Yahkee Johnson gets low marks for height and weight but straight A’s for speed and elusiveness.

Hampton University’s 5-foot-7, 160-pound junior tailback is like The Roadrunner in shoulder pads — beep, beep — and a No. 22 on his blue and white uniform.

Tackling him would be easy, assuming you could catch him. So often, frustrated defenders are left clutching nothing but air.

Having arrived at HU by way of Chesterfield County’s L.C. Bird High School and Nassau Community College in New York, Johnson proves a little goes a long way —at least on the gridiron.

At every level, Johnson has been among the smallest performers, but also among the very elite.

“I’ve heard it a million times, since rec league, that I’m too small,” Johnson told the Richmond Free Press.

“The way I see it, if you can play, you can play. You can do anything if you have a big heart and put your mind to it.”

For Hampton University, he scored a touchdown on his very first carry against FBS Old Dominion University on Sept. 3.

The next week, when HU played the College of William & Mary, he dipped and darted for 115 yards on just 12 tries.

“He’s quick as anything and shifty,” W&M Coach Jimmye Laycock told the press. “He’s got great balance and, small as he is, it’s hard finding him.”

Johnson had 56 yards on just eight carries in the Pirates’ Sept. 17 victory over Howard University at RFK Stadium in Washington.

On Thursday, Sept. 29, he’ll have a national ESPNU audience for the Pirates’ 7:30 p.m. MEAC game at North Carolina A&T State University.

He proves you don’t have to be big to be a big-time performer.

“People thought I’d play Division II or Division III because of my size, but I always believed I was Division I,” Johnson said.

North Carolina A&T also features a mini back, 5-feet-6, 179-pound Tarik Cohen, the Most Valuable Player of the 2015 Celebration Bowl.

Johnson enters the game against North Carolina A&T as MEAC’s second leading rusher (230 yards, 7.4 yards per carry average) behind Howard University’s Anthony Philyaw.

“If we can get Yahkee into the secondary, he’s going to take a few to the house,” said HU Coach Connell Maynor.

The son of Brigetta Keel and Robert Johnson Jr. began playing football with the Blackwell and Bellemeade associations of the Richmond youth league.

He has a well-known family.

His father, Robert Johnson Sr., was an All-Metro basketball standout at George Wythe High School in Richmond and later played at Virginia Union University.

His older brother, Robert Johnson Jr., is a starting basketball guard at Indiana University.

His younger brother, Malik Johnson, is on the basketball team at Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y.

Yahkee’s grandfather is the Rev. Robert A. Winfree, pastor at New Life Deliverance Tabernacle in Richmond. In fact, it was during a church service that Yahkee officially announced he was signing with Hampton University.

Johnson burst into the headlines at Bird High School, rushing for a phenomenal 4,905 yards and 70 touchdowns as a junior and senior. At the time, he weighed only about 145 pounds.

He also played basketball and was the Dominion District 200-meter champion (22.1 seconds) on the track. With such lateral quickness, had there been a track event called “running sideways,” he likely would have been state champ.

From Bird, he helped the Nassau to the 2014 National Junior College title. There, he scampered for 910 yards in 2013 and an even 1,000, with 10 touchdowns, in 2014.

His three Division I offers came from the University of Idaho, Bethune-Cookman College and Hampton University.

Johnson sat out last season to concentrate on earning NCAA Division I academic eligibility.

For many, a year’s inactivity might pose a problem.

But for Johnson, no worries. As quick as he is, no dust or rust could come anywhere near catching him.