De'Rion Crooms was watching a 10.29-second 100-meter sprinter bolting right at him.
Crooms ran third, and now- Mizzou football freshman wide receiver Marquis Johnson ran second on Dickinson (Texas) High's 4x100 relay race team, meaning Crooms took baton handoffs from the Tigers' newest speedster.
Let Crooms walk — or run — you through it:
"You've got to run, you've got to get out, because he's coming," he said. "I'm looking at him like, 'Oh God, he's moving.' Seeing that angle, there's been some times Marquis has been moving, but I had to move so I could get the stick and not get run over."
True to this speedy fashion, Johnson made a quick impact at Mizzou (4-0) when the Tigers played Memphis in St. Louis.
Missouri quarterback Brady Cook got the time in the pocket, not that Johnson needed much. From leaving the line of scrimmage at the Mizzou 24-yard line to catching the ball at the Memphis 27 with plenty of weaving in-between on the post route, a rough iPhone stopwatch timing said 5.48 seconds elapsed. Johnson took it home on MU's third offensive play of the game for a 76-yard, hello-world score in a 34-27 win.
"Crud," Drinkwitz said postgame Saturday in St. Louis. "That sucker is fast as lightning."
That prompted Drinkwitz to say they need to find ways to get Johnson in the game, whether that's going deep or as a decoy.
Luther Burden III is carrying a questionable injury diagnosis and Mekhi Miller is out for Missouri this week, which might mean Johnson gets more action starting with MU's trip Saturday to Nashville, Tennessee, to open Southeastern Conference play against Vanderbilt (2-3, 0-1 SEC).
So, how fast is this freshman? Let his old coaches and teammates walk you through it.
Crooms said Johnson looked like he was floating.
"I see Marquis move, and I say, "Oh, he's gone.' It was wraps,", Crooms said. "Once I saw him just skate off, it was crazy."
Johnson was off the block in the Texas Class 6A meet as soon as smoke left the starting gun. He crossed the finish line 10.45 seconds later, which was still .16 seconds slower than his electric district title win.
"Seeing that's amazing," Crooms said.
His high school track coach, Dickinson's defensive coordinator and De'Rion Crooms' father, Alexander Crooms, said he'd been struggling with his starts.
Not that day.
"Once he stood up, it was over," Alexander Crooms said. "We knew he had a catch-up speed, but if he got out front, you weren't gonna catch him. Nah, there's no way you're going to catch him."
He backed that title with silver medals in the 200 in 20.86 and in the long jump at 25 feet, .75 inches.
A 200 run two weeks earlier even prompted Philadelphia Eagles corner Darius Slay Jr. — a 4.36-second NFL Combine 40 runner — to post to X, formerly known as Twitter, about Johnson's speed.
So what's the secret?
"Man, I wish I knew," De'Rion Crooms said.
Alexander Crooms isn't sure Johnson's done honing his speed. He said they worked on fine-tuning his natural ability with a growing love for the weight room, but beyond that …
"Sometimes you're just born with it," Alexander Crooms said.
Three different people had three points of view on a kickoff return that defied belief.
Dickinson coach John Snelson watched Johnson catch the kickoff two yards deep in the end zone.
"He hit that thing right up the hash," Snelson said. "He never had to move, he never had to juke."
Alexander Crooms saw the crease open. What followed was "unbelievable."
"I ain't never seen anybody run that fast on a kickoff return," he said. … "He hit that thing wide open. He never broke stride."
De'Rion Crooms was blocking when Johnson came up at his back. The player he was responsible for turned around, and he was worried Johnson was about to get hit.
When he turned and laid eyes on his teammate …
"I look down the field," De'Rion Crooms said. "Marquis is gone."
House call, 102 yards.
Snelson said the phones quickly started ringing after that day.
Recruiting picked up. Arkansas, Colorado, Utah and a long list of Texas-based schools threw their name in the ring, but there was already a feather in Missouri's cap.
Marquis Johnson's father, Domonique Johnson, was a cornerback for the Tigers from 2005-06 before transferring to finish his career at Jackson State. Snelson said, despite visiting as many camps as he could, Marquis Johnson committed on the spot.
That's a win for the team in Columbia.
Snelson called him "a football player that just has elite track talent." The coach liked his physicality while run-blocking. Johnson's yards after the catch and contact were "immense."
But there's no secret surrounding his best trait.
"There's no question that a good timely call here and there needs to be made but for the most part, the execution of the play and if your kid's better than theirs is most times the reason why that play is successful or a team is successful," Snelson said. "And whenever you can put the football into an athlete like Marquis' hands, it makes the game easier."
De'Rion Crooms decided to have a blunt talk with Johnson.
Snelson immediately saw how talented Johnson could be — it was obvious that he was, and had been, a better athlete than anyone around him. The problem was, he might have been too talented. He was "laissez-fare," Snelson said, and prone to blame others "if things didn't go his way."
"I took it upon myself to say like, 'this kid's got everything. You've got the speed, got the height. You can go far, but you've gotta get your head on straight,'" Crooms said. "So I took it upon myself to take him under my wing and show him the right way to go.
"And ever since then, instead of doing what a lot of cats do (and) not listen, he listened, and said I'm gonna follow."
Alexander Crooms thinks that was the day that changed Marquis' life.
Snelson quickly noticed a change.
"Marquis, just being so ultra-talented, really wasn't paying attention to those daily little things, those habits that elite athletes create to separate themselves," Snelson said. "And De'Rion really did a great job of helping Marquis with that, and Marquis did a great job of just making that mental choice that 'hey, I am going to start creating these daily habits is going to set me apart even farther than just what my talent does."
The friends became an inseparable duo, competing for every crumb they could. Whether it was in the weight room or on the field or on the track, there they were.
Hanging in the Dickinson fieldhouse side by side — De'Rion Crooms, now a freshman at Arkansas Tech, has his wide receiver of the year plaque hanging next to Marquis Johnson's offensive MVP plaque from their senior years. In the gymnasium is evidence of Dickinson's first boys track and field district title, spearheaded by their efforts.
"It was stuff like that that really made it special," De'Rion Crooms said.
Johnson doesn't look out of place in his early days at Missouri. His first college reception was a contested 42-yard catch late in the third quarter against then-No. 15 Kansas State that set Missouri up for a field goal and a dramatic comeback win.
He danced in the end zone after his touchdown against Memphis and chest-bumped with star receivers Theo Wease Jr. and Burden.
He isn't timid. Crooms said he learned how to be outgoing just from being around Johnson, who is steadfastly himself.
"He'll make a TikTok in front of a preacher," he said.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri football: Incredible stories of Marquis Johnson's speed
