ATHENS — Richardson Berkner Head Football Coach Jim Ledford can remember Josh Johnson all the way back to middle school.

First impressions? Probably not ever going to be big or fast enough to be an impact player.

Not one to let others’ expectations define him, Johnson went out of his way to prove Ledford wrong.

As a sophomore, Johnson volunteered himself to play fullback in Ledford’s triple option offense.

Problem was, Ledford was looking for a back with a little more size that invites some level of durability. So the Rams’ coaching staff went with another guy at the position — until that guy went down with an injury during a scrimmage against Keller Fossil Ridge.

Coaches were left with a dilemma — should they start the undersized Johnson at fullback, or find someone else with better size? With powerhouse Duncanville coming up on the schedule, Ledford was worried he was throwing Johnson into the wringer from which he’d emerge bruised and broken.

“Then Josh ran for 240 yards in that game, and the other kid never got his job back,” Ledford said.

Johnson hasn’t stopped raising eyebrows since. Only this year, he’s doing it on a larger stage.

Johnson, a 5-11, 195-pound sophomore at Trinity Valley Community College, leads the Southwest Junior College Football Conference in rushing yards (741), carries (118) and rushing touchdowns (11)  as the Cardinals prepare to host Blinn (4-2, 1-2 in SWJCFC) Saturday at Bruce Field.

Johnson has continued to play with a fullback’s rough and tumble attitude, though he hits holes and leaves them as if they’re on fire. Already he has earned conference Offensive Player of the Week honors and he has a pair of 200-yard games to his credit. Last week he went off for 198 in a 38-17 win over Northeastern Oklahoma.

Johnson developed his style at Berkner, where he started as a sophomore. Ledford describes Johnson as “being all-in” all the time. To illustrate, he recalled a practice when Johnson hurt three defensive players — on one run.

“The thing he has more than anybody else is, he has tremendous vision and he runs violently,” Ledford said. “You can’t coach that. Josh is the best back I’ve ever coached, and I’ve coached 29 years and had nine play in the NFL. Never had one before like him, and not one since.”

Johnson signed with Northwestern State in Louisiana after high school, and he cleared his SAT. But his didn’t qualify because of a score on a state standardized test.

He initially decided to play at Trinity Valley, but that decision took a bit of a detour after Johnson arrived on campus for a visit and decided he didn’t want to come to Athens.

After sitting out the fall, however, he said he missed the game and contacted Ledford and TVCC Head Coach Brad Smiley, who gave Johnson a second chance.

He hasn’t disappointed since. He was all-conference as a freshman, sharing time in the backfield with All-American Chad Winbush (now at the University of Alabama-Birmingham) and playing only 6 1/2 games due to a broken jaw.

“That (physical style) is what makes him so fun to watch,” Smiley said. “It makes him fun to coach. He’s not your typical running back looking to get what he can get and then run out of bounds.”

He hasn’t broken anything so far this season, at least on his body. But you can still see the physical nature of his game, if by nothing else looking at a clean jersey fresh out of the wash that’s torn in spots and pocked with dark paint from the helmets of teams TVCC has played this season.

“I just figure throughout a game, the more you punish somebody, the less they’re gonna want to come tackle you later,” Johnson said.

Blinn Buccaneers

At A Glance

Last year’s game: Trinity Valley suffered a 63-29 loss to the Buccaneers in Brenham.

Just the facts: The Bucs have won four consecutive meetings against the Cardinals. TVCC last defeated Blinn during the conference semifinals in 2005 by a score of 30-27.

Be on the lookout for ... QB Justin Tuggle, who leads the SWJCFC in passing (75 of 140, 1,057 yards, 8 TDs, 11 INTs). Tuggle is also the conference’s fifth-leading rusher with 331 yards to go with 6 TDs. RB Marion Grice has run for 390 yards and 8 TDs.

Nibble on this: The starting quarterback on Blinn’s NJCAA championship team of 2009, Cam Newton, was Tim Tebow’s backup at Florida before he left the school. After leading Blinn to the title, Newton signed at Auburn, where he is the starting QB on the nation’s No. 7 Auburn Tigers, which are 6-0 and still in contention for a national championship.

— Jayson Larson