One of Texas Tech‘s top portal additions is WR Kenny Johnson from Pittsburgh. Johnson, a senior from York, Pennsylvania caught 48 passes for 695 yards (14.5 AVG) and 5 touchdowns for the Panthers in 2025. The Pennsylvania product is expected to be one of the Red Raiders top pass catchers in 2026. Kenny spoke with some of the local media following the Red Raider’s Thursday practice.

His Decision To Attend Texas Tech

Recruits have multiple reasons for committing to the Red Raiders, but Kenny Johnson dove into what went into his decision to come to Lubbock.

“Really the coaches. Really just Coach Juice, the way that my interactions with Coach Juice went, just his knowledge on the game is just I know it’ll take me to to higher levels, the level that I want to go to. That’s really what I was looking for out of the portal. I really wanted to come to a place where I could build my football knowledge and build my football IQ and just evolve as a football player.”

Dad’s Military Service + Growing Up

Johnson’s dad, Terry Johnson served in the Army during his upbringing. Kenny spoke a little bit to how the transition has been from Pennsylvania to the 806.

“Yeah, okay. So, I was born in Baltimore, Maryland, but my dad’s in the military, so we moved around a little bit. I grew up high school-wise and a little bit of middle school like my last year of middle school but mainly high school in Pennsylvania, central PA and it’s nice little small town everybody knows everybody type of thing and you know it’s real cold like gets negative degrees so you know adjusting to this weather is a little different for me. It’s a little windy up here.”

The Depth In The WR Room

Texas Tech brought in multiple great receivers in Jalen Jones, Donte Lee Jr, and Kenny Johnson via the portal, while retaining multiple key pieces in Coy Eakin and Micah Hudson among others. Making Johnson believe this is the deepest WR group he’s ever been a part of.

“Yeah, it’s insane. I mean, we got maybe four, five number ones. Like we got some dudes like and they’re making plays every day. We got JJ (Jalen Jones), Donte (Lee Jr), Micah (Hudson), Coy (Eakin), and those are just those are just the older guys, you know what I mean? We still have great young guys too that are going to be able to like play. Like talent-wise are going to be able to play. Injuries happen, so like the depth is important. Like this is the deepest group I’ve ever been apart of.”

Texas Tech’s Top-Tier Facilities

The Red Raiders built up one of the top facilities in the country with the Dustin R. Womble Football Facility. All recruits, including Kenny Johnson, have spoken extremely highly of not only the facility, but Texas Tech’s top-tier nutrition, and training staff.

“Insane. Especially like and we had it was a great facility at Pitt, they had the Steelers and the Pitt facilities. Like the connection, but here it’s just like it’s just different like it’s bigger. Everything’s nicer, we have everything that we need. Like there’s nothing that we need that we don’t have; recovery wise, nutrition wise, and our training staff is amazing. So it’s really hard not to be great here. Like it really is.”

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