All 105 is a Nittany Sports Now series profiling each Penn State football player. Here is a profile of true freshman wide receiver Tyler Johnson.
Height: 6-feet
Weight: 175 pounds
Hometown: Martinsville, Virginia
Before Penn State: Johnson, who also played point guard for Magna Vista High School, was a football team captain twice and team MVP twice. In his senior season, Johnson caught 40 passes for 1,278 yards and 15 touchdowns.
By the time his high school career ended, Johnson was a four-star recruit according to ESPN and a three-star according to 247Sports, On3 and Rivals.
Johnson committed to Penn State last June and signed on early signing day last December.
Where he stands: Penn State’s receiving corps has talent coming back (Parker Washington and KeAndre Lambert-Smith), experience coming in (Western Kentucky transfer and fifth-year senior Mitchell Tinsley) and a four-star signee from the 2022 class in Kaden Saunders.
Barring unforeseen circumstances, it seems likely that either Johnson’s most significant contributions in Year 1 will come on special teams, or he’ll redshirt, which 14 of Penn State’s 16 true freshmen did last year.
A quote about Johnson:
“He’s a great kid,” Magna Vista coach Joe Favero said. “He’s extremely talented and a pleasure to coach. He was a great leader for our team in terms of going out and being a hard-nosed football player. He’s very gifted. He brought a lot of positive attention to our program and our area. He showed our young guys that if you go out and work hard and represent yourself well, you can have the opportunity to go play at a great place like Penn State.”
