How TCU’s Quentin Johnston transitioned from Texas commit to premier ‘go-to guy’ for No. 3 Horned Frogs

Quentin Johnston performs many roles for No. 3 TCU: two-time All-Big 12 first group vast receiver, Heisman Trophy runner-up Max Duggan’s safety blanket, venerable group captain, calming voice within the clutch whose coronary heart charge slows down when the sport is on the road

“Quentin is kind of our go-to guy,” TCU coach Sonny Dykes stated. “Quentin is such a physical presence, and he gets a lot of attention because he should. He’s capable of making big plays.”

Despite being restricted over the ultimate month of the common season with a high-ankle sprain, the 6-foot-4, 215-pound playmaker has been one of many nation’s finest pass-catchers, powering TCU to its first College Football Playoff look after having 200-1 preseason nationwide championship odds, the longest by any 2022-23 CFP participant. 

He’ll be totally prepared to roll on New Year’s Eve when the Horned Frogs’ sixth-ranked scoring offense (40.3 PPG) takes on No. 2 Michigan’s fifth-ranked scoring protection (13.4 PPG allowed).

“Obviously, we’re a different team when he’s out there playing,” added Dykes, CBS Sports’ Coach of the Year in his first season at TCU. “He’s got a knack for making plays in incredible situations. Certainly, Max believes in him and has confidence in him, knowing that when we need a play, he’s a guy you can throw it up to, and he’ll make it more often than not. There’s a certain level of comfort there. He’s made a bunch of big plays for us that has allowed us to win some tight football games. You have to have that kind of performance from your best players in order to win.”

Here’s how Johnston, a local of Temple, Texas — a city of about 85,000 roughly an hour north from Austin — turned a Horned Frog, CBS Sports’ top NFL Draft-eligible wide receiver and one in all TCU’s most important elements to its program-altering run to the College Football Playoff.

The Recruitment

Before racking up 108 receptions, 2,024 yards, 18.7 yards per catch and 13 touchdowns in three seasons at TCU, Johnston had really dedicated to rival Texas. The state’s No. 14 WR and No. 9 general participant, according to 247Sports Composite, Johnston opted not to take many recruiting visits earlier than narrowing his choice course of to three colleges: Baylor, Texas, and TCU. In August earlier than his senior 12 months in 2019, the four-star recruit tweeted his dedication to the hometown Longhorns.

But then Johnston visited TCU and every part modified. He resonated with the smaller college, tighter group and the sustained success of Gary Patterson, who went on to turn into the winningest coach in program historical past throughout his 22 seasons main the Frogs. 

Johnston admitted that his highschool coaches closely influenced him committing to Texas as a result of a number of former Temple gamers, together with now Falcons defensive sort out Ta’Quon Graham, went on to play for the Longhorns. Johnston deliberate to comply with of their footsteps — till the self-described low-key pass-catcher selected his personal path by Fort Worth, Texas.

“It just felt more like home.”

The Sonny Dykes distinction

TCU went a mixed 11-11 in Johnston’s first two years (2020-21) with undisciplined play plaguing the group. The Frogs have been referred to as for a mean of seven.73 penalties per recreation, 116th out of 130 FBS groups.

This season, Dykes’ first in Fort Worth, TCU averages simply 4.77 penalties per recreation, rating twenty first out of 131 FBS groups. It’s taking part in collectively as one of many extra disciplined groups within the nation, which Johnston attributes to being sharper bodily and to elevated group bonding time thanks to Dykes and his employees, particularly Kaz Kazadi, the assistant athletics director and energy & conditioning coach.

Throughout TCU’s historic 2022 marketing campaign, the teaching employees has referred to as up gamers after apply to share their private tales with the group. That vulnerability, Johntston stated, has made it “that much easier to fight for them when you actually know what they’re about.”

“We’ve had the tools to do what we’re doing this year, but it was just the little things that kept us down,” Johnston added. “I feel like this year they definitely instilled the discipline into us on top of the mental and physical part of actual football.”

Beyond self-discipline and group bonding, it helps to have one of many high offenses within the nation. That begins with the working recreation and Kendre Miller as his 1,342 dashing yards and 17 dashing touchdowns are each probably the most by a TCU participant in a season since Pro Football Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson in 2000.

It’s that manufacturing that makes the Air Raid system Dykes is working stand out as compared to the stereotypical model related to Big 12 offenses.

“It’s good to have an Air Raid offense, but it doesn’t mean anything if all of the defenders are back 20 yards,” Johnston stated. “You’re going to get 10-15 yards at the most. With the incorporation of Kendre [Miller], Emoni Bailey and Emari Demercado, an overall running back core like that opens everything up.”

One of the changes Johnston has made within the new offense run by Dykes and offensive coordinator Garrett Riley — the 2022 Broyles Award winner (nation’s high assistant coach) — has been in his positional alignment. He lined up out vast to the proper facet of the formation on 91.7% of his offensive snaps in 2021, in accordance to Pro Football Focus. In 2022, Johnston has lined up out vast on the left facet of the formation on 80.6% of his offensive snaps, per PFF.

“In a good offense, most of the time their home-run hitter is on the left side at the X [receiver position],” Johnston stated. “They tried to gameplan for me on the right side, but with their Air Raid style of offense, it works better that way.”

The alignment and scheme change has achieved wonders for his numbers because the junior has 53 catches for 903 receiving yards this season after combining for 55 catches and 1,121 receiving yards throughout his first two years.

Duggan’s growth 

When individuals image TCU’s offense, what often comes to thoughts is Duggan dropping again rolling out, and uncorking a deep ball down the sideline to Johnston. However, what pursuits Johnston is having a quarterback who can run, which he did not expertise at Temple. Duggan, the 2022 Davey O’Brien award winner (nation’s finest quarterback), particularly took Johnston abruptly his freshman 12 months throughout a house recreation in opposition to Texas Tech. Leading 27-18 with 1:56 to play, Duggan faked the jet sweep hand-off on third-and-10 and darted up the center — 81 yards to the home to seal the sport.

“It was supposed to be a pass play. I run my route, he rolls out, and I’m trying to make something happen,” Johnston recalled. “I’m about to turn around, and as soon as I turn around, he just vroom right by me. It kind of startled me because at the time I didn’t realize how fast he was. He rolled past me, I’m trying to catch up and block, but he left me.”

Countless apply and recreation reps collectively have since resulted in some of the dominant quarterback-receiver duos in all of faculty soccer. And having performed with Duggan the previous three years, Johnston is aware of all of his quarterback’s non-verbal cues. Eyes vast? He needs to go deep. Eyes darting round? Start blocking as a result of he is going to take off and run.

And if Duggan is basically in a pinch? Just throw it up to his favourite goal.

“You can close your eyes and punt it to him,” Duggan stated of Johnston, via Barstool’s Unnecessary Roughness podcast. “There’s a few [passes I’ve thrown] that probably should’ve gotten picked, but Q just makes one heck of a catch. Good thing he’s on our team.”

That automated connection between Duggan and Johnston has resulted in Duggan co-leading the nation in completions of fifty or extra yards with North Texas QB Austin Aune, each of whom have thrown 13. Johnston has been on the receiving finish of 5 of these deep completions, tied for the second-most catches of fifty or extra yards this season, trailing solely 2022 Biletnikoff winner (nation’s high vast receiver), Tennessee’s Jalin Hyatt, who had six. 

“I feel like our chemistry right now is unmatched,” Johnston stated.

“Obviously you know what type of special player that he is,” Duggan stated in settlement. “He bails me out a lot. The more I play with him, the more I understand what he’s seeing, what I’m seeing. How we play, with his body movements and routes, you get a pretty good feel after having been with him for a while.”

Clutch catches

After catching twelve passes for 114 yards within the Frogs’ first 4 video games of the season (at Colorado, vs. Tarleton State, at SMU, vs. then-No. 18 Oklahoma), Johnston erupted for 30 catches, 536 yards receiving and 4 touchdowns over the following 4 video games, three of which got here in opposition to ranked groups.

Johnston in 2022

* Missed two video games due to high-ankle damage

“People began to come at me on social media and say I sucked this year, among other things, even though I hadn’t had a chance to do anything yet,” Johnston stated. “When it came to the big conference games, I thought [to myself], ‘You are either going to let everyone keep being right or you’re going to prove that you can capitalize on what you did last year.’ I took those games to show that I was still here, still working over the summer and pushing myself.”

TCU’s 38-31 win over Kansas was a highlight matchup as the 2 groups entered 5-0. TCU obtained the ball again locked in a 31-31 tie with slightly below 4 minutes to go in entrance of a sellout crowd in Lawrence, Kansas. Six performs and 68 yards later, the Frogs have been in the long run zone following Duggan’s 24-yard deep ball to the back-right nook of the tip zone that Johnston one way or the other corralled earlier than going out of bounds.

“When you look outside and you have a guy like Quentin Johnston, I think he must have been built in a lab,” offensive lineman Wes Harris stated. 

For a few of the gamers, that win solidified their perception that 2022 was going to be a particular season.

“Before that last drive, when he huddled up, it was like a movie. I swear to God, we all huddled up saying, ‘We can do this, we got it, we fought so hard for it,'” offensive lineman Steve Avila recalled. “To see us overcome adversity from that game, that gave me the idea that we’re really good.” 

While Avila remembers a fired-up huddle, Johnston spent his time taking deep breaths and staying calm. “I just kind of calmed down, stuck to my normal gameplan, and went out there with all the confidence in the world. … Coming out of the huddle, everyone was hyped, and I was staring off into space. People asked me if I was good, and I said I was just talking to myself. I went out there and did what I had to do.”

Even although Johnston is not a rah-rah kind of chief, his regular, lead-by-example fashion is one thing to which his coach attributes TCU’s success. Johnston assured and intensely expert, sure, however he is additionally unselfish and humble, in accordance to Dykes: “It’s about ‘we’ and ‘us’ and ‘what can I do to help the team?'”

That landing catch on the final drive in opposition to Kansas served because the exclamation level for the perfect recreation of his collegiate profession as Johnston completed with 14 catches for a 206 yards. The subsequent week, he caught the second-most passes in his profession (eight) for 180 yards, together with the go-ahead, 25-yard rating on the second play of time beyond regulation in TCU’s 43-40 double-overtime win in opposition to then No. 8 Oklahoma State — a recreation by which it trailed 24-7. With the victory, the Frogs turned the final undefeated group within the Big 12. 

“I had a little seam route, so I took an angle like I was going to go all the way in, and then I used that angle to go straight back up the field,” Johnston recalled. “The safety wasn’t looking at me. By the time he looked at me, I was wide open and just backed into the end zone and took a little hit. That was exactly how the coaches drew it up.”

Another week, one other tight recreation with a ranked convention opponent. This time, TCU fell down by an excellent greater margin in opposition to then-No. 17 Kansas State, trailing 28-10 midway by the second quarter. Yet, the Frogs as soon as once more did not flinch, and 1 / 4 later, Johnston’s 55-yard landing put TCU in entrance for good in what ended up as a 38-28 win. 

“The play was a straight vertical, which basically says we think our players are better than your players, so we’re going to run straight and see who gets the ball,” Johnston stated. “I came off the ball with a little hesitation, and I just shot off with my head down like a dog was chasing me. I was running full speed, the ball was right there, and I just went to the end zone. That was a big turning point in the game.”

Competing in opposition to the perfect

One of the methods Johnston has honed his craft in apply is by often going up in opposition to Tre’Vius Hodges Tomlinson, the 2022 Jim Thorpe Award winner (nation’s finest defensive again). The two have been associates for years after taking part in in opposition to one another in highschool when Hodges-Tomlinson was at Midway in Waco and Johnston was at Temple.

“Overall, it’s high competitiveness and high intensity, but I’m pretty sure he’ll tell you the same thing: We’re cool in the locker room and cool outside of it, having known him since playing each other in high school. But when we put the cleats on, all the awards and accolades are the out the window,” Johnston stated. “We don’t really talk that much [on the field], but we give each other that look of ‘Yeah, you’re not better than me.’ … That’s molded me and made me the player that I am.”

Johnston could have a troublesome activity in entrance of him when going up in opposition to a Michigan secondary that held a similarly-built receiver, Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr., comparatively in verify throughout their 45-23 demolition of the Buckeyes in late November. Both Harrison and Johnston stand 6-foot-4, whereas Johnston packs solely 10 extra kilos (215) than Harrison (205).

“That’s a great Michigan team that went up against a great offense, and we have taken in what happened, but that’s Ohio State,” Johnston stated. “We’re TCU, a completely different offense than them, and I have a lot of confidence in our guys. I feel like with Derius Davis [whose six return touchdowns are tied for the most in TCU history], nobody has really seen a player like him. On the other side, we have Taye Barber, a relentless player who makes catches all the time when getting hit by two or three people, still coming down with the catch. He always finds a way to catch the ball. With Savion [Williams] and myself on the outside, we’re tough to defend.” 

No matter what Johnston decides concerning the NFL Draft — Duggan has already declared — his impression at TCU has been set in stone. While Johnston acknowledged he is been “up and down” on what he’ll do, it is not his fundamental focus with the College Football Playoff developing Saturday.

“I feel good, confident about the impact I’m making with how our team has played so far, but there’s a lot more that I can do to put the finishing touches on [the 2022 team’s legacy],” Johnston stated. “I feel like our overall competitive culture has picked up, and once you’re winning a certain amount of games, you’re getting different kinds of recruits. We have a lot of recruits coming by practice now, so just being able to help my team win week in and week out, it’ll be great for TCU for a really long time.”

No matter how the season concludes, Johnston confirmed one factor for positive: He’ll actively be a Horned Frog for life.

“That’s one of the reasons why I chose to come here and chose to stay when we had a change in coaching staff: I fell in love with not only the football team, but the TCU community as a whole. I don’t think that’s ever going to change for me. My three years here have been great, so I’ll be coming back and be involved in as much stuff as I can.”