Oregon’s win over Ohio State came with a heavy note attached, and tight end Jamari Johnson didn’t hide how much it hit him when he talked Tuesday about Teitum Tuioti’s season-ending knee injury.
Dan Lanning said Tuioti will miss the rest of the year after the injury suffered against Ohio State required surgery. Johnson, one of the Ducks’ offensive players who also felt the impact of the moment, said the news landed hard.
"It brought a tear to my eye, man, to see this guy working every day and just to see it taken away from him in the snap of a finger. It was emotional, and I'm praying for my guy," said Johnson.
Johnson also had his own spotlight in the win, and it came on one of Oregon’s trickiest calls of the day. Tuioti helped set the tone with a fake punt pass to Matayo Uiagalelei, while Johnson lined up under center and punched in a quarterback sneak at the goal line just before halftime. With only two seconds left, it was almost certainly the final snap of the half either way.
He said the play had been in the works for a while.
"Yeah, we've been practicing that for a little while. And Poncho been telling me to don't be scared to get up under there.
And I was like,’All right, I got you.’ But once I heard it was getting called, I just knew we just got to execute it."
For Johnson, the moment was less about nerves and more about finishing the job.
"Yeah, it wasn't nothing different or scary about it. It was a do-or-die moment, and we chose to do."
He tied that mindset to Oregon’s bigger approach in the game and beyond.
"It happened because we chose to make that decision. We chose this season. It hasn't been going our way, and we decided to flip things around and to just bring as much problems as we could to other teams that we got coming up."
Johnson also spoke about the group around him, including the receivers and the offense as a whole.
"Very. All of our receivers, it's an honor to have them on the field with me. And to see that three back out there, man, it was a good feeling."
"It's been good to back like usual, get the offense rolling, and it feels great to put the ball in the end zone. We just got to keep doing that, stay on that track."
He was also candid about a drop that briefly got in his head, saying he and Dante Moore talked on the sideline after it happened.
"That's crazy that you brought that up because I talked about this with Dante (Moore) on the sideline because Dante, he knows me pretty well. And once he saw me drop that pass, I was kind of in my head because, like, it's a five-yard route and I dropped it.
And it kind of upset me. But like we say on the O-line, flash stick and really just get my head back in the game and just stay level-headed."
Johnson had praise for Moore, too, pointing to how the quarterback has settled in over the last few games.
"He's grown as a player these last past couple games as we all seen and he's got us rolling on the right track and our Our chemistry has been been great That's my guy man And we just gone was gonna keep it rolling and you know, that's all I got."
Looking ahead, Johnson said Oregon’s attention is already on a defense that stands out across the board.
"Their whole defense pops out to me. They have a great defense, and it starts with their guys up front. And we've been we've been studying them and we're going to keep studying them and they have they have some great players, so their whole defense is pretty good."
He also singled out Kendre for stepping in after Andrew Olesh was out.
"Yeah, he stepped up. Andrew (Olesh) was out for a little bit, and Kendre stepped in to dominate the role, and that's what he did.
They called his number. Once his number was called, he accepted his opportunity and rolled with it."
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