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<p>Juwan Johnson entered the 2018 season as Penn State&#8217;s No. 1 receiver. He ended it with four other wideouts getting more snaps in the Citrus Bowl.</p><p>Less than two weeks later, the recent Nittany Lions&#8217; grad is officially exploring a transfer.</p><p>Johnson&#8217;s name appeared in the NCAA&#8217;s online transfer portal on Friday &#8212; which allows other schools to contact him &#8212; a source confirmed. Bruce Feldman of The Athletic and FOX Sports first reported the development.</p><p>Late Friday night, Johnson confirmed his intentions to play his senior season elsewhere.</p><p>&#8220;After talks with God, my family, and my closest ones, I&#8217;ve decided to not play my final season at Penn State University,&#8221; Johnson wrote on Instagram. &#8220;First, I am thanking my Heavenly Father for being the father that he is and giving me the ablility to be at such a prestigious university. Not only to be here but to walk away with a degree.</p><p>&#8220;Would also like to thank the ridiculous fan base for all the support. Seriously, you guys are second to none and I greatly appreciated them for a tremendous journey. Lastly, I want to thank coach (James) Franklin for helping me grow as a man and staff for the opportunities I was able to enjoy. It&#8217;s truly been a blessing.&#8221;</p><p>The portal is part of a new process for transfers that went into effect this fall, one that now prohibits schools from blocking players from getting financial aid at a new program.</p><p>Following Johnson&#8217;s change in status, coaches from dozens of programs began following him on Twitter, the primary mode of making contact with a recruitable player. Among them were Alabama, Cincinnati, Iowa State, N.C. State, Nebraska, Oregon, Syracuse, Virginia and Mississippi State, which is led by former Lions offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead. More are sure to follow in the coming days. </p><p>Johnson earned his degree in December and would be eligible to play immediately for a new team as a grad transfer.</p><p>His early departure marks a dramatic reversal from this time a year ago. The 6-foot-4 New Jersey native was expected to lead the Lions receiving corps after a solid sophomore season that was highlighted by his game-winning touchdown on the final play at Iowa.</p><p>But things never took off for Johnson as a junior. He struggled with dropped passes in the first half of the season. And right after coming up with a season-long 59-yard catch-and-run at Indiana, he didn&#8217;t return to the game because of a lower-body injury, which kept him off the field for all but a few drives the rest of the regular season.</p><p>He finished the year with 25 catches for 352 yards and one touchdown, well down from the 54 grabs and 701 yards he posted in 2017.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been a tough season, but you have to smile,&#8221; Johnson said at Penn State&#8217;s bowl media day in mid-December, the last time he was made available for interviews. &#8220;The things that happened were meant for a reason, and there&#8217;s going to be positive coming out of it. It&#8217;s not all negative when things happen. Take it how it is, move on from it and keep going.&#8221;</p><p>Through it all, Johnson received plenty of public support from Lions coach James Franklin, who fielded multiple questions about Johnson&#8217;s status throughout the season.</p><p>&#8220;I think he&#8217;s going to have a big bowl game, I think he&#8217;s going to have a great offseason, I think he&#8217;s going to have a really bright future,&#8221; Franklin said on that same day in December. &#8220;Obviously faced a little bit of adversity this year. I think it&#8217;s a positive. That&#8217;s kind of how we view things like that. You embrace it. He&#8217;s going to grow from this. He&#8217;s going to learn from this &#8212; not only as a football player but as a man.&#8221;</p><p>Franklin said that Johnson was healthy heading into the Citrus Bowl. But he did not start, as the Lions went with senior DeAndre Thompkins and true freshman Jahan Dotson at the two outside receiver spots with redshirt freshman KJ Hamler in the slot.</p><p>Johnson had just two catches for 13 yards in the loss to Kentucky, and he saw fewer total snaps than the three starters and another true freshman, Justin Shorter.</p><p>Teammates were quick to defend Johnson online Friday after news broke that he was leaving Penn State.</p><p>&#8220;You can ask anyone that he&#8217;s one of the hardest workers and ultimate teammate,&#8221; defensive end Shaka Toney wrote on Twitter. &#8220;Ask some vets about Juwan&#8217;s work ethic and dedication to this team and you looking from the outside in you don&#8217;t know what happened.&#8221;</p><p>Cornerback Tariq Castro-Fields also chimed in, writing, &#8220;Fake love is all I see. Y&#8217;all tryna down a guy who put on for the university everyday he could, and some people don&#8217;t have the decency to respect his decision on whatever he does.&#8221;</p><p>With Johnson leaving, it drops the Lions to eight projected scholarship receivers for next season, though they could add more to the 2019 recruiting class during the February signing period.</p><p>And it will be an especially young group, with senior Brandon Polk the lone upperclassman &#8212; and Polk largely disappeared from the offense in the second half of the season.</p><p>The other seven would all have sophomore or freshman eligibility &#8212; Hamler, Dotson, Shorter, Mac Hippenhammer, Cam Sullivan-Brown, Daniel George and John Dunmore, who just signed in December. Add in <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/sports/729901/penn-state-hires-dukes-gerad-parker-as-new-wide-receivers-coach" target="_blank">a just-hired receivers coach, Gerad Parker</a>, and the unit is facing a lot of flux.</p><p>Especially without Johnson.</p><p>&#8220;Juwan has been an unbelievable teammate since he&#8217;s arrived on campus,&#8221; Franklin said in December. &#8220;He&#8217;s always been a guy that&#8217;s invested a great deal. I think the team sees that. But what&#8217;s also interesting is when you&#8217;re young, you think life is fair. &#8216;If I invest this, then I should get an immediate return on my investment.&#8217; But it doesn&#8217;t work like that &#8212; whether it&#8217;s the big man upstairs or whether it&#8217;s the game of football.</p><p>&#8220;If you love the game, and if you respect the game, and if you invest in the game, it will pay back. The game respects people that view it the right way and treat it as such. I believe in that. I believe that in the game of football, I believe that in life, that it&#8217;s going to happen. When it happens and how it happens, I&#8217;m not sure. But I think Juwan is a great example of that.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Penn State&#8217;s Juwan Johnson (84) consoles fellow wide receiver KJ Hamler after losing to Kentucky in the Citrus Bowl. It ended up being their last time on a field together, as Johnson is seeking a transfer. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_AP19001807860385-3.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn State&#8217;s Juwan Johnson (84) consoles fellow wide receiver KJ Hamler after losing to Kentucky in the Citrus Bowl. It ended up being their last time on a field together, as Johnson is seeking a transfer. </caption0><photoCredit0>John Raoux | AP photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Penn State wide receiver Juwan Johnson plans to transfer for final season