Player Spotlight: Juwan Johnson

Audio/Story posted October 10, 2018 in CommRadio, Sports by Carolyn Sistrand

 

After a tough loss for the Nittany Lions against Ohio State, wide receiver Juwan Johnson of Glassboro, New Jersey, spent Penn State’s recent bi-week relaxing and enjoying some college football with a friend.

Tonight, however, Johnson will be focused on the game ahead of him.

“We are sort of just taking it as we always took it, one game at a time. We try not to flashback to last year or the year’s previous. We sort of try to focus on now. Focus on what we can do this game to do better and work from there.”

Johnson’s Penn State football journey began as a redshirt during the 2015 season. In 2016, he would make his debut for the Nittany Lions in their home opener against Kent State, appearing in all 14 games for the season, and being named an Academic All-Big Ten.

His redshirt sophomore year in 2017 would bring more opportunities. Johnson started all 13 games and would be named an Academic All-Big Ten for his second year in a row, among other awards.

Johnson also caught his first career touchdown in 2017. Many may remember this specific catch because it was the touchdown catch which won Penn State its away matchup against Iowa as time expired.

Juwan Johnson would finish the 2017 season tied for No. 12 in single-season receptions and ranked No. 19 for single-season receiving yards.

Johnson’s clutch catches have not disappointed this season, either. Although Ohio State pulled away with a win in week five, Johnson made a one-handed 31-yard reception that easily resembled that of Odell Beckham, Jr.

“Everyone was just like ‘dang that was a crazy catch’ or ‘man that was insane, what did you think?’ I work on it every day, I always work on one-handed, I always work on catching every day so it was nothing really surprising to me that I made the catch. It was sort of me just being me.”

There is no doubt that Juwan Johnson will continue to produce critical plays for the Nittany Lions for the rest of this season.

 

Carolyn Sistrand is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism and history, to contact her email carolynsistrand@gmail.com.

About the Contributors

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Carolyn Sistrand

Senior / Broadcast Journalism, History

Carolyn Sistrand is a senior from Framingham, Massachusetts double majoring in Broadcast Journalism and History and is a certificate candidate in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism. For CommRadio, Carolyn works as a co-editor on the management team as well as contributing content for the sports department. Her roles include: being a writer, an analyst, an on-air personality on talk shows and podcasts, live play-by-play, as well as production. She is a co-founder for CommRadio’s first all-girl’s NFL podcast, Gridiron Girls, which is now a live all-sports talk show airing Friday’s from 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Outside of CommRadio, Carolyn has had professional experience as a multimedia journalism intern for The Metrowest Daily News (Framingham, MA) and AccuWeather Headquarters (State College, PA). She is currently covering Penn State softball as an intern for GoPSUSports.com (University Park, PA). To contact Carolyn, please email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).