The Pitt defense is having a breakout year. The Panthers rank first nationally in sacks and the team is 14th nationally in total defense. It has been well-documented all season long about the improved defense.

With the high sack numbers, much of the attention has been about the defensive line led by Jaylen Twyman and Patrick Jones. Even the emergence of Paris Ford at safety has been a big storyline, but perhaps the biggest transformation this defense has received is at outside linebacker, especially the money linebacker position manned by Florida graduate transfer Kylan Johnson.

After years of battling injuries and fighting his way up the depth chart, Johnson opted to explore his options and he has more than just found a home in Pittsburgh, he has found an opportunity to perform at an incredibly high level.

Johnson has 34 tackles, eight tackles for loss, and five sacks on the season. His play has taken Pitt from a solid defense to a pretty good one at all three levels. This program has been starved for an impact linebacker for a few years, and Johnson has been just that through seven games.

“I think you have some idea when you’re recruiting somebody, which is why you want him,” Pitt linebackers coach Rob Harley responded when asked if he knew what he was getting in Johnson. “I don’t know, you can never gauge how much they can contribute or how well they’ll play, but he’s done a great job.”

Johnson already has more tackles for loss and sacks at Pitt then he did in three years in Gainesville. He was never short on confidence when he made the switch between the two programs.

“Honestly, no I have not,” Johnson said if he has surprised himself or not with his play. “I’m not satisfied with what I’ve done so far. I probably have been playing good, but I always held myself to a higher standard, so I’m trying to reach that maximum standard whenever I can.”

The natural ability for Johnson has always been there. He started six games for the Gators as a redshirt freshman in 2016 and produced with 33 tackles and 4.5 tackles for loss in that season.

He battled injuries in 2017 and failed to make the same impact in 2018 for new head coach Dan Mullen and defensive coordinator Todd Grantham the way he did for Jim McElwain and Randy Shannon in his first two seasons.

So he wanted to find somewhere where he fit in schematically and Pitt seemed like a natural fit for him. He liked Pitt’s simple, attacking style and saw an opportunity.

“Yea that’s why I came,” Johnson said of Pitt’s scheme. "It’s something that I experienced in my first two years in my career and that’s just something that I wanted to come back to, because it’s easy and fast and that’s how you make plays. After you make your read, you basically just play football and I feel like that’s what it comes down to for anybody at the end of the day.”

Even though he knew the concepts, it still took an effort from both Harley and defensive coordinator Randy Bates to put in extra work to get him where he is now. Johnson said as soon as he arrived in Pittsburgh, the coaches spent extra time with him showing him how the defense operates.

“So they really broke the defense down to me where I can understand it which allows me to play fast,” Johnson said. “They took time and I was in here for hours trying to learn the defense and stuff. They really helped me out by doing that.”

Pitt’s defense has been thriving all year and Kylan Johnson is as big of a part of it as anyone on that side of the ball.