CLEMSON – With just a minute left in Clemson’s loss to SMU last October, one Mustang player tiptoed through defenders into the end zone to punctuate the Tigers’ fourth loss of the season.

As Clemson fans were silenced and the jumbotron updated a 35-24 score, running back Chris Johnson Jr. and his teammates celebrated his game-sealing touchdown with customary handshakes and dances.

In his postgame press conference, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney also danced between topics of credibility, the future, and his team’s shortcomings. But the longtime leader also snuck in a line about the final touchdown and Johnson’s reign of terror over the Tigers’ defense that afternoon.

“We did let the back slip through a couple times,” Swinney said. “I mean, that kid (Johnson) is fast. Number six especially. They got us in some man coverage a couple times and they caught us.”

Swinney, who critiqued his team’s run-game against SMU, was factually correct about the running back’s speed. Johnson, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., native, won Florida’s state title in the 100- and 200-meter dashes in 2022, anchoring a relay team that also captured the gold medal.

Johnson’s speed, and ability to play multiple positions on the gridiron, helped him earn nearly 20 Power Four offers, including one from Clemson that came mere months after his victories on the track.

Three years later, after two seasons at Miami, and a year at SMU that included a 99-yard performance against the Tigers, Johnson committed to Clemson out of the transfer portal in January of 2026. The “fast” running back that caught Swinney’s eye in high school and again in 2025 was finally a Clemson Tiger. 

“(Johnson) is fast fast,” Swinney said in January. “He brings a unique skill set, when you’re talking about threatening horizontally and vertically. He’s touchdown fast. Meaning, if he breaks a tackle, it’s a touchdown. If they miss a tackle, it’s a touchdown.”

After complimenting Johnson’s speed–first as an opponent and later as a portal addition — behind the scenes, the Tigers’ leader gave his new athlete a challenge. For maybe the first time in his life, Johnson was told he needed to be something more than just blazing fast.

“When I first met (Johnson), I told him, ‘You don’t look like a guy that’s serious about college. You don’t. I’m just being honest with you,'” Swinney said. “‘You don’t look like a guy that’s been in college a couple years.’ He looked like a guy that ain’t been serious about being great, because he didn’t look like he’d been in a weight program or had been taking nutrition, because I know he’s been in one but he ain’t been taking advantage.”

In high school, while the six-foot-tall multi-sport athlete was dashing to state championships, he weighed in at around 175 pounds. After three years under two collegiate weight training programs, Johnson weighed only 184 pounds, a small difference for a player in constant workouts. 

But after that singular conversation with Swinney, Clemson’s newest running back answered the call. 

“I sat down with Coach Swinney when I came here on my official visit and he just gave me a heart-to-heart conversation,” Johnson said. “But just buying into the program and just getting to where I want to be and Coach Swinney knows what I’m capable of, and he knows what I bring to the table. He just wants to see me at my best.” 

Since January, according to Swinney, Johnson has put on 10 pounds of muscle, buying into coach Chad Morris’ system that is built around a strong running game. While the lone offensive transfer was not heavily utilized in Clemson’s Annual Orange & White Spring Game, he showed off his bigger frame with one 10-yard run that mirrored the explosiveness Tiger fans saw last October at Memorial Stadium.

“If he really buys in it’s just going to accentuate all the gifts that he’s got,” Swinney said. “And so I’ve been very encouraged with him. I mean he’s what we thought he’d be. He’s explosive, he’s fast, he’s great ball skills, he’s a guy that we can use in a lot of ways.”

In just one year, Johnson went from a problem for Clemson’s defense to a potential patch for last year’s lackluster run game. Tiger fans will have their next chance to glimpse his skills on Sept. 5, when Clemson opens its season against LSU at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.