Committapalooza continues unabated with the addition of DC S Quinten Johnson, another East Coast three-star with solid offers, great testing numbers, an Opening invite, and few explanations about how those things go together. C'est la vie. Amongst Michigan's recent commits Johnson vies for the most underrated, at least for now.

GURU RATINGS

247	ESPN	Rivals	Composite
3*, #484 overall #37 S, #3 DC	3*, 79 #38 S, #5 DC	3*, 5.7 #24 S, #4 DC	3*, #469 overall #37 S, #4 DC

Hey... at least everybody rated him? It sounds like Johnson is likely to surge on 24/7, which recently named him a "top sleeper prospect" after an impressive camp appearance. This... this is a four star.

...shined on both sides of the ball as a junior. He’s a difference-maker at receiver that also shined at cornerback and safety in the secondary. ... the eighth-highest Nike Football Rating [nationally] ...dynamic ability shows up on the field as a stretch-the-field receiver, one who can make something after the catch or on the other side of the ball put a blanket on a receiver or fly to the action.

FWIW, Johnson is the highest possible three star on Rivals—the #23 S is a four-star. ESPN actually has a ranking for him, but nothing else.

[Hit THE JUMP for scouting, video, and more.]

SCOUTING

As per usual there's not a ton out there on Johnson but at least in his case there's the prospect of getting some serious scouting in the future. That's because this rando three-star safety is currently at the Opening on the strength of this camp performance:

He started the day off with a bang and had the top testing score in the event with a 125.70 Rating. At a rocked out 5-11, 195 pounds, Johnson clocked a 4.48-40, 4.17 shuttle, threw the power ball 47.5’ and jumped 35” in the vertical.

He was equally impressive in the position and one on one drills and showed the ability to play corner or safety. He has a safety frame but showed very good feet and quickness and plays with a nice physical edge to his game.

He was the DB MVP of that camp, which was in Las Vegas and littered with touted guys. He'll play safety at the Opening, but FWIW P5 schools like Arizona did offer him as a wide receiver. Per Johnson, Michigan is recruiting him as a viper, and he certainly sounds like one:

...very impressive. Being from the East Coast, this was our first time seeing Johnson and he really flashed. He's a thick kid who is built like a safety but showed very good feet and polish working out with the corners. We know he can also play some receiver but worked out exclusively at DB and showed a lot of natural talent

Also:

...safety build but showed off some of the best feet among all the corners. Johnson can run but is also fluid in how he plays, has the physicality to bully opposing receivers and is a plus athlete with a ton of positional versatility.

Naturally, this is a person being compared to Jabrill Peppers.

“Don Brown laid out a presentation and he basically compared me to (Jabrill Peppers),” Johnson said. “They want me to go the same route as Jabrill did and play at rover, and then work my way to that viper position.

“They said if I pick it up pretty fast I would go to viper, and if not I would start out at rover and then go to viper. They want me to be as similar to Jabrill Peppers as I can.”

Rover is the strong safety spot currently occupied by Josh Metellus, FWIW. If Michigan scores a hit with Joey Velazquez, Johnson has backup options at safety and even outside corner. Also maybe WR. Probably as part of the whole "Peppers!" bit, Michigan mentioned playing both ways to him.

FWIW, an early take from Scout is now obsolete:

Quinten Johnson, WR/DB (5-10.5, 190): Johnson plays both ways for St. John’s, but we figure he’ll be a corner or safety at the next level. He has above-average ball skills, field awareness and is physical in coverage. He’s not the fastest skill player around and could have problems recovering, but Johnson can stick with most wideouts. He’ll need to iron out his footwork, change of direction and other fundamental areas.

He's obviously improved from early viewings and should probably get a bump as long as he holds his own at the Opening.

Rivals, for its part, says he's "just scratching the surface of his potential."

OFFERS

Penn State, BC, Maryland, UVA, and Syracuse are Johnson's main offers.

Also, Johnson supposedly got an Alabama offer. Normally I would dismiss this since Alabama is notorious for calling an invitation to camp an "offer," but in Johnson's case that offer came four weeks ago... at Bama's camp. That offer generated exactly zero discussion from Bama mods even when they had one of those running camp threads, but at worst that's a conditional you're-like-fourth-on-our-board thing, right?

HIGH SCHOOL

Michigan almost had a teammate of Johnson's last year at St John's College High but QB Kevin Doyle bailed late in the cycle for Arizona.

DOES HE LIKE GUNS 'N' ROSES THO

Yes?

I guess? 

STATS

None I could find.

FAKE 40 TIME

Johnson has solid track speed—a 11.2 PR in the 100 meter dash—and runs sub-4.5 40s at electronically timed camps. Two fakes? I think two.

VIDEO

A lot of wide receiver video in there but Johnson does stack and shed a couple times, which is not super common for high school players, and displays the occasional bit of blitzy edge violence that is the viper's calling card. He'd be a great WR prospect if he was 6'2".

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

This is not a three-star to get exercised about. Johnson has a great SPARQ score, was camp averse until he showed up at an Opening Regional that got him a ticket to the main show despite his low profile, and has some variety of genuine Bama offer after camping there. He's got a number of upward pointing arrows; a dollar says that 24/7 moves him into their top 300 in their post-Opening re-rank.

Johnson looks like a clean viper fit but unlike recent addition Joey Velazquez, his raw athleticism gives him more versatility. He could play a half-dozen different spots and is likely to break through at one of them sooner or later, with strong safety the most likely backup plan. He'll play somewhere as a multi-year starter.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

I... think we might be done in the near future? The upshot for the rest of the class is that it's now full on viper sorts unless Michigan picks up another guy like Johnson with significant positional flexibility. With the dust settling we'll get cracking on an overview of what's left for 2019.