Football Spotlight on Keenen Johnson

Spotlight on Keenen Johnson

#8 Keenen Johnson • 6-1 • 200 • Senior • Wide Receiver
A fourth-year senior receiver, Keenen Johnson has played in 35 career games with 32 starts and has totaled 112 receptions for 1,352 yards and 6 touchdowns in a TU uniform. The Alto, Texas, native played quarterback and defensive back in high school, but earned playing time right away at wide receiver as a freshman in 2016. Thru the first 3 games this year, Johnson has 6 receptions for 70 yards, including a 37-yard catch in the opener at No. 18 Michigan State.

My favorite part of football ...
Scoring touchdowns. That's my most favorite part.

My focus going into the season ...
My biggest focus is just to be a better leader than I was the year before. I just want to do more to contribute and help my team win.

In high school ...
I ran track, played basketball and played baseball for a year. Mainly participated in track and basketball though. I ran the 4x100m and 4x200m relays and occasionally they would put me in the 100m and 200m, but my best event was the long jump. I went to state in the long jump two years in a row.

On senior night for basketball I scored the first two points by dunking on two people and that was a memorable moment for me. For baseball, since I had a strong arm they put me in the outfield. I soon found out that I didn't like the outfield because I got bored out there. I needed some action so I played a lot of third base.

My hashtag this season ...
#Hungry

My favorite NFL team is ...
Tennessee Titans. Vince Young was my idol and I was playing quarterback at the time. I had dreams of playing quarterback as a kid and then he came up, won the Rose Bowl and got drafted No. 1 overall. Tennessee became my favorite team and I've stuck with them ever since.

My favorite NFL players are ...
My most favorite is Cam Newton (Carolina Panthers QB). After that it would have to be Keenan Allen (Los Angeles Chargers WR) and Michael Thomas (New Orleans Saints WR).

Show you're currently binging right now...
Currently, I'm not watching any shows. School and football have me so busy. I wish I could!

My favorite class at TU ...
Probably one of Samantha Beams' Kinesiology classes. "Strategies of Healthy Living" and "Pedagogy of Lifetime Activities and Sport Skills" are two that I enjoyed.

My hobbies outside of football are ...
I like to play Madden and NBA 2K on XBox.

On the nickname Toe and how it came to be ...
It was either Coach Monty or Coach Beau (Trahan). When I got to campus, probably the person who wore it out the most was Coach Lowry. In practice, I'd run the wrong route or something and he'd yell, "Toe!", every time I messed up. It took maybe a week for everyone to start calling me Toe at fall camp my freshman year. My nickname back home was "Red". My granny gave me that name, but she never really gave me a reason.

On signing day T-shirts ...
My family was trying to get the coaching staff some shirts, but they weren't going to make it up to Tulsa before signing day. So the coaches got some made that said, "Straight Outta Alto" on them. I thought that was pretty cool and pretty rare.

On learning his family home had been destroyed by a tornado last spring ...
It (the news of the tornado) came out of nowhere. I was asleep and my family called and let me know everything that had happened. My first thoughts were, "Is everybody fine" and all that. They let me know that everyone was ok, but the house and stuff was messed up. Then my thoughts became, "Where will they go now?" I had no idea what they were going to do and it was something that was on my mind. Hearing that we lost everything was difficult. It was a time where I didn't really know what to do and it all doesn't really hit you until you go down and check it out.

On seeing the damage first-hand ...
A lot of my closest friends in Alto didn't have any house problems. Everybody else was fine. It's like the storm just picked different houses to hit. My family is out in the country a little bit. We stay right across from a Native American museum and all the cars that were in that parking lot were thrown all the way over into my granny's property. Everybody has been good though. My little brother is starting his senior year. My little cousin is starting sports so they have something to look forward to. It can be hard dealing with insurance and all of that, but they are doing a lot better now than they were.

My Twitter handle ...
@Keenen_Johnson4

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