The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Johnson named to Walter Camp Player of the Year watch list
07.27.2018 | Football
Junior WR Collin Johnson on watch list for college football’s player of the year award.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Texas Football's Collin Johnson was named to the 2018 watch list for the Walter Camp Award, announced on Friday morning by the Walter Camp Football Foundation. The award has been presented annually to college football's player of the year since 1967. Two Longhorns have combined to win the award three times (Ricky Williams, 1998; Colt McCoy, 2008, 2009).
A native of San Jose, Calif., Johnson has played in all 25 games in his career while making 10 starts. He eclipsed 1,000 career receiving yards last season in a game at West Virginia and enters 2018 with 82 catches for 1,080 yards and five TDs. Making nine starts last season, Johnson totaled 54 receptions for 765 yards and two touchdowns. His 54 catches were the 19th-most in school history for a single season. In a monster game at USC last season, Johnson had seven catches for 191 yards, the fourth-most by a Longhorn all-time and the most ever by a UT player on the road. Johnson enters the 2018 season with two career 100-yard receiving games (Maryland '17, at USC '17). He has been named to the watch lists for the Biletnikoff Award and the Wuerffel Trophy prior to today.
The watch list will be narrowed to 10 semifinalists in mid-November. The 2018 Walter Camp Player of the Year recipient will be announced on ESPN Dec. 6. The winner will then be presented his trophy at the Foundation's 52nd annual national awards banquet in January in New Haven.
Walter Camp, "The Father of American football," first selected an All-America team in 1889. Camp – a former Yale University athlete and football coach – is also credited with developing play from scrimmage, set plays, the numerical assessment of goals and tries and the restriction of play to eleven men per side. The Walter Camp Football Foundation – a New Haven-based all-volunteer group – was founded in 1967 to perpetuate the ideals of Camp and to continue the tradition of selecting annually an All-America team.
