It’s been a long time since C.J. Johnson last lined up at middle linebacker; four years to be exact.

Johnson was once a four-star inside linebacker prospect who signed with the Rebels in 2011 and was immediately moved to defensive end. However, with a glaring hole at the middle linebacker position due to the departure of Deterrian Shackelford following last season, he’s since been moved back to his former position in hopes of rounding out the Landshark defense in 2015.

There was nothing wrong with Johnson’s play at defensive end — he logged 8.0 tackles for loss and 4.0 sacks last season alone opposite one of the SEC’s top pass rushers in Marquis Haynes — it’s just that he was needed elsewhere. He’ll play alongside senior weak side linebacker Denzel Nkemdiche, one of the team’s top returning talents. Nkemdiche is returning this season from a broken leg that limited him to seven games last year, putting even more pressure on Johnson to perform at a high level at MLB almost immediately.

So how has Johnson fared this offseason as he prepares for his SEC middle linebacker debut?

The on-field duties haven’t been hard for Johnson to grasp. He knows where to line up and what his new responsibilities are on a given play, and he has the athleticism to make the plays expected of a middle linebacker at this level.

But where Johnson is still working, and where he’ll likely continue to work on his own until the start of training camp later this summer, is with the mental aspects of the position. This includes getting his own defensive teammates lined up, diagnosing the looks of opposing offenses, things of this nature. You know, the elements of playing position that inspire people to refer to it as “the quarterback of the defense.”

Johnson has embraced those challenges, and he’s always learning new ways to excel in the mental aspect of his new/old position.

“When I saw run (in spring practice), I was flying downhill trying to stop the run,” Johnson told ESPN. “But (the offense) does a lot of play-action, so that taught me to be a little patient throughout camp. Early on in camp, I was pretty impatient, but toward the end of camp I kind of got settled down a little.”

He bulked up to 250 pounds this offseason after learning of his position change, figuring adding bulk and power would help him excel as a middle linebacker charged with shedding blockers and wrestling ball-carriers to the ground.

However, the middle linebacker position involved more running than he remembered, which caused him to consider dropping his weight back down to 235, which is only slightly heavier than the weight he played at last season as a defensive end. And when NFL defensive guru Monte Kiffin, father of Ole Miss defensive line coach Chris Kiffin, told Johnson he ought to drop some weight, that made the decision much easier to make.

He’s now back to a more suitable playing weight, and he’s soaking in his new. There will likely be some growing pains early in the season as Johnson re-familiarizes himself with the position at an SEC speed, but he has the natural abilities and the work ethic to make the transition successful.

“He’s really good at some things. You put him on the move and he’s nasty,” head coach Hugh Freeze told ESPN. “It’s a little different to him with a lot of smoke and mirrors sometimes. That’s not normal, he hadn’t done that for three years. With his hand in the dirt, he doesn’t worry about all that stuff. There’s still some growth to take place there, but we’ve been pleased and we think he can help us there some.”

Luckily for Johnson, and for all the Landsharks for that matter, the season is still more than three months away, and he’ll have four weeks of training camp before the season opener on Sept. 5. That gives Johnson plenty of time to continue working at middle linebacker, and if he can develop enough consistency by the middle of the SEC schedule, it will help Ole Miss operate as one of the best defenses in the SEC yet again.

The success of the entire unit doesn’t hinge solely on Johnson, but his play will have major bearing on the play of the defense. There’s still work to be done, but the work he’s already put in indicates Johnson accepts his new responsibility and knows how vital he is to his team in 2015.

Based on those intangibles and that maturity displayed by a senior, there’s reason to believe Johnson won’t just fill in at middle linebacker, but that he’ll excel at the position by season’s end.