Goal No. 2: UNSELFISHNESS.There is no “I” in TEAM.

#2 Avery Johnson

True Senior | 6-3 | 200 lbs. (+4) | Wichita, Kansas

• Position: Quarterback
• Projection: Starter
• Remaining Eligibility: 1-2* years (*if 5 to play 5 goes into effect or he redshirts)
• Status: On Scholarship

Avery “Sunshine” Johnson (b. Nov. 2, 2004) is K-State’s very highly regarded dual-threat starting quarterback who is majoring in finance and did not redshirt. Our season basically hinges on his improvement.

Johnson enters his senior season in 2026 tied for the school record in career passing touchdowns (48), while he is ranked fourth in completions (458), tied for fifth in passing attempts (779) and sixth in passing yards (5,576).

He also ranks third in K-State history in career touchdown responsibility (70), fourth in rushing yards among quarterbacks (1,378), fifth in total offense (6,954) and total offense per game (210.7), tied for sixth in career completion percentage (minimum of 400 attempts; 58.79%), seventh in career passing yards per game (159) and passing efficiency (135.1), eighth in passing yards per attempt (minimum of 500 attempts; 7.16), and 10th in both passing yards per completion (minimum of 300 completions; 12.17) and rushing yards per carry (5.03).

Johnson has 22 career rushing touchdowns to tie for 15th overall and ranks sixth among quarterbacks. He has posted six games with at least three passing touchdowns, the fourth most in school history in the Big 12 era (Josh Freeman — 8; Michael Bishop/Will Howard — 7), and has started 26 career games under center — tied for the sixth most by a K-State quarterback since 1990 — while his 16 victories as a starting quarterback rank eighth.

One of only three quarterbacks in school history with 5,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards in a career, joining Ell Roberson (2000-03) and Skylar Thompson (2017-21), Johnson has thrown multiple touchdown passes in 16 games since the beginning of 2024, which tied for sixth nationally and the end of the 2025 season.

He also is the only active quarterback — and one of just eight in the Power 4 — to have multiple games with multiple passing and rushing touchdowns across both the 2024 and 2025 seasons.

Johnson first arrived on campus in 2023 as a mid-year enrollee and participated in that spring camp.

He entered the year in a three-way battle to be Will Howard’s backup but ended that up-and-down season having basically supplanted Howard, who elected to transfer to Ohio State and go win a national championship there.

Johnson saw playing time as a freshman in eight games with two starts — one against TCU as one of two quarterbacks on the field to begin the game and his first true career start as lone quarterback in the Pop-Tarts Bowl against NC State, a game in which he was named Most Valuable Player.

He threw for 479 yards on the season with five touchdowns and no interceptions on 37-of-66 aim, while he rushed for 296 yards and seven touchdowns on 52 carries as he earned votes for the Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year award from the league’s coaches.

Johnson’s seven rushing touchdowns were the second most by a freshman in school history and tied for the most by a true freshman with Deuce Vaughn (2020).

He also tied for second in rushing touchdowns among all true freshmen nationally in 2023, while he had the most among true freshman quarterbacks.

Johnson became just the fifth true freshman starting quarterback in school history, joining James Mack (1975), Duane Howard (1976), Josh Freeman (2006) and Will Howard (2020), while he was the second to start a bowl game (Freeman, 2006 Texas Bowl).

He most notably led K-State to a victory in the Pop-Tarts Bowl, becoming the first true freshman starting quarterback to earn a bowl victory at Kansas State.

Johnson was one of three true freshman quarterbacks to start a win and bowl game in 2023, along with Duke’s Grayson Loftis and Tennessee’s (now UCLA’s) Nico Iamaleava.

He threw for 178 yards and two touchdowns on 14-of-31 aim, while he added 71 rushing yards and a touchdown on seven carries in the bowl victory; his two passing touchdowns tied for sixth in K-State bowl history.

Johnson also led K-State to a 38-21 victory at Texas Tech as he came off the bench to record five rushing touchdowns, tied for the most in school history for a single game with new head coach Collin Klein (2011 in overtime vs. Texas A&M) and Jonathan Beasley (2000 vs. North Texas).

This coming-out party featured the most rushing touchdowns by any true freshman since Oklahoma’s Samaje Perine also had five against Kansas in 2014, while it was the most by a true freshman quarterback since at least 1995 and the most ever by a Big 12 true freshman quarterback.

He was one of only three players in the nation during the 2023 season with at least five rushing touchdowns in a game, and his 30 points scored and five touchdowns scored at Texas Tech also tied school records in each of those respective categories.

Johnson rushed for 90 yards against Texas Tech, one of three games in which he had 70 or more rushing yards (73 vs. TCU, 71 vs. NC State).

He also threw for 77 yards on 8-of-9 aim against the Red Raiders, rushed for a touchdown against Southeast Missouri State, and threw touchdown passes against TCU, Houston and Baylor.

Johnson entered 2024 on the preseason watch list for the Maxwell Award, along with his “turnt” backfield mate, starting running back DJ Giddens. Klein, prior to leaving for Texas A&M, said at the time of his young protégé:

It’s pretty amazing to watch a true freshman work has hard as he has to put himself into a position to truly run the offense and compete. He’s done a tremendous job with that. He hasn’t been overwhelmed and has really done some nice things throwing and running the football, so we’re really excited about him.

No less was the encouraging hype from former head coach Chris Klieman for the star of his recruiting class:

Avery is doing some really, really good things. He plays the game so fast. He knows he’s still learning what we’re doing schematically. He’s learning a lot from Will Howard and Jake, but the one thing, when the ball is snapped, every play is really, really fast.

As he continues to learn our system and the defensive side of things slows down for him, we’re going to continue to see quantum leaps from him. Make no mistake, when he tucks it away and runs, it’s a different speed out there.

Johnson’s former quarterbacks coach, ex-offensive coordinator Matt Wells, also weighed in positively:

He’s got that “it” factor, and I see it every day. He’s a very natural leader. He’s a very natural starting quarterback. I think that comes easy to him, to be honest with you.

When you talk about physically, he’s done a good job with his pocket movement. It’s been something that’s been big for us to move in the pocket. You don’t just stand there and stand still. It’s not 7-on-7 — that’s why I hate that drill — but moving and staying in a position to be able to throw the ball quickly and getting his cleats into the grass, that’s one of the things we’ve focused on.

Mentally, it’s seeing so many looks and being able to progress through a read and process everything really, really fast. I’ve seen improvement in that area.

He is electric with the ball in his hands. He’s uber-talented out in space. He’s throwing the ball well. For Avery, it’s been important to get a multitude of looks, and we get that daily with pressure to drop eight and all the things that he needs to see. That’s challenging him and certainly there’s going to be the season challenge that goes from game to game and week to week from different structures. There’s going to be a soreness factor. There’s going to be just the grind of the season that he’s going to go through as a starter for the first time. I’m proud of him. I’m excited to coach him. He’ll have a really good year.

More simply put was the way former assistant head coach Van Malone said it late in the summer of 2024:

You don’t have to say anything, you just watch the film.

Well, after a full two seasons as the starting quarterback, everyone has seen the film now. And while it’s been something of a mixed bag, the potential definitely flashed multiple times for all to see the greatness yet to come.

Johnson started every game in 2024, throwing for 2,712 yards and a school-record 25 touchdowns on 217-of-372 (58.3%) aim while adding in 605 rushing yards and seven touchdowns on 113 carries.

He finished fourth in school history in pass attempts, fifth in completions and passing yards, sixth in total offensive yards (3,317), and sixth in touchdown responsibility (32), while he also ranked second in school history in passing yards by a sophomore.

Johnson led the Wildcats to a school-record 6.57 yards per play, while they set a new school record with 6.08 rushing yards per carry — more than 0.8 yards per carry better than the previous record (5.27 in 2016).

He guided an offense that also ranked fourth in school history in offensive yards per game (426.8), fifth in total offensive yards (5,549), sixth in total rushing yards (2,801), seventh in completions (222) and 10th in passing yards (2,748).

Johnson tied the school record by engineering four comeback victories when trailing in the fourth quarter in games against Tulane, at Colorado, versus Kansas and against Rutgers, the latter coming in the Rate Bowl.

He led K-State to a 17-point comeback win over the Scarlet Knights, the largest bowl deficit ever overcome for a victory in school history, as he threw for three touchdowns in the Rate Bowl, tied for the third-most touchdown passes in school bowl history.

Johnson ranked 17th nationally and third in the Big 12 Conference in points responsible for (196), 20th in the country and fifth in the Big 12 in touchdown passes, and 43rd nationally and 10th in the Big 12 in total offense per game (225.2), while he was 44th nationally and seventh in the Big 12 in passing yards per completion.

He also ranked seventh in the Big 12 in pass attempts, eighth in completions, ninth in both passing efficiency (136.37) and passing yards per attempt (7.29), and 10th in total passing yards.

One of only five players in the nation — and one of just three from a Power 4 school (alongside Alabama’s Jalen Milroe and Arkansas’ Taylen Green) — to record 2,700 passing yards and 600 rushing yards, Johnson teamed with Dylan Edwards (7.4-yard average) and DJ Giddens (6.6-yard average) to make K-State the only Power 4 team in the country to have three players average at least 5.4 yards per rush (on a minimum of 70 carries).

One of nine quarterbacks in the nation with at least 25 passing touchdowns and seven rushing touchdowns, including one of five Power 4 signal callers, Johnson tallied six completions of at least 50 yards to tie for 10th nationally and second in the Big 12.

He had at least one completion of 50 or more yards in three straight games against Oklahoma State, Colorado and West Virginia, becoming the first Wildcat with such a three-game streak since Skylar Thompson in 2021 (Stanford, Southern Illinois, Oklahoma) and the first to do so in Big 12 play since at least 1999.

Johnson threw for at least 250 yards in each of the Oklahoma State, Colorado, West Virginia and Kansas contests — the longest streak by a Wildcat against conference foes since Jake Waters did the same during the final four Big 12 games of 2014.

He set a career high with 320 offensive yards against Kansas, which came on the heels of a then-career-high 298 passing yards at West Virginia.

Johnson posted a career-best passing efficiency rating of 186.0 at West Virginia, which was the highest by a Wildcat (on a minimum of 25 attempts) since Skylar Thompson against LSU in the 2021 Texas Bowl (188.1) and the highest by a Wildcat in a road game since Thompson at Oklahoma in 2020 (197.4).

He threw the game-winning 50-yard touchdown pass at Colorado with 2:14 left in the game and had three passing touchdowns and two rushing scores against Oklahoma State, becoming the first Wildcat to hit those marks against a conference opponent since Collin Klein at West Virginia in 2012.

It was only the 30th time since 1996 that a player had at least three passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns against a team ranked in the AP Top 25 as Johnson went on to earn Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week, Manning Award Star of the Week and Davey O’Brien Award Great 8 List honors.

He also was named to the Davey O’Brien Award Great 8 List after rushing for a career-high 110 yards against Arizona, the most rushing yards by a K-State quarterback since Will Howard had 125 yards against Oklahoma State in 2020.

Johnson set a career high for completions (24) and attempts (40) against Arizona State, and threw a career-long pass of 65 yards at Iowa State.

He was named to the preseason watch lists for the Maxwell and Davey O’Brien awards; earned Academic All-District honors from College Sports Communicators, in addition to being an Academic All-Big 12 performer; and was voted a team captain, a feat he replicated last summer for the second straight season.

Entering 2025, Johnson once again was named to the preseason watch lists for the Maxwell (with Edwards) and Davey O’Brien awards, as well as the Manning and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm awards.

During last year’s leprechaun-cursed season, he started all 12 games, throwing for 2,385 yards and 18 touchdowns on 204-of-341 aim in addition to rushing for 477 yards and eight scores on 109 carries.

One of nine Power 4 quarterbacks to throw for at least 18 touchdowns and rush for at least eight in 2025, Johnson ranked 39th nationally and seventh in the Big 12 with 13.2 points responsible for per game.

He also ranked sixth in school history in completions, 10th in passing attempts and total offense per game (238.5), 11th in touchdown responsibility (26) and total offense (2,862), and 14th in both passing yards and passing yards per game (198.8); tied for ninth in passing touchdowns; and also tied for second in passing touchdowns among juniors and ranked fifth in passing yards among juniors (2,385).

Johnson threw for a career-high 344 yards at Baylor, the most by a Wildcat since 2014 (when Jake Waters had 400 yards at West Virginia). When adding in his 72 rushing yards against the Bears, he had 416 total offensive yards to rank sixth in school history for a single game, and he also set a career high with 29 completions at Baylor — a mark that tied for seventh in school history — while his 28 completions against North Dakota tied for 12th.

Johnson threw for 318 yards against North Dakota as he became the first K-State quarterback with multiple 300-yard passing games in a season since Skylar Thompson in 2021. He tossed three touchdown passes apiece against both North Dakota and TCU.

Johnson also had a career-best pass efficiency rating of 217.7 at Kansas as he threw for 231 yards and two touchdowns on 11-of-17 aim. It topped his previous career-high mark of 186.0 in 2024 at West Virginia, while it was the fourth-highest rating among Big 12 players in a conference game in 2025 (on a minimum of 15 attempts).

Finally, Johnson connected on 72% of his passes against UCF, the highest completion percentage of his career (on a minimum of 10 attempts); rushed for a season-high 88 yards and two touchdowns against Texas Tech; also had two rushing scores against Kansas and topped the 70-yard mark on the ground against UCF (75 yards), at Baylor, and at Utah (72 yards); and again picked up Academic All-Big 12 honors following the season.

Despite these statistical accolades, it could be argued (and is being argued by many) that his tenure at the helm of the Wildcats’ offense has been a disappointment, especially in terms of wins and losses. But not by Johnson:

A Big 12 Championship would be a good cherry on top. When you count this many wins as a success and this many losses as a failure, you go down a slippery slope like last year. When you don’t have the success that you want to early on, you can see your season as a failure, and I don’t want a mindset like that.

That doesn’t mean I’m not going out to win every single game and go 12-0 or 13-0 and win a Big 12 Championship. Our goal is to win the Big 12 Championship, but I don’t want to put a number on it, too.

I see stuff really well, and I’m able to break down what defenses are doing pre-snap. I throw and run the ball pretty well. I have everything that a quarterback needs to be successful at this level and the next. It’s just going out and being consistent throughout a full season. I have all the confidence in the world in myself and in this team, and we’re going to be something scary to go up against in the fall.

It’s really a mindset and having that attack mindset each week and playing fearless. There’s no doubt in my mind that I can make any throw on the field and I’m one of the most, if not the most athletic player on the field at any time. Tapping into that and playing fearlessly and laying everything out on the line and treating it like there’s no tomorrow will help me play better this year.

Entering 2026, he once again has been named to the preseason watch lists for the Maxwell (with Joe Jackson) and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm awards.

Just this week, it was announced that Johnson again has been voted a team captain, for the third straight season:

The past two years as a captain have meant the world to me. It’s an honor to be at K-State and to be able to wear the Powercat. To be a captain and somebody everybody looks up to definitely means a lot to me, because it means I’m doing my job as a leader, and I have people who trust and believe in me.

He is the ninth player in program history to be named a captain three times, and the third quarterback to earn the honor, following in the footsteps of Skylar Thompson and Coach Collin Klein, who continues to praise him:

Both of us and our entire staff, we love learning, we love growing, we love pushing each other. So, any challenge is something we try to overcome quickly and then move on to the next one. (Avery is) that way.

Normally you could say is an older player complacent? Or, how much is he excited to learn new things and grow? I can’t really say a whole lot of, really, anything negative like that about something that he needs to work on. Yeah, there’s schemes we’re working on and throws we’re working on and defensive recognition things, sure. But I’ve been very, very pleased with his mindset, his approach. It’s been fun to watch the work that he and every one of our skill guys across the board have put in through the course of the offseason. To see that start to come to fruition and then to see that they feel that too, and they get a little bit of taste in their mouth of that, and how that spurs more energy and more work and a hunger to even be better.

At Big 12 Media Days this July, Klein outlined his philosophy toward managing Johnson during his senior year:

We have to build around the quarterback. The identity of our offense is going to take shape in training camp, which is very vigorous in building the pieces of it. We’re going to build it around him.

Avery and I’s relationship goes back a long way. It’s incredibly special to me. I’d argue that some of his best attributes aren’t physical. I know everyone sees how fast he is and how well he can run, but he has the arm talent, the spin on the football, and he’s one of the best competitors I’ve been around. He works hard at his craft, and he’s a very stoic, laid-back guy, but his motor is going hard in there. That’s why Avery and I got so close and why we fit. That gives me energy every day working with him, and I know that’s what he gets from me, too. We both love football and competing and winning, and we love “team,” and that’s a great combination. With the history we have, it gives us a head start to be on the same page to do what we want to do.

And the quarterback seems delighted to be coached by his primary recruiter once more:

CK is a football mastermind. He’s been doing it a long time as a player and as a coach at the highest level. I see how he processes things, and that’ll help me play faster and with a lot less thinking. He can talk about football forever. It’s good to have him in the room. You can pick his brain and listen. Listening to him, who knows so much about football, can only make you 10 times better. Being around Coach Klein and having him in the meetings and seeing how he processes and how I should process, I see how we can simplify things so I can play at a faster speed, which only makes me a better quarterback. It’s good to talk Xs and Os with him.

He teaches me where I went wrong, what I can do better and what I can do well. He sees the game from a genius perspective. It’s always good to be around a guy who sees the game differently than you and who has so much knowledge and experience, so you can take bits and pieces from it.

My freshman year, he had me play fully by instinct and if I saw green grass, take it. If I saw the defense gave up throwing lanes, take advantage of it. He doesn’t have me as a robot in any type of way. He lets me play my game, and he calls a great game. I’m excited to be on the good side of that again and see how he calls our games this year.

A Wichita native, Johnson prepped under head coach Gary Guzman at Maize High School, where he was rated the 77th-best player overall in the Class of 2023 by ESPN, while Rivals ranked him as the top dual-threat quarterback in the class.

He also was rated No. 85 overall and No. 9 among quarterbacks by 247Sports and was listed as the top player in the state of Kansas for the Class of 2023 by 247Sports, ESPN, and On3.

Johnson competed in the Elite 11 Finals in the summer of 2022 and was K-State’s first Elite 11 quarterback since Josh Freeman way back in 2005. He was selected to play in the U.S. Army Bowl in Frisco, Texas, in addition to the Under Armour All-America Game in Orlando, Florida.

Johnson also was named the Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year and the MaxPreps Kansas Player of the Year in 2022, and selected as the 2022 Wichita Eagle Offensive Player of the Year in the state of Kansas, while the publication named him to its Top 11 team and as a first-team all-state performer.

He also was named a Top 11 player and first-team all-state performer in 2022 by Sports in Kansas and KHSHAA Covered, and he won the Barry Sanders Award for greater Wichita.

Johnson threw for 2,768 yards and 29 touchdowns with just three interceptions on 153-of-228 aim as a senior, in addition to running for 817 yards and 15 scores on 98 carries, leading the Eagles to a 12-1 record and a sub-state championship in 2022.

He was named the league’s offensive Most Valuable Player as a senior, as well as a first-team all-state performer as a junior from Sports in Kansas and The Wichita Eagle. The latter publication also named him one of the top 11 players in the state in 2021.

Johnson selected K-State over an impressive set of offers from Arizona, Arizona State, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Iowa State, Kansas, Memphis, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Oregon, Pittsburgh, TCU, Tennessee, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Washington, Washington State and Wisconsin, plus strong interest from LSU.

Read more about his higher comfort level and improved confidence in this excellent D. Scott Fritchen profile:

You never know what your story is going to be. If you know what you want and believe in yourself and stay true and really work hard and grind, the sky’s the limit.

*Keep in mind that starting this season, redshirted players can play in up to nine total games and retain their year of eligibility. If the 5-for-5 rule survives its court challenges, that number goes from nine to “all of them.”