Texas RB Roschon Johnson earns Big 12 Newcomer of the Week honors

The stinger suffered by Texas Longhorns sophomore running back Keaontay Ingram allowed freshman Roschon Johnson a big opportunity at running back against the West Virginia Mountaineers and Johnson took advantage.

After gaining 121 yards on 21 carries, Johnson was named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week on Monday by the conference. It was the first time going over 100 yards for Johnson in his young career and the first time he’s been awarded that honor. Seven of his 21 carries went for first downs.

Johnson’s 121 yards were also the most by a Texas running back since Chris Warren III ran for 166 yards against San Jose State and the best output by a freshman for the Longhorns since Warren ran for 276 yards against Texas Tech in 2015.

Like the Texas running game as a whole, Johnson is still looking for his first big play on the ground — his 17-yard run was the longest of his career so far, but he didn’t have any negative plays against the Mountaineers, either.

With Ingram only gaining 18 yards on 11 carries, talk of giving Johnson a larger share of the load at running back will probably re-surface, as he’s narrowly out-gaining his elder counterpart on a per-carry basis (4.87 yards per carry to 4.74 yards per carry).