News broke Wednesday that Texas A&M Aggies quarterback Conner Weigman will be out for the rest of the season with a foot injury, giving way to signal-caller Max Johnson to lead the team.
In a role reversal from Johnson's season-ending injury giving way to Weigman's emergence, the former has a chance to remind people what he's capable of in the final eight games of the year. His brother, Aggies tight end Jake Johnson, believes Max Johnson has what it takes to lead the team into a gauntlet of a Southeastern Conference slate Texas A&M is facing.
"A lot of people forget about it, but he's been in the SEC for a lot of years and he's been dominating the SEC West," Jake Johnson said Monday. "He's got a lot of touchdowns to his name, and he's totally confident. He's, honestly, the toughest competitor that's ever been a part of my life. I think he leads the team well. He has respect of the players, and he's going to go compete and give it his all every game."
Max Johnson stepped in during a 6-3 game that was clunky for the Aggies early on and commanded the offense, helping lead three touchdown drives to cruise to a 27-10 win.
The Athens, Georgia, native outplayed Weigman, having a higher completion percentage, 53 more passing yards and two more passing touchdowns on three fewer attempts.
Though he only had a small sample size, Max Johnson's 217.6 passer rating was a new career high, while his two touchdown passes were the most in his Texas A&M career — and both were special for separate reasons.
The first was a 22-yard connection with Jake Johnson, who muscled his way into the end zone for his first-career score and the first touchdown reception from his brother since their days at Oconee County High School.
On the Aggies' next offensive possession, Max Johnson lofted a sky-high pass that dropped into the arms of wide receiver Evan Stewart in stride for a 37-yard strike. Max Johnson has been more as a high-percentage-completion thrower of the football in his time at Texas A&M, but that throw rekindled the vertical threat he showed at LSU.
In a full 12-game season with the Tigers in 2021, Max Johnson completed 60.3 percent of his 373 pass attempts for 2,815 yards, 27 touchdowns and six interceptions.
Without Weigman, Max Johnson has the track record that he's going to take care of the football and be efficient in his work.
Don't be so quick to put Texas A&M's season in the gutter just yet.
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