12/28/2018 football Edit

Gator Bowl was special for Rod Johnson

Tim Peeler

Special for TheWolfpacker.com

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Former NC State safety Rod Johnson was part of the Wolfpack's memorable Gator Bowl team in 2003. (TheWolfpacker.com)

Yes, there were memorable performances in NC State’s 28-6 victory over Notre Dame in the 2003 Gator Bowl.

Senior linebacker Dantonio Burnette’s hit that knocked Carlyle Holiday out of the game is the one that is still talked about the most, especially now that Burnette has returned to his alma mater as the director of strength and conditioning for the football team.

Junior quarterback Philip Rivers’ overall play in yet another Most Valuable Player performance earned him a front-page photo in the next day’s USA Today, thanks in part to his successful trick plays against the heavily favored Fighting Irish.

Scout player Joe Sinford left the field to chants of “Rudy, Rudy, Rudy” after making the first tackle of his college career and nearly intercepting a late game pass. He immediately took on the mantle of the famous Notre Dame walk-on and film subject, Rudy Ruettiger.

One NC State player, however, left Jacksonville, Fla., with mixed feelings after that dominating victory against college football’s most familiar name 16 years ago: fifth-year safety Rod Johnson.

The native of La Marque, Texas, had the worst week imaginable at the Gator Bowl. The day he and most of his teammates arrived for the game, his father called to tell him that his maternal grandfather, Julius Simpson, was gravely ill.

Five minutes later, his father called back to say that Simpson — Johnson’s constant companion growing up and the most consistent spectator at all of his football, basketball and baseball games — had died of a massive heart attack.

“I was fortunate to have both my parents growing up,” Johnson said. “My grandfather was someone who was always there to support me, always there to encourage me.”

Johnson, a fifth-year starter whose career had been hampered greatly by numerous injuries, thought about leaving Jacksonville and going back to Texas to be with his family. He couldn’t get his mind off of the disappointment on his 23rd birthday that New Year’s Eve.

“It broke my heart,” recalled Johnson, who had missed all of 2001 with a broken arm and most of 2000 after having surgery to repair a sprained medial collateral ligament in his knee.

His mother talked him into staying for the game.

“Papaw wants you to play,” she told him. “We’ll do something after the game.”

Really, though, what difference was he going to make in this game against college football’s most famous powerhouse?

Late in the second quarter, after Burnette knocked Holiday out of the game, Johnson stepped in front of Irish wide receiver Arnaz Battle and picked off a Pat Dillingham pass. It was just the second interception of his Wolfpack career. Five plays later, Rivers took State to the end zone for the third time in the second quarter with a 10-yard pass to Jerricho Cotchery that gave State a 21-3 lead.

In the second half, Johnson ended Notre Dame’s red-zone threat when he intercepted his second pass in the Wolfpack end zone.

Late in the fourth quarter, Johnson did it again, when the Irish entered full desperation mode with its passing offense.

“It was such a satisfying win,” Johnson said. “Not for anything I did, but because that whole week, all we heard was that the game was about Notre Dame and some other team. No one talked about us at all. And if they did at all, it was about how many offensive threats we had with Philip, Jerricho and T.A. [McLendon].

“No one talked about our defense at all.”

As Johnson ran off the field for the final time, head coach Chuck Amato met him on the sidelines.

“Your grandfather saw everything,” the coach said.

Johnson finished the season with a team-leading four interceptions, topping fellow safety Terrance Holt by one. His three picks remain tied for the school single-game record and the most ever in a bowl game.

“I’ve always been a very, very patient person,” Johnson said. “I guess waiting paid off for me. I really appreciate the faith Coach Amato had in me, and what coach Joe Pate did when he recruited me to NC State out of Texas.

“It was just an awesome experience.”

Johnson earned his degree later that year and was approached by NC State director of compliance Jon Fagg about an internship. He spent one year as an intern, and Fagg used his contacts to find Johnson a full-time job as an assistant eligibility coordinator at Oklahoma State in 2006.

In 2012, he moved over to the Mike Gundy’s football program as the assistant operations director, a position he still holds today.

Johnson and his wife Shanna — a former Oklahoma gymnast — are raising a Cowpoke family that includes 16-year-old son Skyy, 14-year-old son Vayden and 7-month-old daughter Quincie.

The Cowboys should be finishing up their Liberty Bowl game against Missouri in Memphis just in time for the Johnson family to get back to the team hotel to see the Wolfpack play.

And he’ll think about his grandfather, the Wolfpack and the greatest New Year’s Day of his life.

Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu.