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Johnson Declares for NFL Draft After Successful Run with Huskies

The one-time Mississippi State transfer leaves with 1,195 yards and 16 touchdowns rushing.
Dan Raley|
Johnson Declares for NFL Draft After Successful Run with Huskies
Johnson Declares for NFL Draft After Successful Run with Huskies

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Washington Huskies

During University of Washington spring football practice, Dillon Johnson introduced himself by accepting a handoff, running to the left and nearly taking someone's head off with a fierce stiff arm. Welcome to Montlake.

Nine months later, the former Mississippi State transfer will leave Seattle with 1,195 yards and 16 touchdowns rushing and a CFP championship game appearance to his name, having lived up to all of his ball-carrying promise.

On Friday, the junior running back from Greenville, Mississippi, told ESPN he will enter the NFL draft, bypassing a final year of eligibility available to him, and becoming the latest Husky player to leave following Monday's 34-13 loss to Michigan in the title game.

All along, Johnson was expected to spend just a season in Montlake, improving his pro football prospects and showing he was much more than a sure-handed receiver coming out of the backfield.

The 6-foot, 218-pound runner did just that, battling injuries practically the entire time he was at the UW but proving to be a tough and elusive ball carrier who received second-team All-Pac-12 accolades.

Johnson is the latest player since the Michigan game to exit the program with eligibility remaining, joining wide receivers Jalen McMillan and Ja'Lynn Polk, edge rusher Bralen Trice, offensive tackle Troy Fautanu, defensive tackle Faatui Tuitele, cornerback Jaivion Green and walk-ons Griffin Waiss and Austin Harnetiaux, a tight end and a linebacker. 

The running back's Husky high point came in a nationally televised game in Los Angeles when Johnson got loose for 256 yards on 26 carries and scored four times in the Huskies' 52-42 victory over USC. The rushing total was the fifth highest in school history.

He also came up with 100 and 152 yards rushing in victories over Oregon, the latter in the Pac-12 title game, and 104 against Utah.

While with the Huskies, he had his challenging moments, as well. He reaggravated a knee injury previously suffered at Mississippi State during UW spring ball and had surgery, then possibly fractured a bone in his foot late in the season at Oregon State, and gamely played through it all. 

As an added bonus, Johnson helped talk his Mississippi State quarterback, Will Rogers, into transferring to the UW for the coming season.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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