Friday, January 26, 2018

'I play big': Danny Johnson, first Southern player at Senior Bowl in 23 years, showcasing skills against the big boys

MOBILE, Alabama -- On this particular day, A.W. Mumford Stadium was an easy find for Phil Savage.

“Because the lights were on,” Savage laughed. “(Everything else) was pitch black.”

The Southern football team begins practice at 5:30 a.m., the reason it was dark when Savage visited campus last fall to evaluate one of the Football Championship Subdivision’s best players. Savage, a former NFL general manager and current executive director of the Senior Bowl, left that practice with all the information he needed.

Danny Johnson was going to the Senior Bowl.



Months later, Johnson was here on a sun-splashed day Thursday, donning his Southern helmet, orange Senior Bowl jersey and white pants and chasing down NFL-caliber wideouts like LSU’s DJ Chark and Missouri’s J’Mon Moore. He’s again showcasing his skills, this time in front of hundreds of NFL executives and pro scouts, and he’ll do it again Saturday in the Senior Bowl, televised on NFL Network from Mobile’s Ladd-Peebles Stadium.

It is the grandest of stages for a small-school cornerback like Johnson, an East Feliciana graduate who must face questions from scouts about his college competition.

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