Stampeding Through the 2025 USF Football Roster: #20 RB Jaylen Johnson
Johnson is a promising running back looking for his first significant playing time.
PLAYER: Jaylen Johnson
POSITION: Running back
YEAR: Redshirt sophomore
HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 5’9”, 195 lbs.
HOW DID HE GET HERE? A speedy back from south Georgia, Johnson went to Appling County High School and was rated a mid-three-star recruit. His offer list was impressive, featuring the likes of Florida State, Tennessee and Ole Miss, but by the end of his recruitment in 2022 he seemed to be focusing mostly on G5 schools. USF swooped in late with an offer almost immediately after Alex Golesh was hired, and Johnson promptly committed just a few days before early signing day.
He didn’t see any action in the regular season during his first season in 2023, but did get a few snaps during the bowl game against Syracuse.
HOW WAS HIS 2024 SEASON? USF’s running back snaps in 2024 were pretty much monopolized by Kelley Joiner, Nay’Quan Wright, and Ta’Ron Keith; there wasn’t much playing time to be had outside of that trio. Johnson again only saw action in one game - the blowout against Charlotte - but he did earn his first carries at the college level. He ran the ball six times in the fourth quarter of the Charlotte game, totaling 33 yards.
WHAT SHOULD WE EXPECT IN 2025? It seems a safe bet that incoming transfers Cartevious Norton and Sam Franklin are going to get the first crack at filling the sizable void left by Joiner, Wright, and Keith. That still conceivably leaves carries for one more player. That player could be Johnson, but I don’t think he’s the favorite. He did get a shoutout from Alex Golesh in a recent presser in which Golesh praised him for his perseverance in battling injuries over the past couple years, so hopefully Johnson sees an uptick in carries this season in some form or another.