Inside Kameron Johnson’s leap from Division II football to the Bucs

TAMPA ― Kameron Johnson didn’t trust his ears when he heard the play call that had crackled through the coach’s headphones and was being relayed in the huddle.

Barton College, an NCAA Division II school in Wilson, North Carolina, hadn’t had a football program since 1950, when it was known as Atlantic Christian College.

But on the first play of the Bulldogs’ first game back in 2021, against Erskine, Johnson lined up as a freshman receiver, took a handoff on a reverse and threw a 58-yard touchdown pass to quarterback Tyler Flippen.

“In my heart I was like, ‘No way he’s calling that...