#5 Avery Johnson — This season’s forecast? Lots of Sunshine … and a healthy dose of Avery Johnson (5) by ground and by air! | Photo by Peter G. Aiken/Getty Images

In which BracketCat counts down the second day until the 2024 kickoff with a profile of Kansas State quarterback Avery Johnson.

Goal No. 2: UNSELFISHNESS. There is no “I” in TEAM.

#2 Avery Johnson

True Sophomore | 6-2 | 192 lbs. | Wichita, Kansas

Position: Quarterback
Previous College: None
Projection: Starter
Status: On Scholarship

Avery “Sunshine” Johnson (b. Nov. 2, 2004) is K-State’s very highly regarded dual-threat starting quarterback who is majoring in business administration and did not redshirt.

Johnson arrived on campus as a mid-year enrollee and participated in 2023 spring camp.

He entered 2023 in a three-way battle to be Will Howard’s backup and ended the up-and-down season having basically supplanted Howard, who elected to transfer to Ohio State.

Johnson saw playing time in eight games with two starts — one against TCU as one of two quarterbacks on the field to begin the game and his first true career start as lone quarterback in the Pop-Tarts Bowl against NC State, a game in which he was named MVP.

He threw for 479 yards on the season with five touchdowns and no interceptions on 37-of-66 aim, while he rushed for 296 yards and seven touchdowns on 52 carries as he earned votes for the Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year award.

Johnson’s seven rushing touchdowns were the second most by a freshman in school history and tied for the most by a true freshman with Deuce Vaughn (2020).

He also tied for second in rushing touchdowns among all true freshmen nationally in 2023, while he had the most among true freshmen quarterbacks.

Johnson was just the fifth true freshman starting quarterback in school history, joining James Mack (1975), Duane Howard (1976), Josh Freeman (2006) and Will Howard (2020), while he was the second to start a bowl game (Freeman, 2006 Texas Bowl).

He most notably led K-State to a victory in the Pop-Tarts Bowl, becoming the first true freshman starting quarterback to earn a bowl victory at Kansas State.

Johnson was one of three true freshman quarterbacks to start a win and bowl game in 2023, along with Duke’s Grayson Loftis and Tennessee’s Nico Iamaleava.

He threw for 178 yards and two touchdowns on 14-of-31 aim, while he added 71 rushing yards and a touchdown on seven carries in the bowl victory; his two passing touchdowns tied for sixth in K-State bowl history.

Johnson also led K-State to a 38-21 victory at Texas Tech as he came off the bench to record five rushing touchdowns, tied for the most in school history for a single game with Collin Klein (2011 in overtime vs. Texas A&M) and Jonathan Beasley (2000 vs. North Texas).

This party featured the most rushing touchdowns by any true freshman since Oklahoma’s Samaje Perine also had five against Kansas in 2014, while it was the most by a true freshman quarterback since at least 1995 and the most ever by a Big 12 true freshman quarterback.

He was one of only three players in the nation during the 2023 season with at least five rushing touchdowns in a game, and his 30 points scored and five touchdowns scored at Texas Tech also tied school records in each of those respective categories.

Johnson rushed for 90 yards against Texas Tech, one of three games in which he had 70 or more rushing yards (73 vs. TCU, 71 vs. NC State).

He also threw for 77 yards on 8-of-9 aim against the Red Raiders, rushed for a touchdown against SEMO, and threw touchdown passes against TCU, Houston and Baylor.

Johnson enters 2024 on the preseason watch list for the Maxwell Award, along with his “turnt” backfield mate, starting running back DJ Giddens.

His position coach, former offensive coordinator Collin Klein, said of his young protégé:

It’s pretty amazing to watch a true freshman work has hard as he has to put himself into a position to truly run the offense and compete. He’s done a tremendous job with that. He hasn’t been overwhelmed and has really done some nice things throwing and running the football, so we’re really excited about him.

No less was the encouraging hype from head coach Chris Klieman for the star of his class:

Avery is doing some really, really good things. He plays the game so fast. He knows he’s still learning what we’re doing schematically. He’s learning a lot from Will Howard and Jake, but the one thing, when the ball is snapped, every play is really, really fast.

As he continues to learn our system and the defensive side of things slows down for him, we’re going to continue to see quantum leaps from him. Make no mistake, when he tucks it away and runs, it’s a different speed out there.

Now his new quarterbacks coach, co-offensive coordinator Matt Wells, has weighed in:

He’s got that “it” factor, and I see it every day. He’s a very natural leader. He’s a very natural starting quarterback. I think that comes easy to him, to be honest with you.

When you talk about physically, he’s done a good job with his pocket movement. It’s been something that’s been big for us to move in the pocket. You don’t just stand there and stand still. It’s not 7-on-7 — that’s why I hate that drill — but moving and staying in a position to be able to throw the ball quickly and getting his cleats into the grass, that’s one of the things we’ve focused on.

Mentally, it’s seeing so many looks and being able to progress through a read and process everything really, really fast. I’ve seen improvement in that area.

He is electric with the ball in his hands. He’s uber-talented out in space. He’s throwing the ball well. For Avery, it’s been important to get a multitude of looks, and we get that daily with pressure to drop eight and all the things that he needs to see. That’s challenging him and certainly there’s going to be the season challenge that goes from game to game and week to week from different structures. There’s going to be a soreness factor. There’s going to be just the grind of the season that he’s going to go through as a starter for the first time.

I’m proud of him. I’m excited to coach him. He’ll have a really good year.

More simply put was the way assistant head coach Van Malone said it a few weeks ago:

You don’t have to say anything, you just watch the film.

A Wichita native, Johnson prepped under head coach Gary Guzman at Maize High School, where he was rated the 77th-best player overall in the Class of 2023 by ESPN, while Rivals ranked him as the top dual-threat quarterback in the class.

He also was rated No. 85 overall and No. 9 among quarterbacks by 247Sports and was listed as the top player in the state of Kansas for the Class of 2023 by 247Sports, ESPN, and On3.

Johnson competed in the Elite 11 Finals in the summer of 2022 and was K-State’s first Elite 11 quarterback since Josh Freeman way back in 2005. He was selected to play in the U.S. Army Bowl in Frisco, Texas, in addition to the Under Armour All-America Game in Orlando, Florida.

Johnson also was named the Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year and the MaxPreps Kansas Player of the Year in 2022, and selected as the 2022 Wichita Eagle Offensive Player of the Year in the state of Kansas, while the publication named him to its Top 11 team and as a first-team all-state performer.

He also was named a Top 11 player and first-team all-state performer in 2022 by Sports in Kansas and KHSHAA Covered. He also won the Barry Sanders Award for greater Wichita.

Johnson threw for 2,768 yards and 29 touchdowns with just three interceptions on 153-of-228 aim as a senior, in addition to running for 817 yards and 15 scores on 98 carries, leading the Eagles to a 12-1 record and a sub-state championship in 2022.

He was named the league’s offensive Most Valuable Player as a senior, as well as a first-team all-state performer as a junior from Sports in Kansas and The Wichita Eagle. The latter publication also named him one of the top 11 players in the state in 2021.

Johnson is an elite all-around athlete with vision, accuracy, and speed who also competed in basketball and baseball. Don’t believe me? Just watch his film or listen to Howard’s praise:

To see some of the progression that he’s made from this spring to this fall is astronomical. He gets it. He’s understanding the game and wants to understand the game more and understand our offense. He’s an incredible athlete, so he makes some crazy plays and crazy throws. He’s about as athletic as they come.

Anytime that dude scrambles, I’m telling Coach Klieman that’s a touchdown right there, nobody is touching him. He’s been very impressive. For the future of K-State football, you’re going to be in good hands.

He selected K-State over an impressive set of offers from Arizona, Arizona State, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Iowa State, Kansas, Memphis, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Oregon, Pittsburgh, TCU, Tennessee, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Washington, Washington State and Wisconsin, plus strong interest from LSU.