Three months ago, the freshman from Long Beach, Calif., was lying on the Husky Stadium turf, unable to feel his arms or legs. He was strapped to a stretcher and taken out of the stadium via ambulance, delaying a game against Cal for almost a half hour.
While many of the Huskies are happy to be heading to San Antonio later this week, Timu is just happy to playing football again.
"Anytime you get hurt and you come back, you have to cherish what you had," he said last week. "It was scary."
Timu wasn't the only one who was scared after an unintentional collision with teammate Alameda Ta'amu left him motionless on the turf for several minutes. Several UW players knelt down in prayer as team doctors tended to Timu on the field.
"It puts things in perspective," coach Steve Sarkisian said this week. "It was a tight game at the time, us and Cal, and when he's laying there on the field, you are thinking: Wow, the scoreboard doesn't matter, the fans don't matter right now; it's about this kid and his health."
The football game certainly became secondary to Timu, who was alert during the entire incident but couldn't figure out why he couldn't feel his extremeties.
"It was something I'd never felt before," he said. "It was (later diagnosed as) a deep stinger. It's been a long time since I've had one, at least, but I don't remember ever having one. So it was pretty serious to me — at that time, until I was able to move around."
Timu, who began to feel his arms and legs after being strapped to a stretcher, admits now that there was a fleeting moment when he wondered if his life had been changed forever — not just as an athlete but also as an able-bodied man.
"But not really when I got to the hospital," he said. "I was able to move a little bit when I was in the ambulance. ... I was never really in a panic mode."
Having come through the scare with a pinched nerve, commonly known as a stinger, as well as a sore neck, Timu missed the Utah game and saw limited time as a reserve in the Huskies' next two games before resuming his role as a starting outside linebacker. He said regaining his confidence on the field was the hardest part of coming back.
"I watched myself on film, and I wasn't able to be myself, as far as confidence," he said. "I was playing injury-prone, trying to watch myself from getting hurt."
Sarkisian said Timu seems to be over the injury but that he's still struggling with some of the typical transitions young players go through from high school to college.
"He's a true freshman playing linebacker in a really tough conference," Sarkisian said of the former quarterback and safety, "and he's had some really good ballgames, and he's had some games that weren't his best. And that's part of the growing process that we are going through.
"But I think Johnny's future is so bright. He's a talented kid and has a very high football IQ, and he is only physically going to get better at playing the position. It's his first time ever playing (linebacker) so he will get better."
Timu is just happy to be playing any position right now. He said the frightening injury is only a memory, and he's looking forward to delivering some big hits in next week's Alamo Bowl.
"I'm way past that," he said of the neck injury. "A lot of the hits I've had (since then) have kind of boosted my confidence. I feel good now."
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