Notre Dame picked up another defensive back in its 2021 class today when corner JoJo Johnson announced for the Irish. The 5’11”, 180-pound Hoosier picked up his Notre Dame offer two days ago and wasted little time – none, if you believe some of the message board rumors – committing. Irish cornerbacks coach Mike Mickens offered Johnson last October when he was in the same capacity at Cincinnati; Mickens was gone by the time Johnson committed to the Bearcats in May, but he made a lasting impression. Johnson decommitted about a month ago when he started to draw more Power 5 interest, and boy did his bet on himself pay off. He plans to sign and enroll early.
We’ll get into this more in the film review below, but the Irish staff clearly wanted to add another field corner in this class and Johnson fits that bill. Like fellow 2021 commit Chance Tucker, he has some work to do on the finer points but can flat-out fly, as evidenced by his 10.8 100M time. The 2021 secondary class now consists of Justin Walters, Ryan Barnes, Philip Riley, Chance Tucker, and JoJo Johnson; that’s a thumper of a box safety, two physical boundary corners who could play safety, and two plus-athleticism field corners. Pretty solid group.
100% COMMITTED‼️ GO IRISH☘️☘️ pic.twitter.com/74I5Q5CuDO
— JoJo Johnson (@jojofootball1) November 24, 2020
Recruiting Service Rankings
247Sports Composite — 3 star (.8573 rating), #857 overall, #59 ATH, #15 in IN
247Sports — 3 star (87 rating), NR overall, #47 ATH, #15 in IN
Rivals — 3 star (5.6 rating), NR overall, NR CB, NR in IN
ESPN — 3 star (77 rating), NR overall, #105 ATH, #11 in IN
Irish Sports Daily — 3 star (88 rating) ATH
Cohort
In addition to Notre Dame and Cincinnati, Johnson holds offers from Iowa, Michigan State, Purdue, and Washington State, among others.
Highlights
Well, I think JoJo’s posted 10.8 100 time is legit based on this. I was prepared to be skeptical and then I saw the second play – when he took a bubble screen to the boundary, reversed to the field, and hit one of those RC Pro Am boost pads around the 28 yard line. He can definitely open up the throttle and fly, and I think he has good acceleration too. I think he wins on defense mostly with athleticism; I don’t see a ton of technique but I think he has the physical tools to be good at it once he figures it out.
What I love most about this highlight reel is that Johnson shows a dog mentality on both sides of the ball. He’s fearless in traffic on offense and plays above his size as a tackler on defense. This isn’t on the video, of course, but his coach has also said he’s a “rising tide lifts all boats” kind of kid, that he has an aggressive mentality that’s infectious. Give me more of that, kid.
Impact
Johnson will almost certainly need a year or two to get up to speed on defense, given that he is a two-way player right now. He’s bigger now than TaRiq Bracy was at the same point, but I could see him following the same path – one-plus developmental seasons followed by meaningful contribution. Whether he’ll be a starter depends so heavily on development that it’s hard to say, but he might be our fastest corner the moment he gets to campus and that will be a big help. I think he also has the potential to contribute on return teams.
Welcome to the Irish family, JoJo!
I thought I noticed this with recruiting, and you seemed to confirm it here. Are they recruiting more DBs that have varying strengths/skills, and then planning to figure it out later who will be at corner and who will move to safety?
Maybe? Kelly talked a while ago about prioritizing athletes at corner rather than finished products. That’s why you see them looking a lot at speed guys who play both ways, like Johnson, Chance Tucker, Ramon Henderson, etc. I think Clark Lea generally likes to take borderline guys at each position and slide them closer to the LOS – corners with average athleticism become safeties with plus athleticism, safeties become rovers, rovers become inside linebackers, linebackers become defensive ends, defensive ends become defensive tackles.
That’s how you end up with guys like JOK at rover, Jack Kiser at Buck, Ovie Oghoufo at end, Rylie Mills (who was a HS DE) at DT, etc. It looks to me like the staff wants to take a bunch of athletic guys as potential corners, and then slide the ones who end up not profiling as well there over to safety.
Sounds like Jimmy Johnson at the bad boy Miami.
Speed goes where? Everywhere.
Holtz did the same thing. Andy Heck was a slow TE, but a quick OT; Frank Stams a slow FB, but a good OLB and lets not forget Chris Zorich, a slow LB, but a heck of a NG. Jimmy Johnson went further, slow DTs became OLs.
And we know it’s impossible to have too many OLs, right Eric?
😂😂
Hopefully ND has some more LBs who can grow into a DE — it was just reported that Abiara de-committed from the class
Yeah that was inevitable after his run-in with the law last month.
This is also what I would do in NCAA football. Does this mean we will win our next 100 consecutive games?
Points for “hit one of those RC Pro Am boost pads around the 28 yard line.” Now I have to go dust off my NES and relive my childhood.
I have so much confidence in this staff’s ability to evaluate talent right now. I used to pour over the recruiting rankings and compare us to USC, UM, and others. I don’t really worry about that now. How many kids started as high 3 stars or low 4 stars and got drafted in the NFL?
These guys are evaluating and developing as good as 99% of the teams out there right now.
Yea and now coupling that with getting some of those elite kids too – that’s gold because you can’t develop everyone to be a 5* some need to just start there or pretty close to it (not that those guys don’t need to be developed in their own way of course).
Indeed. Lot of confidence in Lea and Mickens to mold at least a few guys in this group into high-level college DBs. I love the plan as Brendan laid out above.