He sits in his lavender suit at a long table with a black tablecloth and in front of a large digital display bearing the Powercat logo and with the end of Big 12 Football Media Days nearing an end at the Ford Center in Frisco, Texas — an eight-hour affair that can test the vocal chords — and Avery Johnson still sits and politely and methodically answers every question tossed his way.

 

Then somebody lobs him a question about No. 20 K-State facing No. 21 Iowa State in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic on August 23 in Dublin, Ireland.

 

Johnson unhesitatingly and emphatically knocks it out of the park.

 

“It’s definitely extra motivation for us knowing we’ve lost to Iowa State the last two years,” he says. “They beat us to end the regular season last year and left a bad taste in our mouth. It definitely doesn’t sit well with me and the rest of our team.

 

“We’re going to prepare our hardest and go out there and get the win.”

 

True. K-State suffered a 29-21 loss at Iowa State last season. Johnson completed 12-of-28 passes for 220 yards with touchdown passes of 28 and 65 yards to Jayce Brown and a 7-yard scoring toss to Garrett Oakley. K-State also suffered a 42-35 loss to Iowa State on Senior Day in Manhattan in 2023. Will Howard went 24-of-48 for 288 yards with one touchdown and one interception in that contest.

 

Matt Wells, K-State’s associate head coach, quarterbacks coach and first-year offensive coordinator, got a vibe from Johnson the first time they met prior to last season, and that vibe has perhaps become more pronounced during the offseason as Johnson, the face of K-State football, stares down his second year as a full-time starter.

 

“He’s a dog. He’s a competitor. And he has that mindset that he’s the best one out of 22 players on the field at that time,” Wells says. “That’s something you either have it, or you don’t. That’s a special trait that Avery has. He’s a winner.”

 



K-State is one of only five Power 4 teams to win at least nine games each of the last three seasons with at least one conference championship in that timeframe, joining Alabama, Clemson, Georgia and Oregon.

 

Johnson, a Wichita native who a year ago guided K-State to a 9-4 record, including a 44-41 win over Rutgers in the Rate Bowl, would like to help keep K-State shining among the best in college football.

 

Meanwhile, the 6-foot-3 Johnson, who is on the 2025 Maxwell Award Davey O’Brien Award watch lists, says that he will play above 200 pounds for the first time this season while maintaining his 23-mile-per-hour speed, has a chance to prove himself among the best signal-callers in the nation.

 

Last season, Johnson completed 58.3% of his passes for 2,712 yards and a school-record 25 touchdowns while adding 605 rushing yards and seven touchdowns on 113 carries. He finished fourth in school history in pass attempts (372), fifth in completions (217) and passing yards (2,712), sixth in total offensive yards (3,317) and sixth in touchdown responsibility (32).

 

He was on fire with 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 30^th time since 1996 a player had at least three passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns against an AP Top 25 team, earning him Manning Award Star of the Week and Davey O’Brien Award Great 8 honors.

 

He finished as one of five players in the nation — and one of three from a Power 4 school — to record 2,700 passing yards and 600 rushing yards last season.
 
CBS ranks Johnson as the fourth-best quarterback in the Big 12 heading to the 2025 season, contending that “Johnson finished with a school-record 25 touchdown passes and yet it didn’t feel like he met the high expectations many set for him as a first-year starter.”
 
CBS adds: “When he’s on, the Wildcats are a conference frontrunner.”
 
It wasn’t too long ago that ESPN college football senior writer Pete Thamel on the College Gameday Podcast called Johnson “electric,” adding, “He’s going to be the face of the sport in the upcoming years. He’s got like (NFL quarterback) Anthony Richardson electricity, like he’s rare, man.”
 
Last week, ESPN listed Johnson as the “most important player in the Big 12 race.” It adds: “If he phases out some of the errors and maximizes the big plays, K-State’s ceiling is higher than 10 wins.”
 
At the moment, one of the most electric — and likely among the fastest — signal-callers in college football stands center stage in the team theater room at the Vanier Family Football Complex after training camp on Thursday.
 
Johnson has seen the film. Boy, has he seen the film. Wells says not a day goes by that Johnson isn’t in his office. They talk football. They watch football. Often, they watch football and talk football at the same time as the hours slowly burn away. Both coach and pupil are fiery. They’re like-minded. They look at each other and know what the other is thinking. It’s that kind of bond that they’ve formed through two years of growth. Every offensive play is dissected. Every drop back and every rush analyzed. Virtually nothing goes untouched in Wells’ office.
 
“I put the weight of the world on my shoulders (in 2024),” Johnson explains to reporters on Thursday. “If I missed a throw, I wanted to get it all back on the next throw. If we got down, I wanted to score a 14-point touchdown. A lot of times, I’d try to be this player I wasn’t and try to fit the narrative of, ‘Oh, he needs to be a passer and doesn’t need to run as much.’ Really, it’s about being myself.
 
“If the defense gives up run opportunities, I need to make the defense pay and run the ball, and if they give up passing opportunities, I need to be a pocket passer and play to my strengths more. I need to really do what I can do best, which is lead and go out and win football games.”
 

Which is what Johnson has strived to do all along.
 
One day, in particular, comes to mind. Johnson sported a tan-and-black Nike hoodie, black sweatpants, black socks and black slides as he stood inside the team theater at the Vanier Family Football Complex. It was February 2, 2022 — 43 days after he signed his letter-of-intent with the Wildcats. One of the highest-rated players ever to sign with K-State — he was the Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year, the No. 1-rated dual-threat passer by Rivals and the 41^st-rated overall player by 247Sports — he exuded confidence, yet was not brash; he spoke, but is not boastful; he smiled, but not too big; and he fit the part of a charismatic leader.
 
As for Johnson’s goals while at K-State?
 
“A lot of winning,” he said. “I have personal goals, but to be honest, the team goals mean more to me than any personal goals, whether that’s winning the Big 12 or playing for a national championship. I just like to play football, and I like to win football games.”
 
That competitiveness? That drive?
 
It came early.
 
There was always something different about Avery. When he was 2 years old, he memorized the uniform numbers of his older brother’s little league baseball team. Kids played in the dirt. Avery studied how players swung the bat. When Avery was 3, his basketball and t-ball coaches politely asked his parents if Avery could play up a level. He outraced his older brother’s fifth-grade football team in 40-yard dashes. Mark Johnson tried to put Avery, his youngest child, into competitive situations and exercise his brain. Avery memorized 120 offensive plays. He read defenses, audibled out of plays, found the exact right one, then took care of the rest.
 
He was in the third grade.
 
“He beat them every single time,” Mark says.
 
In the eighth grade, Avery wowed Maize High School varsity football head coach Gary Guzman, who saw the boy in the No. 2 jersey race past the competition for the first time. And he could throw. Boy, could he throw. The possibilities were endless.
 
“He was just so athletic at that age,” Guzman says. “He has been forever, I guess.”
 
Avery played on the Maize High School freshman football team on Mondays and played on the varsity team on Fridays. He was an unstoppable force for the freshman squad while serving as backup quarterback to a senior on the varsity team. Oh, he played. He played in every varsity game his freshman year. He threw for more than 500 yards — “pretty good for a freshman part-timer,” Guzman says — while honing his throwing mechanics and learning the offensive system. He had a silky-smooth delivery and put zip on the ball, finding receivers across the field. Guzman inserted Avery into multiple situations, regardless of opponent or score. Didn’t matter. When he took the field, one thing stood out among his many attributes: His leadership. The juniors and seniors responded to him. The Maize High fans cheered for him.
 
“We had no problem putting him in there at any point during the game,” Guzman says. “I mean, he could get it done. He did great things as a freshman and just kept getting better every year.
 
“He had long runs. At any point in the game, he’d hurt you. You give him enough time, and he was going to hurt you with the pass. It was no surprise when he threw the ball back across his body right on the money. He had a lot of velocity on the football.”
 

As a sophomore, Avery threw for 2,109 yards and 25 touchdowns and just three interceptions while rushing for 10 scores on the ground. He earned first team all-state honors after throwing for 2,549 yards and 20 touchdowns while rushing for 1,080 yards and 22 touchdowns as a junior. As a senior, he threw for 2,768 yards and 29 touchdowns and three interceptions while rushing for 817 yards and 15 touchdowns in leading Maize to a 12-1 record. He was named Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year. He was selected to play in the All-American Bowl. He played in the 2023 Under Armour Next All-America Game. He was also named a finalist for the Elite 11 quarterback competition.
 
It all built Johnson into the 20-year-old fearless playmaker who lights up scoreboards across the Big 12 Conference — and who plans to see the end zone at the 47,000-capacity Aviva Stadium in Dublin in just 12 days.
 
What we might see in the first college football game of the 2025 season is a more refined Avery Johnson, the fruits of his labor on full display as he opens a new chapter to a tale that hasn’t yet reached the really good part.
 
Deep balls downfield? Better believe he’s worked on it.
 
“It’s about just being able to have that pocket presence and being able to find the checkdown,” Johnson says. “It doesn’t always need to be a 100-yard bomb and force things into tight windows. It’s just being able to create completions when the shots aren’t there. Then whenever we do get big-shot opportunities or I can throw a 1-on-1 jump ball, I can give my guys a chance.”
 

As for the biggest improvement Johnson looks to make his junior season?
 
“Really, just not as many turnovers,” he says. “Just trying to do too much at times caused some unnecessary turnovers. What we say in the quarterback room is sometimes tips will happen, might get a ball through your guy’s hands and might get tipped for an interception, and that’s the cost of doing business. At the quarterback position, if you throw it enough times, things just don’t always shape up your way.
 
“Last year, I had some unnecessary picks where I tried to force things and threw things right to defenders. I want to eliminate that from my game and be a lot more — still aggressive, I don’t want to say conservative — but safer with that football. You have to win the turnover battle and that ball means everything.”
 
In his two seasons, Johnson not only has captured the attention of opposing coaches and fans, but his skillset and will to win has left an impression on players across the nation.
 
Take Jaron Tibbs, for example. After two seasons at Purdue, Tibbs suddenly found himself “chopping it up” with Johnson after dinner on his official visit to Manhattan in the second week of last December. The 20-year-old Tibbs, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound junior wide receiver from Indianapolis, Indiana, possesses an idea frame, and his athleticism coupled with deft route running in traffic and speed on the post makes the sure-handed pass catcher a virtual threat across the field. He signed with K-State thinking one thing: Me and Johnson can win some games.
 
“Honestly, it’s exciting because when you have Avery Johnson back there who you know can extend plays with his legs and get the ball deep sitting back in the pocket, it makes it easier because you know you have more time to really run your route to the fullest,” Tibbs says. “When a play is broken, you’re never really not an option, and the play is never dead.”
 

Jerand Bradley, who originally played for Wells when he was head coach at Texas Tech, spotted Johnson’s talent long ago, as well. A 6-foot-5, 217-pounder with 4.5 speed and a pair of sticky hands that caught long balls out of the Texas skies, Bradley has taken his talents to Manhattan as well for his senior season.
 
“I like how the offense is so versatile,” Bradley says. “I like everything about the offense from Avery Johnson to the weapons we have. I remember the first time I saw Avery play when I was at Texas Tech, and he scored five touchdowns. Every time I see him, he’s doing something crazy on the field. Man, I just love watching him play.”
 
Tibbs and Bradley seem ideal complements to junior Jayce Brown, who curiously isn’t regarded nationally as one of the top receiving threats in the Big 12, but he’s poetry in motion when he teams up with Johnson, his roommate. Brown has 18 starts over a span of two seasons, owns a career 17.0-yard average per reception, which ranks fifth in the FBS among active players. Last season, Brown tied for fourth in the FBS with seven catches of at least 40 yards and eighth with four receptions of at least 50 yards. He also posted 25 receptions of at least 20 yards, which equated to 53.2% or his total catches.
 
“Jayce is my guy, that’s my dog,” Johnson says. “We spend a lot of time together outside the facility. Our chemistry gels. When we step onto the field, I’m able to talk to him as a brother and understand where I want him to be on different plays. It just makes us a more dangerous duo whenever we do step on the field.”
 

In all honesty, there are weapons galore at Johnson’s disposal. He has the deepest and most talented group of tight ends in the country, including true freshman Linkon Cure, the No. 1-rated tight end in the Class of 2025 and highest-rated signee in K-State history. He has one of the most electric players in running back Dylan Edwards, his childhood football teammate. He’ll play behind a bruising offensive line that has shown nothing but good things in training camp. Reserves aren’t really reserves in this K-State offense, rather they’re “game changers.”
 
“I’m super comfortable and super confident,” Johnson says to reporters on Thursday. “I can only go as far as the people around me, and I understand that. We have so much talent at offensive line, wide receiver, running backs and tight ends, you name it. Those guys make my job so easy. I’ll continue to say that because we have talented skill players, and the guys up front are going to protect my butt all year.
 
“I’m just thankful to be in the position I’m in. I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
 
And exactly what position is Johnson in heading into 2025? He enters his second full year as starting quarterback in an offense guided by Wells, who the Associated Press calls “one of the game’s top offensive minds,” and a part of a winning program led by seventh-year head coach Chris Klieman. He’s had a chance to digest the entirety of the 2024 season and build from the 2024 season and look to the 2025 season and walks into a locker room in training camp surrounded by some new and exciting faces eager to help Johnson and the Wildcats go places this fall.
 

First stop: Dublin, where K-State has a chance to become the first team to win a game in the 2025 college football season.
 
So here we are, back at Big 12 Football Media Days in Frisco, Texas, and Johnson sits in his lavender suit at a long table with a black tablecloth and in front of a large digital display bearing the Powercat logo. The questions from reporters keep rolling in. Then someone asks him what is probably on everybody’s mind as he and the Wildcats embark upon this journey.
 
What should everyone know about this K-State team in 2025?
 
Johnson pauses.
 
“We’re a team ready to prove to the world,” he says, “that we’re the best team in the Big 12.”