December 18, 2023
Former Lake Minneola Football Star Kenan Johnson Signs to University of Utah
By Kyle Coppola
Former Lake Minneola Football Star Kenan Johnson Signs to University of Utah
Kenan Johnson is a former Lake Minneola High School standout and is on his way to play for University of Utah. The senior entered the transfer portal earlier this year after his season with Georgia Tech came to an end. The defensive back will bring plenty of depth to the Utes backfield.
The former Lake County football player who graduated in 2019 was one of Lake Counties most feared defenders. He was one of the team leaders in tackles and that afforded him the opportunity to play at the Division 1 level for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
(Keenan Johnson #1 and #8 Jaylen Williams who would end up playing with Western Kentucky.)
In his first four years with Georgia Tech Johnson had 31 total tackles including 20 of them solo tackles. Just this year in 2023 during what would have been his senior year, but was afforded a sixth year of eligibility because of the Covid-19 impacted season, he made 29 total tackles and 20 solo.
This year Johnson truly put himself on the map. He will now have the opportunity to play for one of the best programs in college football with the University of Utah.
Johnson has been working hard the past few years and people in Lake County who have been following this young man cannot be happier to see his success. Johnson announced the move on X this weekend with the quote “Let’s go to work.”
(Johnson played the last five seasons for Georgia Tech and had a huge impact during the 2023 season. He will play his sixth and final season of college football at Utah.)
Johnson is expected to come in and start in the Utes secondary who lost a few contributors. He also joins UCLA tight end transfer Carsen Ryan as Utah sees a growing number of transfer portal students join the program.
Congratulations to Kenan Johnson and we look forward to seeing this Lake County, Florida product on the football field next season!
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
