Michael Cohen
College football and basketball writer
On Jan. 2, the day after Michigan beat Alabama to win the Rose Bowl and advance to the national championship, star cornerback Will Johnson posted a slideshow of photos to his Instagram account. The first photo was a shot of Johnson in the game with no one else around. The second photo triggered some maize-and-blue deja vu: a photo of another star defensive back wearing the team's historic No. 2 jersey while holding a rose in his teeth.
Comparisons have long been made between Johnson, a first-team All-American whose father played for the Wolverines, and the most famous player to wear the same uniform number, cornerback Charles Woodson. Woodson was the 1997 Heisman Trophy winner who led Michigan to its most recent national championship, a title it didn't shed until ending its championship drought in January. An iconic photo of Woodson celebrating after beating Washington State in the Rose Bowl has been transformed into a bobblehead and piece of art.
An already strong bond has only grown stronger with Johnson alluding to an expanded role this season. At a youth football camp in Detroit last week, Johnson told reporters that “there's been a little bit of buzz around” about possibly joining the offense as a wide receiver, just as Woodson had a double-dip in '96 and '97, totaling 21 catches for 370 yards and three touchdowns. Woodson also scored on a 77-yard punt return against Ohio State in his Heisman-winning season.
“We'll see what happens,” Johnson said, according to 247Sports. “It's a possibility. It's always a possibility, for sure.”
At a time when the college football news cycle has begun to slow, Johnson's comments have created waves of excitement among a fan base eager to anticipate scenarios. Could Johnson, who played both sides of the ball in high school, be a viable option for an unproven and under-resourced receiver corps that lost Roman Wilson (789 yards, 12 TDs) and Cornelius Johnson (604 yards, 1 TD) to the NFL? Could he develop into a true two-way player like Colorado star Travis Hunter, who played more than 450 innings on offense and nearly 600 on defense last season? Would first-year head coach Sherrone Moore allow Johnson, arguably the best cornerback in the country and a potential first-round draft pick, to earn additional playing time, despite the threat of inevitable injury?
Judging by Johnson's track record at Grosse Pointe South High School in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, a northeast suburb of Detroit, he likely has the skill set necessary to contribute as a wide receiver, especially when combined with his 6-foot-2, 202-pound frame that makes him taller and heavier than any of the Wolverines' projected starters this fall. Ranked as the No. 15 overall prospect and No. 3 cornerback in the 2022 recruiting cycle, Johnson recorded 42 catches for 667 yards and six touchdowns during his senior season, and supplemented his defensive responsibilities with an additional 635 yards rushing and punt return. The year before, he had 37 catches for 600 yards and eight touchdowns.
But Johnson's placement at Michigan was never one to stray from the secondary, where he broke into the starting lineup midway through his freshman season, and special teams, where his contributions became less and less as his defensive importance soared. That was no different in in-season practice, spring practice or offseason training, according to former coaches who spoke to FOX Sports earlier this week. During his first two years in Ann Arbor, the Wolverines never once considered using Johnson on offense.
So why now? Why is one of the best cornerbacks in the country lobbying for a bigger, riskier role less than a year before he could become a top-10 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft? Why would Michigan's coaching staff entertain such thoughts when Johnson is the only proven cornerback on the team?
One reason is that a number of players left the team during the offseason left Michigan with a dangerously low number of scholarship wide receivers during spring practice, thinning its experience and depth at wide receiver. In addition to losing Wilson (a third-round pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers) and Cornelius Johnson (a seventh-round pick by the Los Angeles Chargers) to the pros, Michigan also said goodbye to three former four-star prospects in Christian Dixon, Carmelo English and Darius Clemons through the transfer portal. English and Clemons in particular were considered big recruiting wins when they committed to the Wolverines.
With all of those players gone, the only returning wide receivers with 32 or more receiving yards last season are Semaj Morgan (22 catches, 204 yards, two touchdowns) and junior Tyler Morris (13 catches, 197 yards, one touchdown). They are projected to be starters in 2024, along with sophomore Frederick Moore (four catches, 32 yards, zero touchdowns), who was a standout performer in Michigan's spring game.
Subsequent attempts by Moore, offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell and wide receivers coach Ron Bellamy to shore up the position have been disappointing for a team that made three straight trips to the College Football Playoff and won a national championship earlier this year. They added C.J. Charleston, the third-most productive receiver out of Youngstown State (714th among transfers, 109th among wide receivers), who had 33 catches for 503 yards and four touchdowns at the FCS level last season. They also brought back former three-star prospect Amorion Walker, who switched from wide receiver to cornerback. Walker left the University of Mississippi after the 2023 season and spent one semester at Ole Miss before re-entering the transfer portal. Walker will reportedly return to the offense during his second tenure with the Wolverines.
Woodson remains Michigan's best at contributing both offensively and defensively, but the careers of players like Walker show why Johnson feels he can convince the coaching staff to use him at wide receiver. Former head coach Jim Harbaugh didn't shy away from trying players at different positions in the latter stages of his tenure. This philosophy didn't always work, but it still produced great results on the road to a national championship. He converted Mike Sainristil from a wide receiver into an All-American nickelback. He transformed Karel Mullings from a reserve linebacker into a contributing running back. He transformed Max Bredeson from a high school quarterback into a ferocious blocking tight end/H-back.
While those players weren't expected to play on both sides of the ball in the same season — at least not in game-critical moments — it's possible some of Harbaugh's imagination has rubbed off on Moore, his confidant and offensive coordinator last year. Perhaps Moore envisions Johnson accomplishing what Woodson has already done in Maize and Blue.
“Coach Campbell always tells me, [playing offense]”Coach Moore doesn't really like it because he wants to make sure I'm staying on defense,” Johnson told reporters.
“But yeah, the offensive line loves it and they want me to do it too. They know what I can do, so hopefully I can do a little bit of that too.”
Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports, primarily the Big Ten. Follow him on Twitter. Michael Cohen.
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