Will Johnson is garnering a ton of attention this preseason in the form of watchlist inclusions.
Announced on Wednesday, Michigan Wolverines cornerback has made yet another preseason watchlist for a major award in college football, this time for the Jim Thorpe Award.
This award, which has been around since 1986, goes to the best defensive back in all of college football. The only other Wolverine to ever win the award was Charles Woodson back in 1997. This is the second watchlist Johnson has made so far this offseason, as he was also included in the watchlist for the Bronko Nagurski Award , presented to the best defensive player in all of college football.
Johnson being included on the list is no surprise at all. He is coming off a massive sophomore season where he was a First-Team All-American, consensus First-Team All-Big Ten honoree, and the Defensive MVP of the National Championship against Washington. He compiled 27 tackles, one tackle for loss, eight pass breakups and four interceptions, with one being returned for a touchdown.
The crazy part is — he did all of that while playing hurt, as he recently told 247Sports’ Alejandro Zuniga .
“I would say I was probably going 70, 75 (percent) last year,” Johnson said. “I mean, I wasn’t really able to run. If you really know my game, you’ll be able to tell that’s why I played the way I did last year, because I didn’t really trust myself running and things like that, just because I wasn’t really able to.”
If there’s another Wolverine that can win the Jim Thorpe, it’s definitely Johnson. Pro Football Focus ranked him as the top returning cornerback in all of college football heading into the 2024 season, and he is also being predicted to go in the first-round of the 2025 NFL Draft . Should he have another great season, it wouldn’t be crazy to think Johnson can win the Jim Thorpe, and perhaps some more hardware as well.