Dodge City Community College linebacker Gary Johnson is one of the top JUCO players in the entire country, and he has the offer list to back that claim up. Johnson, a one-time Alabama commitment, has more than 25 offers from many of the nation's top programs, and he has a busy few weekends on the calendar as he plans to finish up his official visits in January before making a decision on National Signing Day.
Johnson has already visited Arizona State in the next three weeks he'll take trips to Oregon, Texas and Southern Cal, in that order. Johnson is also trying to schedule a midweek visit to Louisville but he does not have a date locked in for that trip.
The news of the Texas visit is still fairly fresh with Johnson setting that trip up late last week, but Johnson says he actually picked up a UT offer shortly after the new Texas staff was hired - unbeknownst to him.
"I had been talking to them for a while. They had offered a while back, had told my coaches. I don't think my coaches ended up telling me. When they wound up telling me, I was pretty excited about it," Johnson said.
Upon receiving word of the offer, Johnson immediately set up an official visit to Texas. Even prior to the offer, the Longhorns were a program he had in his mind that he'd like to check out.
"Texas has always been a power house. Texas in itself speaks a lot," Johnson said. "They're all about football there. To have an offer from a place that is going to turn it around in a year or two, that's huge for me. I had a couple places I had that I would like to take visits to, once I heard the Houston coaches were going there, I wanted to visit there. When they offered, I set it up."
The four programs he plans to visit, along with previous visit Arizona State, make up Johnson's final five. He says he doesn't see a scenario where another school can come in late and jump into the mix. Of those five, Johnson claims no leaders. Originally from Atlanta, Johnson played his high school ball in Alabama, but he says he's willing to play his final years of college ball anywhere that provides him a good opportunity.
"Location doesn't really matter. With me, I'll just go wherever for the love of the game," Johnson said. "Wherever I wind up is fine with me.
"Once I get the opportunity to visit those other schools, I'll make my decision on Signing Day."
Oregon could have an interesting sales pitch for the 6-2, 225-pound Johnson. Since the Ducks are on a quarterly system, Johnson could commit there, enroll earlier than his other finalists and go through spring football. If he goes to one of the other schools on his list, he'll enroll for the first summer session.
"It could (have an impact)," Johnson said of Oregon's scheduling. "But if I felt like if it's not the best place for me, it really doesn't matter if I can graduate early. When I check it out, if that's a place I feel like I can call home, they'll have a head start but I won't know that until I see everything."
As for Texas, the Longhorns need help on the defensive side of the ball, and the Texas coaches have been telling Johnson he'd be the perfect person in the middle of new defensive coordinator Todd Orlando's defense.
"They're just saying they need an impact linebacker to come in at the middle linebacker position and run their defense," Johnson said.
