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Miami Hurricanes Land Veteran WR Tony Johnson in Transfer Portal Win

On3 imageby:Matt Shodell•04/29/25•

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Tony Johnson
(photo courtesy of Cincinnati Athletics)

The Miami Hurricanes have landed experienced help in the second portal window at wide receiver. Cincinnati slot Tony Johnson has committed to UM over FSU and UCF – he visited Coral Gables April 24-25.

Johnson, a redshirt senior, has 1,491 career reps under his belt after spending three years at FAU and last season with the Bearcats.

The only other Miami receiver with significant reps entering the season are two other transfer, LSU’s CJ Daniels and recent BYU commit Keelan Marion.

Johnson fits a need at Miami given the departure of 1,000-yard slot receiver Xavier Restrepo. Johnson played in the slot 77.4 percent of the time last season, and this spring Miami’s slot receivers were true freshman Malachi Toney and inexperienced prior backup Ray Ray Joseph. Marion can play slot our outside, but was outside most of the time last season. So now he can become more of a versatile piece.

JoJo Trader is also expected to be a guy who still is expected to start at outside receiver. So it will be a big battle for reps this fall.

The 5-11, 187-pound redshirt senior standout has an interesting back story. He was a no-star prospect out of Ocala (Fla.) Vanguard High School in the Class of 2021 and wound up walking on at FAU. As a redshirt freshman he fought his way onto the field and had 23 catches for 258 yards and three TDs, then in 2023 had 37 catches for 411 yards and four TDs.

He transferred to Cincinnati for last season and stood out at that higher level of play, catching 48 passes for 449 yards with six scores.

Johnson graded out at 65.7 percent last season per PFF. He only had two drops in 68 targets and had a long reception of 23 yards. Johnson averaged 4.9 yards after catch per reception.

While Johnson may not be a “wow” in the portal, he is a very solid pickup for Miami. He’s a guy that fits into Shannon Dawson’s system well given he has a knack for getting open quickly off the line of scrimmage, as evidenced by his catching 24 of 27 targets for 228 yards in the 0-9 yard range, per PFF.

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