For BYU-bound Dallin Johnson and family, football has been more than a game

SPRINGVILLE — Dallin Johnson was worried — scared, even.

That was before Johnson, a 6-foot-3, 290-pound defensive tackle who signed with BYU Wednesday, was a U.S. Army All-American. It was also well before he garnered 83 tackles with 19.5 tackles for loss and 14 sacks as a senior, or earned 5A all-state first-team honors by the Deseret News on both offense and defense in 2023.

Back then, Johnson was a freshman playing varsity football for the first time, and the Springville coaching staff approached the 14 year old about starting in his first game. They didn't put him at offensive guard or defensive tackle, where he often excelled.

The Red Devils needed a starting center — a position he had never played.

His father, Trent, knew exactly what to do.

Trent Johnson immediately grabbed a football, took his young teenage son, who was now as big as him, into the front yard, and taught him how to snap the ball. Back and forth, the two practiced the exchange — under center exchange, in shotgun, and more.

They must've practiced the exchange for hours, until well after the sunset, his mother, Lindsie, recalled.

"That was the beginning. He got to start at varsity that year, and then he got in at defensive tackle and earned a scholarship after his freshman year," she said. "It's just been a dream. Trent was able to coach him a lot through little league, until his health wasn't great. But they love football, and it's what they bond over."

Fast forward four years and there was the father-son duo, beaming as Dallin Johnson signed his National Letter of Intent to play for BYU on the first day of the NCAA's early signing period, where he will train to run out in front of 65,000 fans at LaVell Edwards Stadium that will include his parents and three siblings.

"When I was younger, it was always my dream," Johnson said. "But I got to high school, and I thought maybe if I'm lucky I can go to Snow College. But I jumped headfirst into it, figured it out as I went, and it just kind of ended up working out."

For most of his life, football wasn't a game for Johnson; he grew up not even liking that sport. But the connection to his family that football brought? The love he felt as his dad struggled through myriad health problems to attend every game and work with him on footwork, technique and more in their front yard?

That was the reason he accepted the first scholarship offer he received, at the university located less than 10 miles from his Utah County community of just over 36,000 people that helped raise him.

"It took a couple of years … but I got to spend a lot of time with him with football," Trent Johnson said.

Dallin Johnson shut down his recruitment shortly after receiving that BYU offer, learning, growing and developing for more than two years as part of BYU's 2024 recruiting class. He also drew interest from Utah, Notre Dame and Washington State.

Those offers never interested him. The first offer was always the best, even when a coaching change switched up BYU's defensive staff and brought in defensive coordinator Jay Hill and defensive tackles coach Sione Pouha, who will be his position coach when he enrolls in January for spring practices.

Johnson committed to BYU the summer before his sophomore season.

"That says a lot about him and his character, his integrity and all those things," Hill said. "In today's world, there's so much noise that these players hear. To see someone like Dallin stay to what he committed to was huge. It's different for every person and for him — he wanted to play at BYU. He had the opportunity and stayed true to it."

He never wanted to stray far from his Springville roots, either. A self-described "home body," Johnson wasn't going to leave his parents and siblings — and especially not the man who taught him how to snap a football.

"He's my hero," an emotional Johnson said of his father. "He's been involved in everything with me, and he's the ultimate example to never give up, even with everything he's been through. He's never missed a game, he's been there day in and day out, even when there have been some really hard days. He's everything to me."

Just over a decade ago, Trent Johnson was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disorder that attacks the central nervous system. Traveling by car for more than an hour can be a chore, and airplane travel can be just as laborious — if not more.

But the son of former BYU kicker Brent Johnson has long been a BYU fan and raised his four sons using football and 14 gallons of milk every week.

Trent Johnson mostly walks with the aid of crutches now, but his love of the game and BYU is on full display. The chance to watch his son at LaVell Edwards Stadium, then, is a dream fulfilled.

For his wife, as well; she is, he said with a grin, even more competitive with football than him.

"I've had to remind her that we're sitting around neighbors at games, when plays don't go the way they should," Trent Johnson said. "She is as adamant a football fan as you will find.

"Football has been our family thing," he added. "We're lucky that Dallin and our other three boys have loved it, too."

It often takes a village to raise a child, and part of the Johnsons' village has also included the Fonohema family, whose son, Kinilau, signed with Johnson and teammate Luke Nadauld (who will first serve a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Wednesday.

The signing made the closing of a high school chapter special for more than just three teenagers, Lindsie Johnson said.

"It's the culmination of a lot of hard work," she added. "It is a family thing. We've gone through this together as a family since he was little, and it's always been what he wanted. It's the coolest thing to see your kids' dreams come true. But especially him and his dad, they've worked really hard on a lot of things."

From the moment he first reluctantly picked up a football to the day his father taught him to snap to winning region titles and all-state honors, this was what Dallin Johnson wanted.

But football isn't over yet.

"There's no other place that I think I could thrive quite like BYU," Johnson said. "Being close to home is huge; I love my family and I love Springville with all my heart. The coaching staff there is unparalleled, too. I just don't think there's another place I can thrive."

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