Northwestern lands first transfer, former Vandy, ASU WR Cam Johnson
Northwestern finally landed its first transfer of the cycle.
Former Vanderbilt and Arizona State wide receiver Cam Johnson announced his commitment to the Wildcats on Wednesday on Twitter, just three days after returning from an official visit to Evanston.
The grad transfer has one year of eligibility left.
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MORE ON JOHNSON: Northwestern visit impresses grad transfer WR Cam Johnson l Johnson set to visit Northwestern l Northwestern Transfer Tracker
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Northwestern was Johnson's first and only official visit, and it proved to be the clincher in his decision process.
"I think being there and seeing the culture that [head coach Pat Fitzgerald] has put together was extremely impressive, hard not to want to be a part of it," he said. "I think they take a unique approach to the way they do strength and speed training.
"Also with one year left and looking to get to the next level, I know Northwestern is a place that scouts constantly come through, and they have a lot of production that left, so there is an opportunity to go in and play under a great offensive coordinator [Mike Bajakian] and wide receiver coach [Armon Binns], and compete to become one of the guys and hopefully get to the NFL afterwards."
Johnson played four years at Vanderbilt from 2018-21, and this past season at Arizona State. He announced his transfer in December, shortly after the end of the season at ASU, which fired coach Herm Edwards in September.
A 6-foot, 205-pounder originally from Brentwood, Tenn., Johnson has been a productive college receiver, with 134 catches for 1,317 yards and 10 touchdowns in his career. He also returned both kicks and punts.
Johnson had three seasons of at least 30 catches, 300 yards and three touchdowns with Vanderbilt. He led the Commodores with 56 catches for 545 yards in 2020, but had just 10 catches for 84 yards in 2022 for the Sun Devils.
Northwestern will add Johnson to a wide receivers room that lost its top two pass catchers from last season. No. 1 wide receiver Malik Washington (65 rec., 694 yds., 1 TD) transferred to Virginia for his final season, while No. 2 Donny Navarro (31, 237, 2) is out of eligibility. The Wildcats' leading returning receiver is Bryce Kirtz, who had 19 catches for 212 yards in 2022.
The Wildcats need to boost their passing game, and offense in general, after averaging just 13.8 points per game last season to rank 128th out of 131 FBS programs.
Johnson is Northwestern's first transfer portal addition. The Wildcats have quite a bit more work to do in the portal as eight scholarship Wildcats have announced their intention to transfer.