TRUMAINE JOHNSON: : He Wasn’t a Lot to Shout About : Off-Year Has Charger Receiver Hopeful of Return to Past Form

Everything was calm before Charger practice early one afternoon at UC San Diego.

Students quietly passed the field on their way to summer school classes. Joggers were silently going about their business.

Inside the Charger locker room, Trumaine Johnson, 26, discussed his past and future, his voice barely above a whisper.

Johnson’s quiet manner was a reflection of his 1985 season. There wasn’t much Johnson could say about his first year with the Chargers.

Highly heralded, the receiver came over from the United States Football League with a five-year contract that paid him $290,000 in base salary in 1985, $325,000 this year and escalates to $425,000 in 1989.

He predicted he could catch 60 or 70 passes for the Chargers.

He caught 4 passes for 51 yards and 1 touchdown. Not in one game, the entire season.

No wonder Johnson worked out at least five days a week during the off-season.

This is a man who has something to prove. He knows he is capable; all he has to do is live up to his capabilities.

“I feel I’m a clutch receiver and All-Pro material,” Johnson said. “I have to prove it in this league. I know they have high expectations of me, and I have high expectations of myself. I feel I can get to the Pro Bowl one year.”

Johnson has a USFL background that suggests he could one day be Pro Bowl material. He caught 171 passes in two seasons, including 23 touchdowns.

Charger assistant head coach Al Saunders said before last season that the question was not whether Johnson could make it as a National Football League receiver, but how long it would take him to learn the Chargers’ offense. Less than a week into the 1986 training camp, Saunders thinks this could be the year Johnson masters the system.

“It’s really a misnomer to say he had an off year last year,” Saunders said. “He was new to the system, and we had Charlie Joiner, Wes Chandler and Lionel James, who were more progressed at that stage. Because of that, they were better performers in what we were doing.

“He (Johnson) is just now becoming accustomed to our offense. If he continues to make progress as he has to this point, I think he’ll live up to the expectations the public had. He’ll certainly be an integral part of our offense.”

Extenuating circumstances were partly to blame for Johnson’s lack of playing time and production last year. Since he last played for the USFL in the spring of 1984, Johnson had not suited up for more than a year when the 1985 season began. Then, in the second week of the season, he suffered a hamstring injury during warm-ups that sidelined him for three weeks.

Upon recovering, he found himself second- and third-string for the remainder of the season.

“It takes a while to catch on and gain the confidence of the quarterback,” Coach Don Coryell said. “After all, Charlie (Joiner) and Wes (Chandler) were there, too. He (Johnson) is comfortable now and knows what he has to do. Dan (Fouts) has had the opportunity to throw to him a lot, and he should gain Dan’s confidence. Everything isn’t so elementary to him this year. A man can’t be thinking with every step he takes. We expect a great deal from him.”

Last year, Johnson had plenty of time to think on game days. Inevitably, his thoughts turned to why he wasn’t playing.

“I was confident in myself,” Johnson said. “I knew I had natural ability and could play in anybody’s league on anybody’s team. I didn’t have an opportunity to prove myself. I’ve always had confidence, and I’m more confident this year. I know exactly what I am supposed to do. Everything is clicking now the way it should be.”

Athletic ability has never been a question.

As a high school basketball player in Baton Rouge, La., he received scholarship offers from Louisville and Louisiana State. He finished third in the state long jump.

And he has long been a football star.

In the USFL, he earned all-league honors in 1983 and 1984. But it wasn’t the NFL.

So, Johnson used $500,000 of his $850,000 signing bonus from the Chargers to buy out his USFL contract. He had a contract with Arizona through 1996 for $20 million, much of the money deferred.

“I made the right move,” Johnson said. “I’m content with my decision, and I think the Chargers are content.”

Everybody will be more content, however, if Johnson has a successful 1986.

“It has been a year-long process to integrate him into what we are doing and the way we want it done,” Saunders said. “Right now, he is at the threshold of understanding. Now, it comes down to physical ability and performance.”