Florida Atlantic Football added a linebacker through the transfer portal on Thursday afternoon. Former Austin Peay and Coffeyville CC Middle Linebacker Khmari Johnson announced he will be spending his 3rd season of CFB in paradise.
The 6 ‘1 220 pound Memphis, Tennessee native spent the first 2 seasons of his collegiate career at Coffeyville Community College making a name for himself as a middle linebacker that was all over the field. Across 2 seasons and 19 total games played Johnson recorded 100 tackles, 13.5 for loss, 5 sacks, a forced fumble and recovery and an interception. Following a successful sophomore season at Coffeyville, Johnson transferred to Austin Peay, spending Spring Ball with the Governors before entering the transfer portal during the late Spring period.
Throughout the early part of his college career both at Coffeyville and short time at Austin Peay, Johnson believes he has developed necessary skills both on and off the field to be a contributor at the D1 level, noting a lot of that has come with help from FAU assistant LB’s Coach Kosi Eldridge, who spent time with him at Coffeyville, as well as his own desire to make a name for himself.
“Being detailed, listening to my coaches and trusting them, putting all my trust into them. My freshman year, I got the chance of that with my feet in the water. I played in a couple games, some key moments my freshman year. So they kind of shaped me for my sophomore season, with the addition of Coach Eldridge, just the line that assistant linebacker coach here at FAU, he coached me at Coffeyville. He came in late August, he came in as a linebacker coach. And then his background, playing for Texas Tech and everything that he did there. It was kind of like how can I not trust this man? How can I not listen to him? So just trusting him and listening to everything that he had to tell me, everything he had to say, and just hey, just going out on the field and playing ball for me, it was my main goal was to just make it out, not get there and just be a “could have been” and set myself up for success in life, on and off the field,” Johnson said.
Johnson played his High School ball for Memphis Central High School in Memphis, Tennessee and was a 2-way player, playing both Tight end and Middle Linebacker for the Warriors. A key contributor, Johnson had the potential to go D1 or FCS out of high school, however due to an academic issue he opted to go the Juco Route.
Now here at FAU, Johnson has worked his way to make up for his mistakes in the classroom, however not making it out of High School is something that has left him with a chip on his shoulder and he has spent the last 2 years knowing Coffeyville could be his last chance at “making it.”
“The reason I had to go to JUCO was definitely on me, not taking school seriously. So just coming into JUCO, I knew there were no more second chances. That was my only second chance. If I wanted to make this football thing work, especially at the division one level, I had to have the grades. You can’t play if you don’t have the grades. So I had to go to JUCO. I came in, came in as a non-qualifier and I actually graduated a semester early, because I want to say I took like, 67 credits, if not more, in 2024 alone. You know, just getting my mind right, as far as the schoolwork was my biggest thing, not being successful in the classroom because I didn’t apply myself, not because I couldn’t, but I just didn’t do it. So I know there was something that I had to come in and change around. My first semester in Coffeyville in the summer, I had a 4.0 and I had 3.7 the fall semester. So I have been serious about my work, just really being attentive, because this was something that I know I want to do,” Johnson said.
Following a Spring Ball with Austin Peay this past Spring, Johnson bet on himself once again, entering the transfer portal knowing that he had the skill set to play at the D1 level. After dominating at the Juco ranks, there were multiple D1 programs with interest in his services, however after a visit with FAU, Johnson ultimately committed on May 1st.
According to Johnson, that commitment was based around the relationships he was able to build in a short time with both the coaching staff and players, noting that he felt like FAU was building a real family.
“The coaches made me feel like Boca was home the moment I landed. I could tell the energy and effort wasn’t forced from them by the conversations we had. This is a real family that they have and are building and that’s something I didn’t want to miss being a part of. I had a chance to talk with Leon Hart and Tyler Stolsky separately and they both kind of repeated the same thing to me, but the main thing that stuck out to me was their relationships with all of the coaches and how they took me in instead of just looking at me as competition. This was something similar to what I had at Coffeyville when I came in as a freshman. To top it all off I have if not the best – one of the top linebacker coaches as a collective with Coach Eldridge and Coach Schwanz. Their backgrounds and work speak for itself so this whole situation was kind of a no brainer for me,” Johnson said.
As for the scheme and his role as a MLB, following a season of starting as a MLB at Coffeyville, Johnson feels prepared for to take on any assignment in the FAU defense, however he also believes the FAU coaching staff is setting him up for even more success by enacting a player friendly scheme and working with him specifically to catch him up to speed.
“Because of me coming in after the Spring, they are also doing other things to catch me up on the playbook. So these next two weeks before we have to report I have zoom calls and FaceTime calls with them to do some installs. I feel like it’s very player friendly, I feel like they are really putting everything together for us, like their job is to make sure that we understand. And I feel like they are going to do everything in they power for it to be like that,” Johnson said.
As for this season, what Johnson is looking forward to is winning, but also interacting with the fans and he believes the fans being engaged is something that is extremely important for FAU.
“I feel like it is extremely important for the fans to be involved, because that gives us a boost of energy on the field, just hearing everybody loud and cheering for us, really wanting us to win and succeed and it makes us want to win for them. So I feel like you work together. We want to do it for them, and they want us to win. So that’s something I’m definitely looking forward to coming in and being a part of,” Johnson said.
Johnson joins a linebacker room that will have some open jobs following the departures of Eddie Williams, Jackson Ambush and Desmond Tisdol to graduation and he becomes the 5th addition to the room this offseason, joining portal additions Tyler Stolsky and Leon Hart Jr, as well as freshman Hector Chavez and Robert Lee.