Cedric Johnson: Playing Texas A&M is 'always crazy'

One game on Ole Miss‘ SEC schedule sticks out to defensive end Cedric Johnson each season.

Evidently, there’s a different type of juice required for Johnson when it comes to playing against the Texas A&M Aggies. During SEC Media Days in Nashville, the Rebels defender elaborated on why playing against Jimbo Fisher‘s squad is always a good time.

“Those games are always fun to play in,” explained the Ole Miss defender. “A lot of rivalry-type situations, especially goes on Twitter. Those games are always crazy. I like playing against them, especially with Coach Durkin there now. I always loved him.

“So it’s just always fun, fun rivalry to play. I like playing there.”

Alas, Johnson gets geared up different to play against the Aggies. Over the course of his time with Ole Miss, the program has had some serious success against Texas A&M, so it’s easy to see why he’s always rearing up to play against them.

Moreover, Johnson also gave his initial impressions of freshly-minted Ole Miss defensive coordinator Pete Golding, already having a vision of how Ole Miss’ problems are going to be fixed. Johnson sees the personal side of his defensive coordinator as well, calling him a funny guy,

“I like him a lot,” Johnson said on Thursday at SEC Media Days. “He’s funny. If you didn’t know, he’s a pretty funny guy. I really like him, how particular in detail he is in the defense. 

“But he doesn’t stray away from at the end of the day we just playing ball, play the game you love, play hard, play fast, play physical. That will take care of the majority of our problems, take care of the majority of things. That’s the main thing.”

With a new defensive coordinator comes a new role for Johnson. Golding is going to want his EDGE players to drop back into coverage every so often. But as mentioned, the physicality is going to matter when going up against SEC tackles.

Johnson described the possibility as “fun” for him and all of his teammates. Truly a new approach for every player up front heading into the 2023 season.

“My role, I feel like I’m going to be moving a lot more, might be dropping back some, coming off the edge like I usually do,” Johnson said. “It’s going to be a lot more fun for me, just the D-line in general.”

Whether it’s Texas A&M or a different squad in 2023, Cedric Johnson is ready to lead Ole Miss to some impressive victories this year.