Avery Johnson ready to lead a ‘more efficient’ offense for Kansas State Wildcats
It can be hard for a football team to adjust to a new offensive coordinator.
The Kansas State Wildcats can tell you all about that after they have gone from Courtney Messingham to Collin Klein to Conor Riley and now to Matt Wells over the past four years. There has been no continuity to speak of.
But the transition period can go smoothly when you are blessed with a returning starter at quarterback.
K-State football coach Chris Klieman can also tell you all about that after he watched Avery Johnson command the offense like a pro during spring practices in April. The Wildcats didn’t take a step back with Wells calling plays from the sideline and Johnson executing them on the field.
If anything, it was the opposite.
“It probably looked more efficient,” Klieman said. “Granted, there were some mistakes and there were some things we’ve got to clean up. By no means are we where we want to be. But I just think we looked more efficient and we looked a little bit crisper.”
Perhaps that shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Johnson, a 6-foot-2 Wichita native who guided the Wildcats to nine victories as a sophomore, has matured beyond what we saw from him last season, when he threw for 2,712 yards and 25 touchdowns as a first-time college starter. He is a year older, a year wiser and a year stronger.
That has stood out to Klieman this spring.
“The maturity of Avery and the growth of Avery,” Klieman said. “You could tell there’s so much more of a comfort level. Last year at this time, he had (started) one game and we were trying to keep progressing him. Now you can tell he’s got another 13 games under his belt.
“The confidence he has, the leadership that he has, it’s just made our whole offense a lot more confident and a lot more efficient. Even though we didn’t have a full complement of spring practices, I felt really good on that side of the ball because of the growth of Avery.”
K-State made things easier for both Johnson and Wells during the offseason by bringing in a few new offensive weapons via the transfer portal.
It looks like the Wildcats are more talented than last year at wide receiver. Top wideout Jayce Brown is back for another year alongside Johnson. But he is now joined by Jerand Bradley, a 6-foot-5 transfer from Boston College, and Jaron Tibbs, a 6-foot-2 transfer from Purdue.
Both newcomers made a several highlight catches during spring practices, which was a welcome sight after K-State receivers struggled at times last year. They are each large targets, which makes it easy for Johnson to get them the ball on any combination of routes.
“Those guys are really efficient wide receivers,” Klieman said. “They have had a lot of playing time at other places. It didn’t take long for them to understand our system. You can tell them something once and talk about a concept, just different terminology, and it clicked a lot faster for those guys. When you throw Jayce into that mix it really helped us there, finding some more people on the outside.”
Johnson will benefit from those reinforcements. Last year, he completed 222 passes and only 74 of them went to receivers not named Brown. By comparison, he competed more throws (95) to his running backs and tight ends.
K-State wants to have a more versatile offense next season. The Wildcats are taking their first steps in that direction with Johnson back at the helm.
This story was originally published May 6, 2025 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Avery Johnson ready to lead a ‘more efficient’ offense for Kansas State Wildcats."