It’s hard to find much common ground between Penn State and Oregon as they prepare to face each other in the Big Ten Championship on Saturday night. Sure, the teams are conference rivals now, but it will still take some time to get used to that. The Nittany Lions and Ducks have only played each other four times: three games in the ’60s and once in 1995 for the Rose Bowl.

However, one man is intimately familiar with both programs and their recent history.

Current New Orleans Saints tight end Juwan Johnson played wide receiver at both schools, at Penn State from 2015 to 2018 and at Oregon in 2019. He won a conference title with both teams and his eyes are firmly set on this weekend’s match.

Johnson, who said he had to root for the Ducks considering he finished his career in Eugene, sat down with PennLive this week to relive some of his favorite college moments. His wife, Chanen, with whom he shares a TikTok account with 3.2 million followers, graduated from Penn State.

“So we’re having a little family feud right now,” Johnson joked over the phone. “But yeah, man, we’re excited about the game.”

However, unlike NFL teammates from rival schools on rivalry weekend, Johnson and his wife aren’t making an easy bet to show up at the facility wearing the opposing school’s colors.

“She’s already wearing my Oregon clothes anyway. We both rock our Penn State gear around the house and she wears my Oregon stuff around the house,” Johnson said. “Either way it really won’t matter. To be honest, she doesn’t really care who wins. But you know, she’s a Penn State graduate, so she would be happy to see Penn State win. We have a friendly camaraderie, a conjugal camaraderie, one would say.”

After redshirting his first season at Happy Valley, Johnson caught 81 passes for 1,123 yards and two touchdowns over three years at Penn State. In his only year with the Ducks, he recorded 30 receptions for 467 yards and four touchdowns, which eventually earned him an NFL contract as an undrafted free agent. But after moving to tight end, Johnson enjoyed a nice five-year career in New Orleans with 126 catches, 1,387 yards and 17 scores.

The Saints have a handful of Oregon alums on the roster but no other former Nittany Lions, which is why Johnson began joking about the game earlier this week. However, he handled everything in good faith.

“I just feel like it’s only right to play for the team I last played for,” he said. “I’m excited to see the game as a whole. It’s going to be really exciting. I just want a good game. Honestly, at the end of the day I just want a good game, but I got knocked out at Oregon so I have to give them the nod.”

When Penn State last competed in the Big Ten Championship in 2016, defeating Wisconsin in an instant classic, Johnson played primarily as a special teamer but recorded a tackle in the win. Penn State lost to USC in the Rose Bowl in another instant classic that fans still remember.

“Obviously it was a really good game,” Johnson said. “We were down by 21, so to come back and win the game was pretty memorable.”

At Oregon, he was part of another 10-2 regular season that ended with a comfortable 37-15 Pac-12 championship victory over Utah – and finally a 28-27 Rose Bowl victory over the same Badgers he led with Penn State in 2016 defeated.

“It felt really good to be a part of a Pac-12 championship and playing with a lot of great guys, honestly for both teams,” Johnson said. “But being on the West Coast, going to a place where you didn’t know anyone and then winning a Pac-12 championship was obviously pretty fun too.

“So being a champion of both conferences and knowing that both conferences are connected kind of seals my college career.”

Of course, Johnson is still getting used to the idea that four Pac-12 teams — Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA — have now joined the Big Ten.

“You would never expect a West Coast team to always go on trips like this, but they did. And from the looks of it, they handled it pretty well,” he said. “It’s just exciting to see what college football is like now, how it has developed and how the College Football Playoffs are organized.”

Johnson came to Penn State as a four-star prospect in the 2015 class and the No. 3 prospect in New Jersey. He was highly touted and made up for the hype with a play that often sticks in fans’ minds. With four seconds left on the game in Iowa in 2017, Penn State ranked fourth in the country, Trace McSorley looked across the middle of the field – and found Johnson on his toe in the back of the end zone for a touchdown.

It was the first touchdown of his career and kept Penn State’s early playoff hopes alive with a heroic moment. It was a game full of heroes, including Saquon Barkley’s 211 rushing yards and 94 receiving yards.

But Johnson, who called that play “amazing,” didn’t consider it his favorite moment at Penn State or in college.

“All the bowl games we’ve had have been pretty fun. That was kind of the most intimate time you had with your teammates, the last time you knew you were really going to see these guys,” Johnson said. “The Rose Bowl was pretty fun. The Fiesta Bowl was fun.

Johnson, like most of his NFL colleagues, has a light workload on Saturdays and said he saw a lot of action at Oregon and Penn State this year. He knows the No. 1 Ducks, the last undefeated team in the country, and No. 3 Penn State put a good product on the field.

The Saints will be in New York preparing to face the Giants, but Johnson will first set his sights on Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship, which begins at 8 p.m. on CBS. He stayed true to his roots at both schools and didn’t have any big predictions for the game.

“I know it’s going to be a high-scoring game. It will definitely be fun. Don’t tell my wife, but I think I prefer Oregon. Really excited,” Johnson said. “I am very proud of Coach (James) Franklin and Dan Lanning for what they have done so far in the season. With this schedule and this season, it’s very hard to win games and they’ve handled success really well, so I’m excited to see what they do on Saturday.”

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