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Hello From The Slight Future: JD Johnson Comment Count

Brian December 21st, 2018 at 11:41 AM

Michigan's search for a 2020 QB commit in the aftermath of Harrison Bailey's decision to go to Tennessee did not take long. Michigan offered AZ QB JD Johnson on December 6th; he visited a week later; a week after that he's committed. Not bad for a guy who was a backup QB until Spencer Rattler did something undisclosed but probably pretty dumb two games from the end of the regular season.

FWIW, Rattler missed a game earlier in the season with an injury so Johnson got six games in, not five.

GURU RANKINGS

Rivals ESPN 24/7 Composite
3*, 5.5 rating

NR
NR 3*, #558 overall

#25 PRO, #18 AZ
NR

While a couple of services have provisional rankings for Johnson those are likely to be tossed-off default taeks and his real ranking is yet to be determined.

[After THE JUMP: choose your own scout-venture]

SCOUTING

In a word: nope. Here's Johnson repeating what South Carolina said when they offered:

“They said they loved my quick release, power, and accuracy,” Johnson said.

This is the only thing anyone's put in an article about his ability.

Let's just slide that highlight video in a little early then, since if you want scouting you're gonna have to do it yourself:

That's a lot of good stuff in five games. One man's off the cuff take: weird arm slot, very comfortable shifting in the pocket to buy himself time, comfortable on the move, very capable of setting his feet even as he rolls opposite his throwing arm, throws Uncle Rico balls with more precision than he probably should, zippy when he has to be in underneath coverage, too many ohshit throws into coverage that work out, 0.8 McCaffrey on the ground.

One thing's for sure. Dude is in for a uniform upgrade of incredible magnitude.

5b812be8d3e32.image

Pinnacle is in the blue camo. Gah.

OFFERS

Arizona, South Carolina, Oregon State, UNLV, and Colorado State so far. Arizona actually offered back in May before he'd taken a snap.

HIGH SCHOOL

Phoenix Pinnacle hasn't sent anyone to Michigan but did produce Stanford lineman Ben Muth, who's a good twitter follow, and Brian "I Like The Way" Lewerke. Also Rattler, obviously. Their starting QB since 2012 has gone Lewerke-Rattler-Johnson, all P5 recruits. Not bad.

STATS

Johnson got some work in: 123 of 196, 63% completion rate, 10.2 YPA, 17 TDs, and 7 INTs. That interception rate is high, but so are the completion and YPA numbers. 47 yards on the ground.

FAKE 40 TIME

247 lists a 4.79, which is pretty good for a QB and maybe in the 1-2 fakes category.

VIDEO

See above.

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

I'm not even going to venture one given how flimsy this evidence is. Johnson is likely to end up a four star if he hits up camps, but his recent emergence and lack of game time means that anything from a meh three star to a top 100 ranking is in play.

When Johnson hits campus he'll redshirt, as all Harbaugh QBs do, and then he'll have to wait for whoever the starting QB is to clear out before he gets a shot at the job. He'll be rooting for Dylan McCaffrey, which would probably result in a open QB competition in 2021.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

Is QB. Harbaugh takes one a year and then flirts with a second. Unless Shea Patterson comes back and someone transfers as a result—which would be a weird thing to do—Michigan will have a full enough QB room that a second is very unlikely.

Comments

MEZman

December 21st, 2018 at 12:06 PM ^

Was very confused between the photo from the original commit post and the one that headlines this hello post... makes more sense now and those uniforms are awful.

Marvin

December 21st, 2018 at 12:14 PM ^

He had VERY high praise for Pep Hamilton on his Twitter page fwiw. I am very confused about Peo. I know the general sentiment here is that it would be good for him to move on. I would love to see a detailed post on why. I don’t know enough about football to form a reasonable opinion. 

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

December 21st, 2018 at 12:30 PM ^

No, because he couldn't even put up 20 against OSU until 1) their KR dorfed a catch and 2) the defense stopped trying.  And because Maryland put up 51 and Purdue did 49 and even fucking Nebraska had 31.  And because his literal actual gameplan (and Harbs', to be fair) by the coaches' own admittance was to specifically not do anything new that OSU hadn't seen before.

JPC

December 21st, 2018 at 12:54 PM ^

Because he wasn't among the TOP 50 recruiters in the Big 10 last year, and his passing game could easily be replicated by someone who isn't a terribly shitty recruiter. 

Put another way, Nebraska and Purdue both have FIVE (yes FIVE) guys on their staff who are better recruiters than Pep. Minnesota has at least three. Check out the list:

https://247sports.com/Season/2019-Football/CompositeCoachRankings/?Conference=Big-Ten

I wish it went to top 100 or 200, because I bet Pep would be towards the bottom.

So, I'll turn it around to you - what have you seen out of Pep to suggest that he should be one of the highest paid offensive assistants in college football? 

Amazing recruiter? No.

Offensive genius? No. 

Harbaugh's dude? Yes. Meritocracy for the win! 

bkarm1212

December 21st, 2018 at 12:26 PM ^

He looks great playing against a bunch of slow white guys.  Didn't see a lot of diversity in his competition  highlight reel.

 

Willing to eat lemons if he becomes a top tier B1G QB 

 

 

Blue in Paradise

December 22nd, 2018 at 10:15 AM ^

Exactly- Rattler was the top QB recruit of the 2019 class against these same kids.

Let’s not argue with an obvious troll who will probably get banned like the rest of his previous accounts.

Kid made some great throws with nice downfield accuracy and looked good under pressure.  But let’s see what happens when he hits the camp scene this summer - we will have plenty of data to see what kind of player we are looking at.

bkarm1212

December 21st, 2018 at 3:39 PM ^

My bad.  

Here Michigan recruited a top tier QB who is going to put 70 points on OSU.  His arm strength reminds me of Bret Farve, his mobility is Michael Vic, his accuracy is Brees.  They recruited a gem.  Awesome cant wait until he creams Bama.

 

Is that Homer enough?  Im entitled to my opinion as a fan. Win shit before you talk like it's the greatest program on earth.   1997 was a long time ago.

UMForLife

December 21st, 2018 at 3:53 PM ^

What winning got to do with the hello post? There is little evidence to say he won't be good or he will bad. Just crapping on him seems too much. Be nice until you have evidence that he is not good. It is nothing to do with being a homer smart guy.

Or go root for OSU as they won twice since 1997. Should be a good fit for you.

El Jeffe

December 21st, 2018 at 12:36 PM ^

Not an expert at all, but I didn't mind his motion. A little funky, but so is Philip Rivers's. So he'll probably be just as good.

No srsly. I liked the setup, look-off, and completion at the 2:10 mark of his film. I'll be interested to see his progress.

InterM

December 21st, 2018 at 12:52 PM ^

Glad to see we got this guy committed before he beamed back into the cosmos.  Is he from the "slight future" or another dimension?  And how do you scout a team/player that is dematerializing right before your eyes?

Blue Sharpie

December 21st, 2018 at 1:35 PM ^

I love how Harbaugh & Co can identify talent early in the process and beat others to some low hanging fruit, and not rely on other evaluations.  Wait too long and this guy could get enamored with some other program waiting for the evaluations and recruiting ⭐️S to go higher.

BlueMan80

December 21st, 2018 at 1:38 PM ^

Throwing motion looks a bit wonky, but he put the ball where it needed to be on the sideline and corner routes in the film.  Clearly, can thrown on the run and can buy time to pass with his feet.  Looks pretty calm when things are breaking down.  Will be great to see his development.  Welcome aboard!

Harlans Haze

December 21st, 2018 at 2:27 PM ^

He's probably a baseball player (maybe SS/2B), judging from his delivery. I don't worry too much about those types of players. I'd rather have a QB coach refine his delivery while having him keep the the natural ability to deliver the ball from different arm slots, depending on the situation. I think it's smart to be looking for under the radar players in the Phoenix area. Considering the enormity and the growth of the area, you'd think the football talent level would take a corresponding jump. Sure it won't be easy to convince them to go north, but it might be easier to get a couple diamonds in the rough early, in Arizona than fight with bama, osu and tenn (now) for highly touted recruits across the south, later.