Blue White Illustrated

| P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> NEVER SATISFIED he most memorable moment from Penn State's Big Ten opener at Iowa last September? It's a no-brainer, right? With the Hawkeyes clinging to a four-point lead and a deafening Kinnick Stadium crowd eagerly awaiting its chance to swarm the field, Juwan Johnson caught a 7-yard touchdown pass on the final play of the game to give the Nittany Lions a 21-19 come-from-behind victory. Moments don't get much more memorable than that. But when Johnson thinks about that game, his mind goes back to a play that most people have probably long forgotten. Early in the third quarter, with Penn State fac- ing third-and-goal at the Iowa 3-yard line, Trace Mc- Sorley lobbed a pass into the far right corner of the end zone. It was a smart call for an offense that boasted a 6- foot-4 receiver. But while the pass was high, it wasn't high enough. Cornerback Josh Jackson timed his leap perfectly and tapped the ball away before Johnson could get a hand on it. Forced to settle for a field goal on a drive that had reached the 1-yard line, the Lions ended up boosting the spirits of an upset-minded Iowa team that seemed to draw strength from every missed Penn State opportu- nity. Even now, with six months having passed and the game firmly enshrined as a "W" in the record books, Johnson looks back on it with regret. "That could have been seven points for us," he said. "I had to show re- siliency from that, to bounce back from that play." In a roundabout way, Johnson's failure to come away with the football in that instance, and his unwillingness to let go of the memory, help explain why he's become one of the Big Ten's rising stars. The lanky wideout is a perfectionist with a tendency to dwell on the glitches and hiccups in his game rather than the spectacular plays that show up on SportsCenter. Moments such as the Lions' red zone whiff against Iowa don't leave him discouraged. They fuel his drive to improve. "Ultimately, everybody always sees the good," he said, "so I try to look for what people don't see. Looking at the bad and trying to improve on that is something that I've always harped on." In keeping with that humble approach, Johnson de- scribes his redshirt sophomore season as a series of "ups and downs," adding that he "obviously left some plays out there. There were some things I can improve on." That may indeed be how it looks to him. But from an outsider's perspective, there were a whole lot of ups and not too many downs. The Glassboro, N.J., native was tied with Saquon Barkley for second on the team with 54 catches, and his 701 receiving yards ranked second be- hind only DaeSean Hamilton's 857. Johnson was especially effective at the end of the sea- son. In Penn State's last four games, he totaled 22 catches for 312 yards. Reflected in those totals was a stellar Fiesta Bowl in which he gained 66 yards on six catches, with five of those catches producing first downs. That's exactly the sort of productivity that Penn State's coaches anticipated when they signed the four-star prospect out of Glassboro High in 2015. In fact, James Franklin has said that Johnson's performance as a sophomore only hinted at what he could accomplish in the future. "I think he's just going to con- tinue to get better. You're re- ally starting to see him play with his size right T He's coming off a breakout sophomore season with the Lions, but Juwan Johnson always sees room for improvement

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