Texas A&M Football: Why Jake Johnson will be biggest impact freshman

The Texas A&M football team has the greatest recorded class of incoming freshmen in college football history. The words still don’t quite register — Jimbo Fisher brought in more talent than anybody has. More than Nick Saban, more than Dabo Swinney, and more than Kirby Smart.

And based on Texas A&M’s roster turnover, it’s hard to tell which freshmen will step up in the biggest way in 2022.

Logically speaking, it’s easy to point the finger at a number of positions. If Conner Weigman wins the starting quarterback spot, he’s the easy choice. That said, he may not. The defensive line will be riddled with incoming freshmen, as four of Texas A&M’s NFL Draft prospects are coming from that position group. Still, one player might have the biggest impact on paper.

Texas A&M football incoming freshman TE Jake Johnson is in line to be a key contributor in 2022

First of all, the title of this article will remain true no matter what your opinion is. At 6’5″, Jake Johnson will literally be the biggest impact freshman on the team. According to 247Sports, Johnson also looks much larger than 225 pounds, his listed weight. He’ll be a big impact player either way.

Jokes aside, the stars are aligning for the Aggie freshman to have a big season early in his career.

For starters, Johnson won’t be alone as a freshman in College Station. Instead, he’ll be joined by his brother, Max Johnson, who transferred in with hopes to earn the starting quarterback spot on Jimbo Fisher’s offense. According to 247Sports’ Jeff Tarpley, Jake Johnson is fitting in well already. Here’s what Tarpley said.

"In all, Johnson doesn’t look or act like a rookie and while first year receivers at A&M usually don’t have an impact on the offense, the tight ends have been a different story…and everyone involved feels like that Johnson is the latest chapter in that book."

The most interesting part of Tarpley’s take on Johnson is the fact that A&M tight ends tend to have a big impact as freshmen. While receivers seem to struggle, we have a recent example of Jalen Wydermyer exploding for a huge season in his first year.

Johnson could be the next to do so.

The Aggie freshman tight end also doesn’t have an excess of competition — Wydermyer’s departure leaves Max Wright as the team’s most experienced tight end. Wright has accumulated 67 yards in the entirety of his career.

Make no mistake — Jake Johnson should be looked at as the frontrunner to win the starting quarterback spot. If his brother Max wins the starting quarterback spot, the Aggies could have an extremely underrated duo at hand.