Levi Murphy laughed while remembering the rare moments when Kenny Johnson struggled with a ball in his hands.

It was Johnson’s junior season at his new school, Dallastown in York County, and he wanted to play basketball after two seasons as a wrestler at York Suburban High School.

“He had never played organized basketball, and — let me tell you — he looked like he had never played organized basketball,” said Murphy, the football coach at Dallastown. “Watching him shoot free throws was an adventure.”

In the end, his inexperience at the sport didn’t matter.

“He really picked it up, and that’s just a testament to the athlete he is,” Murphy said. “He started off the year as the sixth man off the bench and finished the year as a starter.”

Football is his game, and many of the people he befriended in just two years at Dallastown were watching TV Saturday night when Johnson, a freshman wide receiver at Pitt, returned a kickoff 100 yards during the loss to North Carolina. He is the first Pitt freshman since Quadree Henderson in 2015 to return a kickoff for a touchdown.

“We posted it all over our social media here,” Dallastown athletic director Josh Luckenbaugh said. “He moved into our district, and he immediately made an impact on our school, on our football program. It’s great to see success for him.”

When Johnson met reporters after Pitt’s first day back at practice Tuesday, they met a humble 18-year-old who could barely believe what was happening to him as he outran the entire North Carolina kickoff coverage unit.

“It’s a great feeling. It’s almost like something out of a movie,” he said. “You dream about that type of stuff. When you run in the end zone, and you see all the 10 guys who set up the blocks for you …

“I’m returning it, but my job’s easy. Their job is impossible, almost. They have to run back, set their feet, take on a full-speed block, pretty much. Those guys, they put their body on the line for me, so the least I can do is go get in the end zone.”

Murphy wasn’t surprised to hear Johnson deflect credit from himself.

“He’s a charismatic kid. He’s a guy who anytime he walks in the room, he’s going to make people look up and he’s going to make people feel better about themselves,” he said. “He’s always been just a smiley guy, even when you’re ripping him for something that he screwed up doing or he wasn’t taken care of, he has that smile.

“That’s the kind of impact he has on everybody. He left a lasting impact here at Dallastown that way.”

Murphy said Johnson returned six kicks for touchdowns in high school — four kickoffs and two punts in those two seasons.

“High school was a field day. It was too easy in high school,” Johnson said.

He didn’t enroll at Pitt until June, and he said his first few months in college became an awakening.

“You get up to college, you get humbled real fast,” he said. “The speed of the game is so much faster. It’s starting to slow down for me, the more reps I’m getting. But, man, this is a fast game.

“The first month I was here, it was rough. I got here and (I said), ‘I don’t even know if I belong here, our defense is so good.’ You’re running against them, and I’m not getting any separation. I’m running the wrong routes. It took me longer than I wanted it to.”

He said teammates and coaches gave him the necessary confidence to find his niche on the team.

“I have a village behind me,” he said. “The whole team supports me. It’s easy when you have those guys supporting you.

“Once we got into fall camp, I started getting rolling. Me, personally, I think we have the top (defensive backs) in the ACC. I’m in practice, and (I) said, ‘If I can get busy going against these guys, going in the game is so easy.’ ”

While Johnson (6-foot-1, 195 pounds) looks to find his place in Pitt’s passing game — he has two receptions for 17 yards — he has earned more opportunities on special teams. The touchdown lifted him to second in the nation in kickoff returns with an average of 37.6 yards.

Johnson is seeking consistency, and he knows only one way to find it.

”It’s the little stuff: not being in trouble, being seen and not heard,” he said. “Making those plays, instead of being one of those guys you have to worry about. I want my coaches to say, ‘Throw him out there. He’s OK.’

“Not, ‘Oh, let’s make sure he’s doing the right thing.’ ”

Actually, the North Carolina game wasn’t all pats for the back for Johnson. Pitt lost a fumble when he and quarterback Christian Veilleux couldn’t manage a handoff. Also, coach Pat Narduzzi said Monday that Johnson failed to use his speed to run under a long pass that was intercepted.

“There are a lot of things I wish I would have done better in that game,” he said.

But he won the coaches’ trust in summer camp. Narduzzi said Johnson earned a jersey change from No. 35 to No. 2 (formerly worn by Izzy Abanikanda while he was winning the ACC rushing championship last year).

“Honestly, I liked 35. It was different,” Johnson said. “I guess Duzz said you earned a change. I wanted to (change). It’s a special number. You saw what Izzy did with it. I just want to make sure he passed the torch to the right person.”

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