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Dave Feit’s Greatest Huskers by the Numbers: 86 – Johnny Mitchell

Originally posted on Nebraska Cornhuskers on SI
By Dave Feit | Last updated Jun 3, 2025 7:00 AM ET

Dave Feit is counting down the days until the start of the 2025 season by naming the best Husker to wear each uniform number, as well as one of his personal favorites at that number. For more information about the series, click here. To see more entries, click here.

Greatest Husker to wear 86: Johnny Mitchell, Tight End, 1990 – 1991

Honorable Mention: none

Also worn by: Jason Gamble, Dwayne Harris, Sean Hill, John Koinzan, Brent Longwell, Keith Neubert, Andy Poulosky, Dave Ridder, Kyle Ringenberg, AJ Rollins, Ken Spaeth, Joe Spitzenberger, Jack Stoll, David Sutton

Dave’s Fave: Mitchell

I’ve always been fascinated with the concept of time travel.

The idea that a person from the future could appear in a different time and place has long been a science fiction staple.

Looking back, I wonder if Johnny Mitchell was a time traveler. Nebraska football’s Marty McFly.

Think about it. At the end of the 1980s / start of the 1990s, a tight end was usually the guy who was too big to be a wide receiver but not big enough to be an offensive lineman. If he could catch the ball, great. If not, well, nobody really cared. Mostly, a tight end’s job was to block.

And then, Johnny Mitchell’s DeLorean magically appeared outside Lincoln’s Gateway Mall.

At 6’3″ and 250 pounds, Mitchell looked like a tight end – albeit it a more muscular version. At an offseason 7-on-7 drill, his teammates thought he was a defensive lineman. They recounted stories of Mitchell’s ability to throw a 70-yard spiral – with both hands.

Today’s tight ends are freakish combinations of size, speed and athletic ability. Travis Kelce, Rob Gronkowski and others have seemingly revolutionized how we think about the tight end.

But Johnny Mitchell was doing it 35 years ago.

As a freshman in 1990, Mitchell caught 11 passes for 282 yards. Seven of his 11 receptions resulted in a touchdown. He averaged a ridiculous 25.6 yards per reception. Mitchell became the first true freshman Husker to earn first-team All-Big Eight honors since the legendary Tom Novak did it in 1946. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Mitchell also played “Johnny B Goode” at a school dance.

Sophomore slump? No way. Mitchell set school records with 31 catches for 534 yards, and added five more touchdowns. In his final two games, Mitchell had 137 receiving yards against Oklahoma and 138 against Georgia Tech in the Citrus Bowl.* At the time, those were the sixth- and eighth-best receiving days in school history. They’re still in the top 30.

*Bowl games were not included in a player’s season statistics until 2002, so Mitchell truly had 672 receiving yards in 1991. Mitchell’s 138 yards is still Nebraska’s bowl game record.

Remember, this was an era where Nebraska was a run-first (and run-second) team. NU rushed for an average of 340 yards per game in 1990, 353 yards the following year. His primary quarterbacks (Mickey Joseph, Keithen McCant, and Mike Grant) were never going to be confused with gunslingers like Jim Kelly or Warren Moon.

Alas, in every time-travel story, there comes a time when the hero has to leave. For Johnny Mitchell, that was after his sophomore season. He was the first Husker to leave school early for the NFL, where the New York Jets took him 15th in the 1992 draft.

Johnny Mitchell was truly ahead of his time.

***

To someone growing up as a fan of a very run-heavy team, Johnny Mitchell was a revelation.

A 6’3,” 240-pound guy who is as fast as an I-back and can catch passes 25 yards downfield? Forget the fullback, let’s get this guy the dadgum ball every single time!

Apparently, Mitchell felt the same way. Former teammate Tyrone Hughes recounted a story from a film session with receivers coach Ron Brown. Brown pointed out a play where Mitchell did not block. Mitchell’s response “Well, the ball wasn’t coming my way.”*

*When the countdown gets into the 60s, I’ll share a story about efforts that were made to eliminate me-first attitudes like this from the program.

I’m not suggesting that Mitchell – or anybody else on his teams – was a selfish player. But the event we’ll talk about did occur shortly after Nebraska was blown out by Georgia Tech in the 1991 Citrus Bowl – a low point in the Osborne era.

When the ball did come Johnny Mitchell’s way, I remember him making some crazy catches. Yes, he set a bunch of records, but it felt like a lot of those catches were ridiculous circus grabs. They definitely felt like things that the majority of Nebraska’s other split ends and tight ends weren’t capable of doing.

Deep in my heart, I’ll always be a run-the-ball guy, But Johnny Mitchell helped me appreciate the explosive promise of a passing attack mixed with a strong running game.