Vols WR Brandon Johnson Reflects on Redshirt Season, Growth Coming into 2020

Brandon Johnson led Tennessee in receiving yards with 482 yards in 2017, but he saw a significant drop in production the following season, only grabbing 14 passes for 132 yards. However, in 2019, Johnson played in the first four games of the season, and he would go on to redshirt, allowing him to come back in 2020.

Johnson is back, and he is expected to factor into Tennessee's receiver rotation this fall, but sitting out last season was something that was hard for Johnson, and he reflected on that during today's media availability.

Johnson said, "As far as sitting out for a year, it wasn’t fun sitting back and watching my teammates go to battle every game last season. But now that I’m in it and now that we’re getting so close to game time, I’m just excited. I can't wait to go."

While it was not easy for Johnson to sit back, he believes it will prove beneficial. "Ithink that time off really just helped me take a step back and look at the game from the outside in, so to speak. It really allowed me to kind of get my game in order as far as mentally, really mentally. Working on the physical aspect as well, routes. You can never stop working in the game of football. There’s so much you can do to improve yourself, rather it be mentally or physically, so I’ve just been working all around," he added on the time off and improving his craft.

While his physical growth is key, his mental growth will prove to be pivotal. Johnson said on what has changed for him, "I would say just my confidence level. Confidence level. That’s probably the No. 1 thing. I’m so excited just to get back out there and play man. I can’t wait. I would say a lot of that comes from sitting back and watching a little bit. You look at things from a different standpoint when you’re not actually in it. Maybe you’ll be sitting back and looking at other guys you may be able to realize, ‘OK, this works. Maybe this works. Different things like that.’ So, I really think sitting back for a little while definitely kind of helped me improve my game.”