By Brad Hallier
CANYON, Texas – When the season began, the one thing that stood out to Hutchinson Community College football coach Drew Dalls was his team’s depth.
Not just at one position. At all of them.
That depth was tested Wednesday in the NJCAA national championship game at Bain-Schaeffer Stadium, especially at quarterback.
After a gutsy two-plus quarters from starter Samari Collier, he yielded to Christian Johnson due to an ankle injury.
All Johnson did was throw the go-ahead touchdown pass, and the Blue Dragons won their second national title in five seasons as they beat Iowa Western 28-23, avenging a loss to Iowa Western in the 2022 title game.
But it wasn’t just there. Offensively, defensively and special teams all had depth that carried the Blue Dragons to the championship.
“From the beginning of the year, one of the best things we liked about this team was our depth,” Dallas said. “Not just at one or two positions. It was all across the board.”
Linebacker JaQuel Mack said the depth wasn’t just on the backups. He said the depth trickled down through the players who didn’t play a down this season.
“The ones, twos, threes, fours, the redshirts … One man goes down, the next one steps up,” Mack said.
The Blue Dragons were in dire need of someone to step up after a rugged first half that saw Iowa Western lead 17-7. Collier had the only Blue Dragon touchdown on a magnificent 27-yard run where he scrambled and slalomed through the Reiver defense.
The Blue Dragons got the ball to start the third quarter. Collier helped engineer a 10-play, 54-yard drive that ended with Collier firing an 8-yard touchdown pass to Benson Prosper in the back right corner of the end zone. That cut the Iowa Western lead to 17-14.
But Collier’s night ended two drives later after getting hit on a 21-yard run.
“I was a little banged up,” Collier said. “I just tried to fight through it for my teammates as long as I could. I told them I’m not leaving here without a ring.”
Enter Johnson.
Earlier this season, Johnson started against Butler when Collier was injured. However, Johnson had an up-and-down game, throwing for 286 yards and a touchdown but also had five interceptions.
On Johnson’s third snap, and facing a third down, he launched a pinpoint 34-yard touchdown to Tre Brown down the left sideline, giving Hutchinson a 21-17 lead.
“He and I had a lot of conversations about that (Butler) game. He put a lot on his back, but I told him ‘You’re good enough to win a national championship,’” Dallas said. “‘If it shows up again, you have to be able to do it. We’ve got all the faith in the world in you.’”
Johnson never wavered in his faith or abilities. But he did have a problem before firing that touchdown pass.
“I had to go pee,” Johnson said with a laugh. “I knew we were getting one-on-one on the edge with Tre Brown and I threw it up and let him go get it. He made a good play on the ball.”
Few Blue Dragons were happier for Johnson’s moment than Collier.
“That’s my dawg,” Collier said. “Christian is a special player. To throw a game-winning touchdown? That’s special.”
Johnson also had a key fourth-quarter run for a first down that helped run time off the clock.
The Blue Dragons needed more cushion after Johnson’s touchdown pass, and they didn’t have to wait long to get it. Less than two minutes later, Iowa Western punted. Kordell Gouldsby fielded the punt at the Hutch 27-yard line and returned it 73 yards for what proved to be the game-winning touchdown.
“I knew the team was counting on me there,” said Gouldsby, the game’s Most Valuable Player. “All my guys were in a perfect position, and coach put me in a perfect position. They asked me to make a play and I made one.”
The defense took it from there. Although Iowa Western managed to cut the Blue Dragons lead to 28-23 early in the fourth quarter, Hutch’s defense had two stops late.
The final came when Iowa Western drove to the Blue Dragons 16-yard line. On fourth and 10 from the 16, Avian Rice broke up a pass, and the celebration soon began for Hutchinson’s second national championship.
“We talked all week that we’ve got to earn it,” Dallas said. “If you want it, you’ve got to earn it. I’m super proud of them. I love them, and they fought their tails off. To see it come to fruition, everything they put it throughout the year. It’s not easy to win ball games, and it’s even harder in the postseason. We can all look in the mirror and say we make things harder than it needs to be sometimes, but each and every time we’ve been put in that situation, we’ve responded.
The Blue Dragons also won the national championship in the spring 2021 season, which was moved from the fall due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
This was the school’s second national championship of 2024. In April, the women’s basketball team won its first national championship.