He’s going to inevitably draw comparisons to a former Jesuit Tiger tight end–if those comparisons haven’t already been made. He’s Jesuit’s Larry Hodges–a 6-foot-1, 205-pound pass catcher that’s got the frame and athleticism to do major damage in the Tigers Offense for the next three seasons.

While the overall comparisons to Johnson have time to develop in terms of his game, Hodges’ numbers in his first season on varsity juxtaposed to Johnson’s first are comparable. The numbers may also give us a bit of insight as well as to what we may expect to see in the future from Hodges and although Johnson left Jesuit at 6-4/225lbs and had developed into a threat on special teams as well, we could be witnessing something special regardless of whether or not Hodges gets any bigger.

This season for Jesuit, Hodges caught 16 passes for 212 yards and although Johnson caught 23 passes for 309 and two touchdowns his freshman season, they both averaged 13 yards-per-catch which is pretty important in-and-of-itself. Johnson’s longest catch that year was 37 yards while Hodges’ longest catch this season was 39 yards.

What’s interesting of note with regards to Johnson is that his two best seasons statistically for the Tigers came his sophomore and junior seasons totaling 1,264 yards on 84 receptions and 12 touchdowns. The interest being that with Hodges putting up similar numbers and now about to enter his second season with experience and a better all-around game, the potential to surpass those benchmarks that Johnson set is there for certain.

Of course, there’s an X-factor as Jesuit has one of the most dynamic running backs in the city with Malik Davis and have a few more options offensively than those Tiger teams with Johnson on them had–which means the availability of the pigskin might be at a premium, but don’t rule it out that this freshman goes from a boy-to-a-man right in front of ours eyes in the same fashion that Johnson did–and perhaps even better. Johnson’s total numbers for receiving are 128 receptions for 1,861 yards and 16 touchdowns. If Hodges breaks those, you might even have to add state champion to the list of his accomplishments as well.