By Stampeders.com staff

The last name is familiar.

So are the position, the physical build and the unrelenting determination to get to the ball-carrier.

For 13 seasons, Alondra Johnson was a wrecking ball of a linebacker for the Calgary Stampeders. Now his son Auston is looking to follow in the Canadian Football Hall of Famer’s cleats.

Johnson was one of four players from Monday’s CFL regional draft combine in Edmonton invited to take part in the main combine this weekend in Toronto.

Auston Johnson was born in Calgary during his dad’s playing days and was in Canada long enough to qualify for national status and eligibility for the 2015 CFL draft.

During his career, Alondra Johnson played with a fury and force that belied his relatively modest five-foot-11 frame. Auston, also five-foot-11, also packs plenty of power as he topped all competitors in strength testing at the regional combine with 29 bench reps of 225 lbs. He also turned in the second-bets time in the 40-yard dash.

It’s a combination that serves him well on the field in being a sideline-to-sideline defender for the University of South Dakota the past two seasons.

After transferring from El Camino College, Johnson was named to the Missouri Valley Football Conference’s all-newcomer team and all-star honourable mention in 2013 after recording 69 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss and seven sacks.

He was team MVP at El Camino in 2012 as a result of a 97-tackle, 6.5-sack season that earned him all-conference recognition.

The younger Johnson talked about his father in a 2013 interview with the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D.

“A lot of the things I do on the field are things my dad taught me,” he said at the time. “This is just my third year of playing linebacker so he pretty much taught me the position. I’ve benefited a lot from the things I’ve learned from him.

“Before games, he gives me advice, gives me hints about what teams are doing. He’ll tell me to look for this or that, so I take in every single thing he says. The main thing he tells me is to never get down. If you miss an assignment, stay calm, because you have more plays. There is always going to be another play — keep your emotions right.”

Coming from a man who was a six-time all-star in the CFL, that’s pretty good advice.