DETROIT — Sam Johnson first appeared on the radar of many Ohio State fans last summer when he visited Columbus for a one-day position camp. Johnson opened some eyes when he was tossing the ball around alongside Ohio State quarterback commits Danny Clark and [at the time] Tristen Wallace and looked every bit as good.
The difference then was Johnson had never played a high school game at the time, having just completed his eighth-grade year. He had several college football scholarship offers, though, and it was pretty apparent on this day why he had received those so early.
Standing 6-foot-3, Johnson already has the height desired to be a big-time college football prospect. He is currently listed as 180 pounds — and he is slender — but again, he has only now just completed his freshman season at Southfield (Michigan) High School.
Johnson impressed Saturday at Sound Mind Sound Body, too, going up against some of the top defensive back prospects in the Midwest. And Ohio State’s coaching staff — Urban Meyer included — along with many of the other top programs from around the country were there to watch him throw again.
“I think I did pretty good,” Johnson said afterward. “It was fun throwing against some of the top DBs out here and just competing against the best.”
Johnson has a busy summer planned. He has intentions of making trips to North Carolina, Alabama and Florida State camps, as well as more local stops like Purdue and Michigan State. He also said he intends to visit Ohio State for its annual Friday Night Lights camp at the end of July. Johnson also visited the Buckeyes recently when he was in town for The Opening’s regional camp.
“I just recently visited [Ohio State] when I was at The Opening and it was a pretty nice visit,” he said. “I’m gonna go down there again for Friday Night Lights.”
Johnson also mentioned Penn State, Michigan and Notre Dame as schools that are currently recruiting him. His offer list, according to 247Sports, currently sits at 12 and consists mostly of Mid-American Conference schools. But again, he just finished his freshman season. There will be more to come and the Power-5 schools will offer soon enough with a prospect like Johnson.
All of the attention Johnson is already receiving hasn’t seemed to overwhelm him.
“It’s cool,” he said with a smile. “I’ve just got to keep working and compete a lot and just continue to get better. I just want to continue to get bigger, improve my footwork and my mechanics. I also want to watch and study film more, stuff like that.”
Ohio State has Clark committed at quarterback in the 2017 class and is going hard after five-star prospect Tate Martell, as well. In 2018, the Buckeyes have been all over the nation's No. 2 dual-threat quarterback, Emory Jones out of Georgia.
Johnson could be Ohio State's guy in 2019.
“I just like to compete a lot,” he said. “I like to challenge people.”
