Five years ago, prep tailback Eddie Johnson arrived sight unseen at the University of Cincinnati from Seattle. Seven weeks later, he filled in for an injured linebacker at practice.

        He blasted into some ball carriers so hard — “made a couple pops,” as he puts it — that nobody ever let him carry the ball again. At least not intentionally.

        Shortly after 4 p.m. Wednesday in the Pontiac Silverdome, the UC senior co-captain will try to apply those lightning-like hits to the Marshall Thundering Herd in the Motor City Bowl. If they try to run away, he'll track them down with his 4.4 40-yard dash speed.

        “I guess that's what the coaches saw in me in those first few weeks of practice when I was a freshman,” Johnson said. “As a running back, I'd make one move and then run a straight course. That's a pretty good description of what a linebacker does: run a straight course.”

        In the 1997 Humanitarian Bowl, Johnson, then a redshirt freshman, played on special teams. He and teammate Carlton Sykes concocted a plan to crisscross as they ran down the field to cover a kickoff.

        “Carlton wound up making a big tackle and I got double-teamed,” Johnson said. “When I got back to the sideline, the coach said, “Leave the schemes to us. Just go straight down the field and make the tackle.'”

        “Just tryin' to have some fun,” Johnson said.

        But Johnson left such schemes behind in Boise. The team left Wednesday for Detroit, and he's there to win a bowl game.

        Johnson appreciates what he has, because he almost didn't have it. He had been recruited out of high school to go to the University of Washington, but the year he would have begun there, the football program went on NCAA probation. He almost went to North Carolina A&T, but preferred to go to a Division I school where he could “play the Ohio States and the Wisconsins.”

        A mentor who is friends with Brig Owens, a co-captain on UC's 8-2 1964 team that won the Missouri Valley Conference, steered him to Cincinnati. UC coaches liked what they saw on a videotape of Johnson's play and signed him without seeing him play live.

        “I was a like a deer in the headlights when I got to campus,” Johnson said. “But things have worked out great.”

        Because of his speed and strength (he leads all linebackers with a 440-pound bench press), Johnson should get a chance to play professionally. Ultimately, he might wind up back in Seattle, though; Microsoft is based there, and Johnson is majoring in information systems management.

        Wherever he winds up, he still will be checking out the Bearcats.

        “I'd like our (senior class') legacy to be that we established a tradition of going to bowl games — of winning bowl games — and that it became the norm beginning with us,” he said.

        NOTE: UC has sold more than 6,000 tickets of its 8,000 allotment. For tickets ($38 apiece), call 556-2287. UC officials said they expect more than 5,000 Bearcats fans to make the trip to Detroit. Those who want to attend the Skyline Chili Tailgate Party (tickets are $20) should call 556-4884.

UC 77, Alabama 74 Injury doesn't slow Logan UC women 57, Kentucky 38 UC's Johnson rocks 'em

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