Academic All-America of the Year. It was an unprecedented honor for a Big Sky Conference player, and gave Johnson status as the top student-athlete in all of college football. It was a remarkable achievement that towers over the MSU program even after a couple decades of context.
That set the stage for a 2002 season that was, by any measure, curious. No one really knew what to do with this miracle team that came from the depths to snatch a share of the Big Sky title. And no one could quite figure out what to make of Johnson's breakout junior season.
The questions, or at least curiosity, was allayed early. Johnson didn't burst out of the gates in 2002, he obliterated them. He gained 216 yards in the opener against Saint Mary's, then after three slow starts he missed the Central Washington game with an injury. That proved disastrous, as MSU lost to the Division II foe.
A week later, everything had changed. Kramer and offensive coordinator Don Bailey pulled the trigger on a quarterback change, inserting Travis Lulay into the starting lineup, and in a narrow and controversial lost at Idaho State Johnson gained 119 yards. A week later he again shattered Weber State's defense, gaining 159 yards, and in the miracle wins against Sacramento State (113 yards) and Eastern Washington (142 yards) he fueled the offense. Montana State survived a home game against Portland State without an injured Johnson, but the best was yet to come.
On a snowy day at Washington-Grizzly Stadium, everything Johnson had put into his football career came into focus and was on display for the world to see. He threw his battered body into the Grizzlies' dominant defense 39 times, and his 132 rushing yards provided the balance and ball control the Bobcats needed on that day. While MSU's defense was suffocating UM, Johnson and the Cat offensive line exerted their will. Time and again. It was a dominating effort given the bitter conditions and the game's meaning, and the team's first win in this ancient rivalry will be celebrated as long as Montana State plays football.
So will Johnson's effort, and so will Johnson's career. He gained 3,646 yards in the Blue and Gold, the most ever. He built on the promise of that freshman year under Cliff Hysell, gaining steam until it culminated with that brilliant performance in Missoula that led the Cats to one of the program's most significant regular season wins. It features some brilliant individual and team moments, including an award signifying that he was college football's best student-athlete in 2001.
FROM TEAMMATE TRAVIS LULAY: "RJ was another one of those guys, a Bobcat legend, just a super physically gifted guy. He was another guy, in a different way, that his athletic persona was different than how he was interpersonally. He always came across as serious, maybe a little stiff, and he put the pads on and he had great burst, great top speed, and he didn't look like a guy that could turn it over as quickly as he could. He was one of the first guys that was a welcome to college moment, there are grown me non this team. When I reported that fall I went up to say hi to the coaches offices and he was coming out and I thought, this is what Big Sky football players look like? He's huge.
"His moment will forever be that '02 Cat-Griz when he just shouldered so much of the load that day. The weather was awful and we were so limited on offense, so that day really belongs to Ryan and the offensive line. And he'd been banged up that year, too. So for him, in a November game in the snow, that was a deserved shining moment, the pinnacle of RJ's career."
FROM FORMER BOBCAT ASSISTANT COACH KANE IOANE: "Ryan is one of the best student-athletes I've ever encountered or been around. You talk about a 4.0 (GPA) guy who went on and did amazing things off the field but is still one of the best running backs I ever faced as far as trying to bring him down, whether it's in the hole, in short space or trying to run him down and get an angle on him, because he was a guy that had the size to run you over but had amazing speed to be able to make you miss and hit the long run. He's one of the best running backs I've ever seen in person, and one of the best people I've ever been around. He is a tremendous human being in terms of how he represented Montana State as a student-athlete in so many different ways."
Players Mentioned
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