Wildcats freshman coming on fast on kick returns
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Arizona Wildcats senior receiver Austin Hill was asked what he saw from young wideout Tyrell Johnson.
"You mean, whenever I can see him," Hill said. "He's so fast."
Arizona's fastest player -- "It ain't even close," coach Rich Rodriguez said -- is picking up speed as UA's regular season nears its halfway point Saturday night against USC.
Johnson, a true freshman from Fort Myers, Fla., had four kick returns for 99 yards against Oregon, his numbers hampered by a pair of holding penalties that he said didn't make much difference in freeing him into open space. He was seemingly a step away from breaking a couple of those returns for touchdowns.
"Two of them that I know were pretty close," Johnson said after Tuesday's practice. "I just have to trust my speed."
That should be easy to do. Johnson ran a 10.4-second 100 meters in high school, breaking the Lee County record held by another noted speedster, former Clemson standout and current Buffalo Bills rookie receiver Sammy Watkins.
"Some of the other guys will say, 'I can race him,' " Rodriguez said of Johnson. "You can race, but you're going to lose, and it won't be pretty."
Johnson (5-7, 160) can be one of those short, quick guys that Rodriguez has put to good use as a multiple weapon in his zone-read offense. Johnson has five catches for 69 yards as a slot receiver, including a 35-yard touchdown against Nevada.
He is stacked behind several other slot receivers on Arizona's depth chart, but the fast guy is making a steady, slow move as he gains confidence, learns the scheme and improves his hands.
"He has a lot of potential," Hill said.
"He's a playmaker. We could really use him. We don't really have that kind of speed anywhere on the team. He's so fast. You can tell. He'll be running really fast and you'll be like, 'You're not running full speed.' You can just know. When he's running way fast, his arms and legs just move way faster than you've ever seen."
Johnson is a Rodriguez kind of guy in that not everything has come easy. He signed with Arizona in 2013 but spent last fall at Milford Academy in New Berlin, N.Y., to work on his academics. He returned four kickoffs for touchdowns while he was there, but the lessons off the field were more valuable as structured days began at 5 a.m.
"It taught me how to be on time -- 10 minutes early to everything -- and not just try to show up at the last minute," Johnson said. "I try to be the first one in the door."
He's had to make sacrifices. It's not easy being so far away from his mother, LaShonda Evans, who is in remission from battling multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells in the bone marrow. His father, Tony, unable to fly because of travel costs, rode a bus three days from southwest Florida to Tucson to see his son play against Nevada. His mother can't travel while Tyrell -- the middle of five children -- is across the country.
"At first she was kind of sad, she was crying, but after a while, she's kind of happy that I'm over here experiencing life, seeing new things," Johnson said. "She doesn't know much about football. She just knows that when she sees me (on TV), she screams."
A few weeks ago, Rodriguez lamented his team's poor kick returns, mostly because of the blocking. He semi-joked that he hoped opponents would just kick the ball into the end zone for a touchback, so the Cats could start at the 25.
Johnson's emergence as a returner could change that thinking. He says he always remembers his dad's advice from when he started playing mighty-mite football -- use that god-given speed.
"Just don't wait for my blockers," Johnson said. "That's all he's been telling me since I was 5. If they're going slow, run around them."
-- With Arizona's success (5-0 and a No. 10 ranking in the AP poll) coupled with Michigan's struggles (2-4), Rodriguez has been frequently questioned about his former employer. Michigan fired Rodriguez after the 2010 season after going 15-22 in three years on the job, often hearing that he wasn't a "Michigan Man."
"I've heard a lot of talk about 'fit,' " Rodriguez said.
"I think sometimes that's just talk. If you've got a plan and a program that you want to put in place and you're allowed the time to install that and see it through, then you'll be the right fit. A lot of people say, 'Well, you weren't the right fit at Michigan.' I'm the same guy now that I was at Michigan and West Virginia and before. Sometimes, people see what they want to see as far as, 'Are you the right fit or not?'
"To me, that's kind of silly. Either you have a plan and a staff in place and you're allowed to see it through or you don't."
-- Former Arizona quarterback Matt Scott joined the practice roster of the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League. Scott spent the 2013 season on the Jacksonville Jaguars practice squad and was in camp with the Cincinnati Bengals this season before being cut. Former Arizona running backs Keola Antolin and Nic Grigsby also are playing in Canada.
-- Arizona will release its injury report Thursday afternoon. Two players to watch are running back Nick Wilson and left guard Cayman Bundage, who left the Oregon game with undisclosed injuries. They did not practice Tuesday.