Brauntae Johnson has always been a playmaker.
The 6-foot-2, 200-pounder scored a touchdown in his first varsity game in the fall of 2020 and the rest is his history.
Six years later, Johnson enters his third season at Notre Dame as one of the nation’s top safeties. He’s fully embraced his role as the Irish secondary’s playmaker.
“I feel like that's a lot of my identity,” stated Johnson. “I feel like everybody has roles for the team. I feel like that's my role, to make the wild interceptions, make the wild play, the wild tackle. That's my role for the team and that's what the team needs me to do. That's where I'm going to step up and I'm going to make plays for the team.”
Johnson delivered in 2025, finishing with 48 tackles and four interceptions.
The signs of a breakout were already there during fall camp, when he was tested regularly against quarterback CJ Carr and set the tone with multiple interceptions against the 2026 Heisman hopeful.
Johnson relishes those practice battles, knowing they sharpen both sides.
“CJ is a dog,” explained Johnson. “He feels like he can make any throw, you feel me. I feel like that's where he can work on things in practice with me, because there’s not always going to be a safety back there like me and then just knowing that I got CJ. So certain plays I can make off certain balls. It might be a greater opportunity with a different quarterback who's not CJ Carr.”
Those competitive reps have pushed both players to expand their games.
“I can see what he's thinking as an elite quarterback,” said Johnson. “So just talking with him, learning with him, and in practice, obviously, you learn from things. It’s kind of trial and error. Sometimes you try some things that might not work, but that's what practice is for.”
Johnson will once again pair with Notre Dame captain Adon Shuler to lead the safeties, forming one of the more experienced duos in the country.
Their connection runs deeper than the field.
“I kind of look at him as a big brother,” Johnson explained. “I got all older big brothers. He kind of just showed me the ropes, took me under his wing ever since I came in. He always really just made sure I was doing the right thing and just making sure to keep me patient because there are times as a young player you kind of think things don't go your way, or you don't know where things are going.”
That guidance proved critical during Johnson’s freshman year, when he battled injury and struggled to crack the rotation.
“You might be with the 2s or the 3s and you just got to keep digging and keep fighting,” stated Johnson. “He helped me with that part. H helped me really just be a pro. That’s the main thing for me, just being a pro at everything I do. He stays on me about that.
“It's a big brother, little brother relationship. I can tell him if I feel like something's off and he can tell me which he's been doing it since my freshman year.”
Johnson will also have another familiar face in the program this fall in wide receiver Mylan Graham.
The Fort Wayne natives have known each other since their Pee Wee football days, and playing together at Notre Dame had long been a shared dream. When Graham entered the transfer portal, Johnson helped make it a reality and even drove him to campus for his visit.
“It was just trying to get one of my friends,” Johnson said of recruiting Graham. “A guy I grew up with, to just come to a good situation that I believe he would be able to succeed and become a better person. It wasn't too much, ‘Oh, yeah, like you have to come here and nowhere else.’ It was just more like, ‘Let me just show you how we are at Notre Dame. Come meet the coaches, come meet the team.’
“That was really pretty much all I did, just let him come here and experience it for himself. Just let him know that the coaches believe in him and he sees it with me, and that's pretty much it.”
Johnson stayed by Graham’s side early in the visit before giving him space to form his own impressions.
“The first day, pretty much, I was in the meetings with him and stuff like that,” Johnson said. “The next two days, I just kind of let him go on his own, so he could get his own feel. We definitely talked a lot. He would call me a lot, ask me just more and more questions.”
Now reunited, Johnson expects Graham to bring immediate juice to Notre Dame’s offense.
“I'd say just be prepared to see exciting plays,” explained Johnson. “I know that's kind of what our team and our fans have been wanting, just more exciting players on the outside. I feel like our receiving corps now, we got 11-15 guys capable of doing that.
“He's just another one of them. I just expect the guy who's going to come in here at work and on game day, he's going to put up touchdowns for us.”
As for his own goals in 2026, Johnson plans to keep leaning into the wild child mindset that got him here.
“Where I come from, there aren’t too many things that I haven't seen,” said Johnson. “I'm from the south side of Fort Wayne, so that pretty much just tells it all. It's just where I come from. I'm a great guy, but the ‘wild child’, I just carry that with me for motivation.
“It’s really just more about where I came from. It's not who I am or something like that. It's just about where I came from and I use it as a chip on the field and that's what I carry with me.”
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