Editor's Note: This is the third of a four-part series on senior offensive lineman Tyler Johnstone and the two knee injuries that have kept him from game action since Dec. 30, 2013. Part 4 will run Friday morning.

Part One and Part Two





During his recruitment, Tyler Johnstone and his dad visited more than half the Pac-12 schools. Finding the perfect program fit was paramount.

“My goal for him was for him, rather than hearsay, he would have talked to the coaches, seen the places and, basically, that the decision he made was an informed decision,” father Kevin Johnstone said. “As a parent, I couldn’t be more excited with the choice that he made to go to Oregon.”

The rapport the Johnstones built with offensive line coach Steve Greatwood in particular played a large role in Tyler’s final decision. When his parents sent him 1,250 miles from Chandler, Ariz., to the Pacific Northwest, they were curious to see how their son would handle being away from home and how he would respond when asked to redshirt.

Like many top incoming freshmen, he was the big man on campus at Hamilton High School. Going back to the bottom of the depth chart isn’t an easy transition, especially without people to help along the way. But Tyler Johnstone didn’t stay there long, becoming Oregon’s starting left tackle the first game of his redshirt freshman season and not relinquishing the role until his right ACL tore for the second time in August 2014.

Just as the first time, the people close to him made sure he wouldn't lose his mind while laid up in the aftermath.

Ashley said she was bringing a surprise for me that would keep me busy... Think I won the girlfriend lottery. pic.twitter.com/qF6r3TU6Ic — Tyler Johnstone (@TJohnstone64) August 16, 2014



After his second debilitating knee injury in eight months, the years Johnstone and his parents spent building relationships with Oregon’s coaching staff proved worth the time and effort.

Johnstone shortly after his second surgery.

Kevin and Wendy Johnstone flew to Eugene and sat down with members of the coaching and medical staffs – not only in search of answers for what they could not change, but how all involved could make sure it wouldn’t happen again. Tyler wasn’t nearly as interested in retracing his steps, though; after a walk with girlfriend Ashley Laing started the process of clearing his head, he wanted his body to do the same.

As fate would have it, Laing tore her ACL playing flag football the previous October. Being laid up for months was hard on someone with her busy-bee personality -- one that would seem to clash with Johnstone’s laid-back persona -- but it only seemed to bring them closer.

“I know that sometimes when you’re coming back from an injury like this, sometimes you’re tired, and your muscles are recovering from not doing the same things for months,” she said. “I knew he needed that extra reminder of where he needed to be and where he wanted to be after he’d first torn it."

“I wanted to be that extra reminder.”

Johnstone’s dad had to return to Arizona after the fact-finding mission, but his mom stuck around for the surgery. She and the coaches were there when Johnstone started over, when his right knee was operated on again and he had to turn the clock back on months of grueling rehabilitation.

Once she left, though, it was up to Johnstone to be proactive in keeping himself on track. After feeling like he let himself get distracted by outside influences – that he didn’t go above and beyond in his workouts during the summer – he set out to make sure it wouldn’t happen again.

“He just didn’t want to be left behind,” Wendy Johnstone said. “He was worried he wouldn’t be able to be there for his teammates the way he wanted to be. We talked a lot about what he could do on the sideline and as a teammate.”

The Thin O-Line

Greatwood and Co. held together an offensive line decimated by injuries.

Tyler Johnstone’s support system also went out of its way to keep his game-day routine as normal as possible. As the season began, his parents reached out to Oregon’s compliance department with a question: What if they paid to fly Johnstone to all of the team’s away games? Could he be with the team during games and stay involved?

The school said that was permitted by NCAA rules.

It wasn’t the most convenient way to spend half of his weekends to be sure – he had to take a lot of red-eye flights and by his own admission didn’t get much schoolwork done while traveling. But when other offensive linemen started going down, Johnstone’s presence paid dividends. Redshirt freshman Elijah George tore his ACL the same week Johnstone’s gave out, and friend and fellow lineman Andre Yruretagoyena broke his ankle against Michigan State in early September.

Johnstone used breaks during his own workouts during practice to hop in and work with the group.

“Anyone could just crawl into a little box after an injury like his and not say anything, not be energetic,” former teammate Hroniss Grasu said. “Tyler never changed his personality, not once. He never changed his role as a leader with the offensive line.”

Added former walk-on turned starter Matt Pierson: “When you’re a true freshman or on the scout team, it’s hard to get a good experience with the offense. Tyler was down there helping them with little tips on how to step and where to put their hands.”

The injuries continued to pile up though, and by the time the Arizona Wildcats came to town in early October, the undefeated Ducks were without both preseason starters at offensive tackle in Johnstone and Jake Fisher, their best backup in Yruretagoyena and another in George. Pierson and true freshman Tyrell Crosby were forced into action the previous week against Washington State, where quarterback Marcus Mariota took seven sacks while barely keeping the Cougars at bay.

Johnstone still wasn’t allowed on the sidelines during games as he recovered from his surgery, but he worked with Ducks graduate assistant Joe Bernardi up in the coaches’ box, charting plays and observing his teammates from afar. Watching his friend and quarterback struggle to move the ball tore at Johnstone; much of what he remembers thinking or saying that night isn’t suitable for public consumption.

Grasu on crutches following his injury against Utah.

When Arizona linebacker Scooby Wright ripped the ball from Mariota, giving Oregon its first loss and putting the team’s season goals in jeopardy, it was the lowest Johnstone had felt since the surgery.

“I was just pissed off,” Johnstone said. “I couldn’t talk to the guys and tell them what I was seeing or hype them up. I wanted to be down there with my guys and help them out, and I felt pretty helpless. That was the hardest part of the season.”

The loss proved to be a turning point in Oregon’s season, as the Ducks won their next nine games before losing the National Championship Game against Ohio State. Grasu credits Johnstone with getting behind the inexperienced linemen forced into action and giving them crash courses in Oregon’s offense and the fundamentals of the college game.

Johnstone was also there for what seemed to be a new offensive line injury each and every week. He may have been the first to go down, but he certainly wasn’t the last. Fisher had returned and Yruretagoyena was nearly back when Grasu went down with what at first glance looked to be a serious knee injury. Johnstone was one of the first to reach him on the field.

“He knew exactly what to tell me; what I wanted to hear,” said Grasu, whose injury turned out to be less serious than it seemed at the time. “At that moment, I thought it was going to be over for me but Tyler was right there to help me out, and I’ll always remember that.”

It was ultimately a season to remember for everyone in Eugene. Oregon rolled through the remainder of its schedule, Mariota won the Heisman Trophy with one of the largest margins ever and the makeshift offensive line protected and paved the way for one of the most statistically successful offenses in the country.

The Ducks punched their ticket to the first-ever College Football Playoff with 51 points of revenge against Arizona in the Pac-12 Championship Game. They racked up over 300 yards rushing – more than double what they managed two months prior.

It wasn’t the season Johnstone had hoped for in a personal sense, but the team had accomplished everything they had worked for. He hadn’t been on the field with his teammates and still felt the sting of being on the sidelines instead of dragging gassed opponents up and down the hashmarks. But having a concrete direction and purpose motivated him to put that much more effort into making a difference with his team.

His teammates acknowledged Johnstone’s role in their success as he carried the Pac-12 Championship Trophy into the locker room after the game.

"It's just great, even when you can't play,” Johnstone said that night. “It's like going back to freshman season all over again. I'm doing what I can to help the team without playing on the field, and a championship is a championship -- you feel the same way. I'm proud of all these guys.”