Former Texas Longhorns WR Retires From Football

One of the Texas Longhorns' best wide receivers from the pre-Steve Sarkisian era is hanging up his cleats.

Texas Longhorns wide receiver Collin Johnson runs against Oklahoma Sooners cornerback Parnell Motley in the second quarter in the Big 12 championship game at AT&T Stadium. | Tim Heitman-Imagn Images

The Texas Longhorns have sent some talented and record-breaking wide receivers to the NFL during the Steve Sarkisian era, but one of best pass-catchers from the Tom Herman era got that momentum started a few years prior.

Now, former Texas wide receiver Collin Johnson is putting an end to his football career, as ESPN's Adam Schefter reported Thursday that the San Jose, CA. native is retiring from the game. Johnson is now set to enroll at MIT, where he will begin the process of earning his MBA in business.

Johnson was a fifth-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars and ended up playing in 38 career regular season games across time with the Jaguars, Chicago Bears and New York Giants. However, let's focus on what he did during his time at Texas.

Collin Johnson Was Critical Piece During Tom Herman Era at Texas

Texas Longhorns wide receiver Collin Johnson speaks to the media during Big 12 media days at AT&T Stadium. | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Before there was Xavier Worthy, Adonai Mitchell and Matthew Golden, Johnson was the star wide reciever in Austin and helped usher in a new era of success before Sarkisian's arrival in 2021.

The son of Johnnie Johnson, a former first-round pick of the Los Angeles Rams in the 1980 NFL Draft, Collin Johnson chose the Longhorns as a four-star prospect in the 2016 recruiting class. This came around the time Texas fired head coach Charlie Strong before bringing in Herman.

After an ugly and forgettable time for the program during the Strong era, the expectations were somewhat low for the program upon Johnson's arrival, but he proved to be one of the most important pieces that helped put the Longhorns back on the map.

While the 2020 and 2021 recruiting classes for Texas receive most of this credit for "bringing Texas back," Johnson and quarterback Sam Ehlinger set the foundation in the years leading up to Sarkisian's arrival.

In his four years at Texas, Johnson played in 45 games with 29 starts while posting 188 catches, 2,624 yards and 15 touchdowns.

Longhorn fans will no doubt remember Johnson being a big part of Ehlinger's coming-out party against the USC Trojans during the 2017 campaign. In a 27-24 double-overtime loss at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Johnson had seven catches for 191 yards as unranked Texas nearly beat No. 4 USC.

The following year, Texas secured four ranked wins during the regular season and made it to the Big 12 Championship but lost to Oklahoma. The Longhorns still earned a spot in the Sugar Bowl and beat the Georgia Bulldogs for one of the program's biggest wins in the post-Mack Brown era.

This proved to be the best season of Johnson's college career, as he finished with 68 catches for 985 yards and seven touchdowns.

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