After a productive football career at Navy, Johnny Hodges believed he could play at the Power Five level.
There are 65 P5 schools from the Big 12 to SEC to Big 10, surely one of them would think the same right? Yet when Hodges entered the transfer portal after the 2021 season, his belief was challenged in an ultimate way.
“I probably reached out to 60 college coaches, every Power Five. Not a single one responded,” Hodges said after TCU’s win over Texas.
Well there was one school that replied to Hodges.
“Northwestern said I wasn’t good enough,” Hodges said.
Yep, the same Northwestern program that went 3-9 a year ago and that is currently only 1-9 didn’t have a spot for a linebacker that had 50 tackles, a sack and an interception at Navy. For many, that would’ve been humiliating.
Hodges said he wanted to prove his old coaches at Navy wrong, but the early lack of interest could’ve easily been discouraging.
Were they right about his talent? Was he really not good enough to play at the level he thought? Thankfully for Hodges, being slept on was something he became accustomed to in high school as he was a zero-star recruit out of Maryland.
“I didn’t get recruited out of high school for football,” Hodges said. “After every single game I would go into my DMs and people would say I’m not good enough to play.”
Hodges ended up at Navy as a lacrosse player before switching over to football. All he needed was a chance and he started eight games in two seasons. His 50 tackles in 2021 was the fourth most on the team, yet P5 coaches still weren’t convinced.
Except for Sonny Dykes. Dykes was the lone coach to offer Hodges a place to play. He saw something in Hodges that no one else did and still remembers how Hodges wrecked shop when SMU and Navy faced each other.
“We had the good fortune of playing against him, that was the thing we saw,” Dykes said. “That Navy team had two really good linebackers and every year we played them, we were like who are these guys? They’re always in the right spot and knock the crap out of you.
“I think my last year at SMU, he had 15 tackles against us.”
It was 14, but Hodges also added an interception during that career game. Dykes saw enough in that game to know that if he had an opportunity to coach Hodges, he would take advantage of it.
“You have a chance to bring in somebody that’s a proven commodity,” Dykes said. “We knew we were going to get somebody that was mature and tough and obviously had some leadership. He’s exceeded all our expectations.”
The TCU defense desperately needed some new blood after being one of the worst scoring and run defenses in Gary Patterson’s final season.
The addition of Hodges along with Mark Perry, Josh Newton and freshman defensive tackle Damonic Williams has helped the unit rapidly improve under the direction of new defensive coordinator Joe Gillespie.
TCU went from 118th in scoring defense in 2021 to 57th currently. The Horned Frogs are allowing almost 100 fewer yard per games and went from being ninth in the Big 12 in run defense to fourth.
Hodges has become one of the leaders on the unit and leads the team in tackles with 66. He had a team-high 11 in the massive win on the road at Texas as the Horned Frogs limited Texas to under 200 yards and star running back Bijan Robinson to just 29 yards.
After that game Hodges just acted like it was another day at the office.
“We’re going to enjoy it, they like to run the ball and we played well against the run, but we play Baylor and they like to run the ball too,” Hodges said. “So it’s not like it’s our last game. We have to move on.”
The unbeaten Horned Frogs (10-0, 7-0) play Baylor (6-4, 4-3) on Saturday, looking to keep their run for a College Football Playoff spot possible.
That leadership and ability to remained focused on the goal at hand has impacted the entire linebacker group.
The unit has gone thrown a lot with season-ending injuries to three players and tough moments for Jamoi Hodge against Oklahoma and Dee Winters having to miss the first half against Texas.
Hodges has helped bring stability to the group and each one has begun to flourish as the Horned Frogs inch closer to the end of the regular season.
“Johnny, he stays in the film room. He’ll text us at 12 a.m. to tell us to watch this, watch,” Shadrach Banks said. “He’s a real good football player.”
Dykes would agree with that assessment and is glad to have been the one to believe in Hodges. That acquisition is one of the many reasons the Horned Frogs find themselves three games away from a likely spot in the College Football Playoff.
As all the coaches that ignored Hodges messages and calls watch him lead one of the best teams in the country, you have to wonder if Northwestern wishes it had a chance for do-over.
