Cowboys Add a Kicker and Josiah Johnson is Heading in for Spring

STILLWATER – Pokes Report has learned of two more student-athletes and football players that are added to the spring roster. One is a kicker and the other is the tight end that we first heard about out of the portal in Josiah Johnson..

UMass Athletics

Johnson playing for UMass in a game at Florida State.

Johnson came in on a visit and was one of the early portal pledges to the Cowboys. There was a hang up with his academics at UMass, but Johnson is working on clearing that up and he will finish that process while on the Oklahoma State campus and enrolled so that he can go through the offseason program and also through spring football. He will join in with another tight end out of the portal in Ian Edenfield out of California University of Pa. Edenfield arrived last Friday and we put eyes on him today. He looks every bit the 6-5 and 255 pounds as listed. 

 Johnson is a former quarterback, but the 6-5, 240-pound athlete has made the full conversion to tight end after playing four seasons, one a redshirt season at UMass. He caught 24 passes last season for the Minutemen for 163-yards. He is also very capable as a blocker, which was a must for Oklahoma State is looking for as an inline tight end. In the 2021 season he caught 11 passes for 115-yards and three touchdowns. In the 2020 season playing in only three games as he was still converting from quarterback, he caught three passes for 48-yards. He also completed 6-of-9 passing for 39-yards and rushed for 32-yards on 12 carries. 

In the 2019 season he caught 12 passes for 139-yards and two touchdowns as a freshman giving a peak of what he could be as a tight end. 

In high school Johnson had to be a tough guy playing quarterback at The Bolles School in  wing-T formation. Johnson threw for 1,775-yards and 14 touchdowns. He also rushed for 300-yards and did a lot of blocking after giving the ball away. Johnson had a 49-7 record as a starting quarterback and was a two-time team captain. 

The new kicker is 5-11, 175 pound Thomas Murray out of Shreveport (Capt. Shreve), La. He committed to be a preferred walk-on at Tmple last spring and appears on the Temple University roster, however he did not play in any games. Murray would be a red-shirt freshman, or if he did not ever enroll hic clock could start now and he would be a true freshman. Kicking runs in his family as his brother Abram is a Miami, Fla. commitment as a kicker. 

Thomas Murray was first-team All-District in his senior season at Capt. Shreve High School as he connected on 13-of-16 field goal attempts and was 45-of-46 on extra points. This is a spring of competition for the Cowboy specialists and Murray adds his name to the list.