FOOTBALL Junior-college transfer Randall Johnson brings new dynamic to quarterback competition
- Thread starter SpaceRaider
- Start date
Hope he can replicate these numbers here at Middle
excerpt:
Last season, Johnson threw for 2,832 yards and 28 touchdowns along with eight interceptions as he led Reedley to a 10-1 record and to the Northern California Football Conference American Division championship game. He also proved to be a threat on the ground, rushing for 1,355 yards and 27 touchdowns over the past two seasons.
excerpt:
Last season, Johnson threw for 2,832 yards and 28 touchdowns along with eight interceptions as he led Reedley to a 10-1 record and to the Northern California Football Conference American Division championship game. He also proved to be a threat on the ground, rushing for 1,355 yards and 27 touchdowns over the past two seasons.
Last edited:
If Johnson can hit receivers early and often, make some good reads and protect the ball in camp, I think he's the guy. Ohara is right after him. It's encouraging to hear that he came in June and has worked with the team on his own during the summer. That's a big sacrifice and he's obviously hungry. Excited to see what he can do.
Man, he is such a big body that I have to think he is more comfortable in the pocket.
Agree with you JT, I think he ends up being the guy.
Agree with you JT, I think he ends up being the guy.
I have assumed all along that you don't bring a player like that in to ride the bench. Unless he has trouble adjusting to the FBS level, you have to assume he will be the guy.
I’m thinking he’ll give just as much punishment as he takes and be less injury prone. He’s a pretty big feller.
Who wouldn't be less injury prone, except 85 year old women with osteoporosis...
Obviously I am not saying he is or is not as good as them, but just from skill set and size he has to remind you of Vince Young, Cam Newton, or even Josh Allen from Wyoming. He looked good throwing the ball on film and improved all of his numbers quite a bit from his Freshman to Sophomore years. He may just be the difference maker we need. Still curious about the 3 year gap between HS and JUCO.
I'm excited for the QB position and the season. Michigan will probably be an absolute train wreck but that's to be expected. I'm just hoping for a respectable showing, even if only for the first half. If we can keep it within 2 TD's in the first half I would be elated.
In 2 years. Not too bad on him. He's a dual threat. However, he is quicker than Stock was so that will help. Plus, he is Tim Tebow size. That helps more.
After watching Last Chance U for 4 seasons, it was really interesting to see these young men come from really rough circumstances and see how they coped. Some can and do just fine while others go down a long and tough path. It takes a while to get crap together sometimes so I'm sure that's part of it. He probably needed that time to refocus on he really wants. That could be a major blessing for us. I really think the Franklin could have just found a diamond in the rough. He's like an Omar Haugabook and Franklin made him a beast.
You guys are betting on a JUCO kid, that played in one of the worst JUCO leagues in the country. That team was undefeated and no were near being ranked, not invited to a JUCO Bowl game. That league gets no respect from the other juco's and NJCAA.
Omar came from one the better JUCO leagues, he played at Dodge City. There is something not right, for him to be this prolific and MT be his only offer.
Who else you got in that 3 QB mix that is better? OHara is the only one I see who would do fine. He's better than AG was and is kinda like a hybrid between Kilgore and Grammer. We'd be fine with him. IF Johnson is competent with the rock in camp, you gotta play him. 6'5 is 6'5 and 234 lbs is 234. No mystery there. You can't coach size. If he sucks, we'll know soon enough but if he's with Ohara or ahead, we are good.
Agree...O'Hara didn't impress me against FIU. Have to think we brought Johnson in to be the man. And I don't put too much stock in the fact that no one else offered him. Let's face it, those are the kind of players we have to find, those diamonds in the rough that aren't rated on a star system. Like CRS said at that press conference, he is grateful no P5 school offered Byard. Similar to Morant at Murray St...JT is spot on with "can't coach size", and he has a grown man's body.
They are thankful and don't recruit kids with P5 offers because they don't want to work that hard in recruiting. Sure, every once in a while you stumble onto someone who turns out great. That isn't going to build a program.
When I heard him talking about that I just shook my head. Why would you not want kids that other major programs want? That's just asinine, but hey you know what. Stockstill fits right in with the little middle culture. We'll do just enough to get by and call it good.
Didn't say we didn't want or recruit kids other programs are after. But yeah, we have to find play makers that may not be on everyone else's radar. And as a fan, I'm hoping that is the case here.
"I'm glad P5 guys don't recruit a lot of our players." - Rick Stockstill.
Hell, some kids on campus that play intramural have more experience than our other 2 QB's.
I am not betting on anyone. I just think he looked good on film and improved his numbers quite a bit, which are both encouraging signs. If he can duplicate those numbers and has a strong arm who knows. I kind of shook my head at the Stockstill comment as well in regards to P5 not recruiting our players. I think P5 schools do recruit a lot of our players as backups if they do not get their primary targets and last year's recruiting class had at least a few guys with decent P5 offers. I think a better way to put it is he is glad the P5 schools overlook a lot of our players and do not recruit them as hard as they should.
I thought the only reason, we got Byard was because Kentucky pulled on him the night before. I could be wrong.
I've always liked the Bruce Stewart approach to recruiting: Say there are a lot of kids who want to play at MT, then shut up.
Fans know we are not going to get many blue-chippers and a lot of the players Stewart was talking about who would love to be offered at MT are not college prospects. We get it; but we don't want to hear a coach admit we settle for less that the best we possibly could get.
True, so how do our peers go get kids that are offered verbal or written at some point by P5's. Hell I see FCS schools going after big time kids. I can't remember the kids name he was a 4* and actually went and visited Morehouse a few years back, because the coach went after of him.
That sounds familiar, my point being you have to go after of them to even have a chance.
CRS is correct, EVERY kid wants to play P5...they want the facilities, fan attendance and national TV exposure. If a P5 pulls the trigger and makes a 'commit-able offer' to a recruit then MT will probably lose the kid. That is how the system works for G5 schools *unless* you have an academic program that interests the kid (assuming he's academically inclined) like Concrete Industry Management, Music Business, and/or Aviation.
This is 100% correct, typically recruiters from bigger programs (Lower P5 schools (Wake Forest, Duke, Pitt, BC, etc) and AAC) are sniffing around in season to gauge interest and develop fall back plans (AKA relationships) when/if one of their prospects get's poached by the premier team they can pick up the phone and say, 'I finally got the HC and DC/OC to watch your film and they really like you. You ready to be a Panther' and poof MTSU just lost a prospect...it happened with Nate Temple (MTSU commit 8/1/2018) this year. The lure of the vaunted Power 5 offer is so strong kids who aren't good fits or have little chance of starting will dump their G5 offers with good playing situations for bigger name.
So the way the system works is that P5's will throw out a ton of offers to 'keep up with the Joneses', those offers are not commit-able and are typically referred to as 'camp offers', come to our camp (for evaluation) and then we'll see if we really want you. It's really just used to placate a kid and to stay in the recruiting hunt with the other schools. Some kids who don't really understand recruiting think those offers are good in perpetuity when in fact it's all based on position need and can disappear over time which is why you see kids taking a lesser offer late in the recruiting cycle. I even know a kid who had an offer from a CFP (College Football Playoff) school who committed early and then were told that the school would honor the offer but the kid would never play (basically telling the kid to take off).
So when you see kids that have bigger offers that go G5 it's either been decided that they weren't good enough for a commit-able offer from a P5 or they waited too long. (I'm sure there are more scenario's but there's always a story for why they don't go)
Last edited:
I know how it works been dealing with coaches for the last 5 years as a high school coach in GA and having a kid that went through it.
Yep, same. Figured I would cover the topic since people think it's just a matter of putting phone calls into 4-stars. Honestly I wasn't as educated on the recruitment as I needed to be when it started, hopefully it's educational to some folks.
Another thing I'll add is that football recruits get crushed with Direct Messages (twitter), phone calls, mail, and campus visits. After you've been recruited for ~1 year most wish the experience was over. The best you can do as a G5 coach is play defense...hope you have a solid enough relationship with the player and that the player is miffed on the P5 contacting them in the waning days before signing date.
We've recruited plenty of kids with P5 offers. How many of those have we landed? It's a tough sell. You like MT. Enough to play at MT. Then UT offers you or a UK offers you. Hard to pass that up. If UK came after Byard earlier than they did, he'd went there. That's way it is. I think that's what Stock meant. We ain't out recruiting an SEC school ever. We only win those battles if they come in at the last minute and even then, it's a crap shoot.
Also, I think we put too much emphasis on the QB. How good do they need to be? We don't need a Brent. We need a good game manager. Don't turn it over and make good decisions with the ball. That's it.
Ohara did impress me vs. FIU and I'll tell you why. 1. He had zero reps leading up to that game and had no warning he would play. So no game planning around him at all. 2. He came in and scored twice and actually gave us the lead. 3. On the last drive, it was 4th and 10 and found Lee on a tight slant and hit him to pick up the first down to keep the drive. 4. He can run and he hurdled a guy. How many QB's hurdle a guy? He has plenty of talent and is a very good QB. Urzua could do none of that. OHara is 3 times the QB Urzua was so we are in much better shape than folks may think.
Johnson has size and probably some strength. I think he's no.2 right now but could easily creep to no. 1 within 2 weeks. If he doesn't, OHara is more than good enough to play for us. He's a combo between Kilgore and Grammer. We'll be fine.
Ohara did impress me vs. FIU and I'll tell you why. 1. He had zero reps leading up to that game and had no warning he would play. So no game planning around him at all. 2. He came in and scored twice and actually gave us the lead. 3. On the last drive, it was 4th and 10 and found Lee on a tight slant and hit him to pick up the first down to keep the drive. 4. He can run and he hurdled a guy. How many QB's hurdle a guy? He has plenty of talent and is a very good QB. Urzua could do none of that. OHara is 3 times the QB Urzua was so we are in much better shape than folks may think.
Johnson has size and probably some strength. I think he's no.2 right now but could easily creep to no. 1 within 2 weeks. If he doesn't, OHara is more than good enough to play for us. He's a combo between Kilgore and Grammer. We'll be fine.
Similar threads
