JOHNSON BIG BROTHER TO HARRIS AT RIDER CAMP

REGINA -- Big Brother is watching Bobby Harris at the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ training camp.

OK, so Belton Johnson isn’t really Harris’ older sibling. But ever since the two offensive linemen met at the University of Mississippi, Harris has seen Johnson in that light.
“Belton was my host when I was a recruit (at Ole Miss),” Harris, a CFL rookie, said Wednesday after the Roughriders’ training-camp workouts at Mosaic Stadium. “Ever since then, it’s been like a big-brother relationship. I look to him for guidance.”

“What can I say? I’m glad he’s here,” added Johnson, who’s entering his third season with the Roughriders. “I’m always chit-chatting with him or talking to him about plays and stuff. I love that he’s here.”

When Harris was on his recruiting visit to the Ole Miss campus in Oxford, Miss., he saw the sights with Johnson — and learned a thing or two about the man.
“The thing I liked about Belton the most is he was honest,” said Harris, a product of Richmond, Va., who turns 26 on Monday. “He’d say, ‘I’ll tell you who’s just talk and who’s not. This is really how it is. This isn’t a front for you recruits. We really do it like a family here.’ He really kept it real for me.”
Harris decided to go to Ole Miss and spent the following two seasons as Johnson’s teammate and backup, learning the ways of Rebels football from his mentor. That has resumed now that they’re on the same team again.

“He still to this day will come over and say, ‘Pick it up. You know what you’ve got to do,’ ” said Harris, whose dorm room at Luther College is two doors down from that of Johnson. “I appreciate that, not only as a teammate but as a friend as well.”

“He always has questions for me every night,” noted Johnson, a 28-year-old product of Coffeeville, Miss. “I’ll sit down with him, go over the plays, explain what we’re looking for on each play. I try to go the extra step with him.”

Whereas Harris was Johnson’s backup at Ole Miss, the duo may get to play at the same time in the CFL.
Thanks to the pre-camp Achilles tendon injury suffered by non-import Wayne Smith, the Roughriders now are looking at using a pair of import tackles this season — and Harris (6-foot-3, 310 pounds) and Johnson (6-foot-6, 315 pounds) are the only two currently in camp following the release of Andrae Townsel on Wednesday.

“I don’t make those decisions,” offensive line coach Bob Wylie said of the team’s plan to use two Americans. “I don’t have any thoughts on imports and the ratio. All I’m going to do is sit in the (coaches’) meetings and say, ‘These are the best five guys. You figure out who you’re going to play.’ ”

Ironically, Harris and Johnson have played previously under coaches who worked with Wylie. As a result, the tackles have a headstart on their colleagues at camp in understanding Wylie’s techniques. Now they have to hone their skills.
“They do a lot of little detail work,” Wylie said. “You may see them out before practice working on just one step because that may be something where they’re deficient and they need to get better at it. They have that attitude. That’s what you want to coach.”
Harris — who had stops in the NFL, NFL Europe and the Arena Football League before signing with Saskatchewan — said Johnson’s presence in Regina has helped as he tries to adjust to a new league, a new city and a new country. For Johnson, it’s just like old times.

“I feel like I’m hosting him right now, showing him around the city,” Johnson said. “I know how it was when I first got up here — didn’t have a car, didn’t really know anybody. Now I know the city and a lot of the places, so I kind of take him under my wing and introduce him to different people. It feels like that experience (at Ole Miss) all over again.”

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