Buster Sports

This post is part of the series The Pac-10's NFL Draft Of The Decade

Note: With the NFL draft approaching later in April, we thought it would fun to look back at the Pac-10’s top draft picks of the past decade (2000-09) and see where we would pick them. Continuing today and ending sometime close to the draft on April 25, we’ll count down a first round worth of Pac-10 draft picks, from 32 to 1. The list includes five quarterbacks, five running backs, five defensive linemen, six linebackers, three defensive backs, three wide receivers, three offensive linemen and two tight ends.

Even though he spent one quarter at Oregon State and says he never unpacked his bags and attended class, except “maybe the first week,” Johnson will go down as one of the most influential members of the Beavers’ football turnaround. Johnson was there for OSU’s breakout season of 2000, during which he led the Pac-10 with an average of 21.6 yards per reception. Johnson’s big play potential was realized in a game against Stanford, when he set a school record with a 97-yard catch and run for a touchdown.

And who will forget Johnson’s Fiesta Bowl, where he left a trail of trash talk on the way to catching touchdown passes of 4 and 74 yards in a rout of Notre Dame?

Johnson went in the second round of the 2001 draft, the 36^th pick overall, to Cincinnati. There is no doubt Johnson would have gone higher had he been able to put together a big-boy college resume longer than one fall in Corvallis.

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Nick Daschel covers the Pacific-10 Conference for Buster Sports, and can be reached at ndaschel@bustersports.com

Football, Pac-10