Powering The Cobber Offense

Article reprinted courtesy of Fargo Forum and reporter Eric Peterson. Picture courtesy of Fargo Forum photographer Dave Samson.

MOORHEAD—When he was in his early teens, Chad Johnson and older brother, Shawn, put a snowmobile engine into a golf cart to zip around their family farm.

"We got a golf cart going like 50 miles per hour," Chad said with a smile. "It was pretty sweet. ... We did a bunch of stuff like that growing up."

The souped-up golf cart lasted only a few weeks before it "blew up," said Chad, who has three older brothers and grew up on a hobby farm near the Buffalo River Race Park.

"They were daredevils," Dennis Johnson said of his sons.

Chad Johnson is motoring around the football field these days, the leading rusher for the Concordia Cobbers. The 6-foot-1, 210-pound junior fullback is averaging nearly 80 rushing yards per game as Concordia enters the last game in the regular season against Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rival St. John's on Saturday, Nov. 12.

Concordia (7-2, 6-1 MIAC) needs a victory against the No. 8-ranked Johnnies (8-1, 6-1) to keep its NCAA Division III playoff hopes alive.

"If we knock them off, it's a huge win late in the year," Cobbers head coach Terry Horan said. "I can't see how they could keep us out."

Johnson has rushed for 710 yards and 12 touchdowns through nine games, averaging 6.6 yards per carry. He's been the engine in a Concordia running game that is averaging 277.4 yards per game to lead the MIAC.

"He's got great vision," said Cobber junior quarterback Michael Herzog, who is a roommate with Johnson. "He's got the speed and the feet that he can make the cuts that most big fullbacks can't. He can take it the distance from anywhere."

Dennis remembered when his two youngest sons built that golf cart with the snowmobile engine. They secured the engine with vice grips that Dennis would find along the driveway if one popped off.

"They were always in the shop," Dennis said. "I always had a shop with a car hoist in it."

Dennis, who has been an auto mechanic since 1985, now owns an auto repair shop in Moorhead. Chad worked there a few times a week last summer, mounting and balancing tires, doing oil changes and changing headlights.

"Working with my brothers was kind of cool," said Chad Johnson, who is a business major.

"I do need my oil changed so I should ask him about that," Herzog said with a laugh.

Chad, who also plays baseball at Concordia and has always liked to lift weights, followed in his older brothers' footsteps (Justin, Luke and Shawn) when it came to athletics, Dennis said. All four were captains for the Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton football team when they were in high school.

"They always got along very good," Dennis said. "They were very competitive. They all had each other's backs."

Horan describes Chad as a "blue-collar" kid who knows how to gets his hands dirty. Johnson exudes the same effort in practice as he does on game day. Horan said that competitive drive, paired with his natural ability, are what make him a tough back to contain.

Herzog said Johnson is one of the fastest players on the team.

"He'll explode through the line and he runs to score (touchdowns)," Horan said.

When asked to compare his playing style to an engine part, Johnson responded:

"A piston. It just drives the whole engine. It gives it power."