Kansas State quarterback Avery Johnson knows about adversity.
After being relegated as a running quarterback who couldn’t pass the ball, he is in the midst of his best season as a passer.
Johnson has 1,654 yards and has thrown for 16 touchdowns at this point. Quite a difference from a year ago, when he only had 479 yards and 5 touchdown passes.
This year alone, he overcame a poor performance against BYU and a non-contact injury against Colorado.
Johnson credits the team mentality of playing one game at a time as his guiding force in overcoming the inevitable challenges that come his way.
“I feel like the biggest thing you have is when you have that next-play mentality,” he said. “Everyone’s eyes are always on me, whether I like it or not, with the position I’m in, people feed off my energy. Always try to never have negative energy, keep my head up because misfortune will strike, bad things will happen, I’m going to turn the ball over. Things are not going the way we want. The most important thing is how can I learn from it, how can I respond to those things and just keep trying not to get it all back in one play on the next play, take what the defense gives me and have confidence in myself and my game, so that I can help the team as best I can.”
Zachary Draves is a contributor to Kansas State Wildcats On SI. He can be reached at [email protected] and on Instagram @zdraves0633.
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