For the San Jose State Spartans basketball team, Johnson played twelve games as a basketball player after a large majority of the team walked off and refused to play under coach Bill Berry, accusing him of "mental cruelty".
With 1,219 yards rushing and 61 catches in receiving, Johnson was considered among the top 20 college football players in the United States in 1988.
Johnson's reasoning for missing practices was to help take care of his mother in the aftermath of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, but because telephone lines were down across the area, there wasn't much of a way for Johnson to communicate to his head coach Claude Gilbert.
Gilbert however claimed that Johnson had already skipped 2:00pm practice anyway to attend Game 3 of the 1989 World Series.
Ultimately, he never played a down for the team, having suffered an inflamed joint in his lower back during opening non-contact practice in training camp on July 18.