(Photo credit: Sun Devil Athletics)
Between its highly touted freshmen skill players, senior wide receiver Frank Darby and star sophomore quarterback Jayden Daniels, a host of names jump off the page on Arizona State’s football roster.
However, freshman wide receiver Johnny Wilson’s name stands tall over everyone else’s. Literally. Wilson is listed at 6-foot-7 and 220 pounds, behemoth for his position and age.
“When I first saw him, I was like ‘Damn! He’s big. That’s a big ole freshman,’” ASU freshman wide receiver LV Bunkley-Shelton said.
ASU’s lanky new wide-out could theoretically play anywhere in new offensive coordinator Zak Hill’s scheme. Multiple reports have suggested that Wilson could be converted to tight end or be used as a hybrid between the two positions. Wilson said Friday that he likes wide receiver more, and has even worked in the slot instead of the ‘z’ or ‘x’ positions during the first days of camp.
“I prefer being on the outside, but at the end of the day I’ll do whatever my team needs from me,” Wilson said. “He [Hill] has me playing a lot of slot, and running routes from the outside as well.”
Wilson’s work closer to the linemen serves as evidence that Hill has a lot up his sleeve. One would presume that the verticality of Darby and Wilson’s height would pair nicely with Bunkley-Shelton – a smaller speedster-type receiver – in the slot.
“Johnny’s done a really good job,” Hill said. “He’s a really big threat. He’s a tall guy that runs. He’s shown that he can make some big plays already.”
His ability to move fluidly has been the biggest reason for his work in the slot, according to wide receivers coach Prentice Gill, who previously recruited Wilson to Oregon before convincing the four-star to flip to ASU with him in the spring.
Gill said there’s a difference between most bigger wide receivers and Wilson.
“The biggest thing about Johnny is that he’s not just a big guy,” he said. “The kid can move. He can really move. If you put a bigger guy on him, he moves better than him. If you put a little guy on him, he’s bigger than him. It creates really bad matchups.”
When Bunkley-Shelton and Wilson first started talking, Bunkley-Shelton thought they could be something special.
“When I realized we were going to the same school, I was like ‘We’re gonna kill. We’re gonna ball out,’” he said. “I told him that it’s gonna be us two.”
Wilson’s skillset is rare. No one is really quite like him. His bag of tricks aligns him with few players he can compare himself to and study. The guys he does watch all have one common trait, though: height.
“My favorite receiver is Mike Evans,” Wilson said. “That dude has great hands. He uses his body and his big frame to get open and create separation. I also liked watching Allen Lazard when he was at Iowa State – he was insane as another big body receiver.”
Despite his impressive frame and ability to make plays, Wilson isn’t a shoe-in quite yet for the Sun Devils. Gill said that the freshman is still getting up to speed, and is “close” to where he hoped he’d currently be. Wilson has been lining up with the first-teamers through both practices of the young season so far, though Bunkley-Shelton and redshirt sophomore Geordon Porter got reps with the group as well Saturday.
“I just took all of it in,” Wilson said. “The transition wasn’t too difficult. The only difficult part is the tempo of the practice. Being with the ones requires a faster pace.”
In addition, Hill has stressed that he wants every position group of his offense to be competitive, and Gill said he doesn’t want just one receiver to be special.
The role ASU’s coaching staff wants Wilson to have comes with responsibility. Gill tells him: “all that responsibility we put on you, you then have a responsibility to go learn it. You have to learn more than the average freshman.”
Hill knows that what he’s tasking Wilson with takes time to learn and grasp. He said he’s going to be patient with the rookie, and that everything else should eventually all fall into place.
“He’s still young and learning and making some mistakes and that’s part of the process,” Hill said. “But he’s one of those guys that’s very competitive and he wants to win. He wants to compete everyday. He doesn’t take plays off.”
