FRISCO, Texas — Paris Johnson Jr. was walking through Tennessee’s facilities during an unofficial visit a few months ago and saw this slogan everywhere: “Give my all for Tennessee.” He participated in a photo shoot in a Tennessee uniform, posted the photos on Twitter and used that catchy slogan as a caption.
That’s when he learned his lesson.
Johnson, a five-star tackle from Cincinnati Princeton who is
the consensus No. 1 offensive lineman in the 2020 recruiting class, was just having fun and enjoying the recruiting process. But when Johnson, an Ohio State commitment, posted that tweet, he got hate messages and people pleading for him to stick with Ohio State. Most of those tweets were from fans who didn’t want to re-live the pain of watching a five-star offensive lineman from the Cincinnati area spurn the Buckeyes. Jackson Carman’s decision to pick Clemson over Ohio State in the 2018 class remains a touchy subject.
The Buckeyes won’t have to live through that disappointment again: Johnson told
The Athletic on Tuesday at The Opening that he is sticking with Ohio State; that means he plans to sign with the Buckeyes in December and enroll early.
It has been a hectic past few months for Johnson, who basically decommitted from Ohio State after Urban Meyer retired and genuinely thought there was a chance he could end up at Georgia. The parade of visits and pictures on Twitter weren’t just to mess with fans; they were depictions of a recruit feeling as if he were on the verge of leaving Ohio.
Just because Johnson didn’t publicly announce he was decommitted doesn’t mean his name belonged on Ohio State’s commitment list. It absolutely does now.
“I wasn’t doing it to scare people,” Johnson said of his visits. “There were real points where I honestly was (out), but that’s why I took my visits with Georgia and then I came back and took my visits with Ohio State. There were times in Georgia and I’d be like, ‘I kind of like heat.’ At first I was like Big Ten over the SEC, but then traveling to new states and I felt like that would be nice.
“But then I came back to Ohio State and I was treated like family. And I am a bigger name in Ohio. When I take visits to Ohio State, people know who I am. When I took visits to Georgia and I’d say my name is Paris, they’d be like, ‘Where are you from?’ You know, it’s different.”
If you’ve been tracking Johnson’s behavior, you could sense that he was back on the Ohio State train. During the spring, he was visiting the likes of Alabama, Georgia, LSU and Tennessee, and posting pictures from his visits. But he has been all about Ohio State of late. He celebrated when his Princeton High teammate, four-star defensive end Darrion Henry, committed to Ohio State last weekend, and he showed up to The Opening wearing a scarlet Buckeyes shirt.
Johnson is by far the most important commitment
in Ohio State’s 2020 class. He plays a position of great need, he’s a consensus top-10 player in the country and he’s an Ohio native. And as desperate as Ryan Day could have been when Johnson opted to take visits to some high-powered SEC schools, it was the way Ohio State handled it that kept Johnson from going through with his temporary desire to leave the state.
“I talked to Coach Day and I talked to Coach Meyer, and I explained this is what I wanted to do and visit other programs and they understood it and they supported it,” Johnson said. “They said, ‘You know, Paris, go ahead and do what you have to do because we believe this is where you should be,’ and I respected that.
“I wouldn’t have liked if I got, ‘No, you can’t do that.’ … If they would have said no or saying they’d take my offer away, it could have been a totally different situation.”
Johnson committed to Ohio State last June and said that commitment was based on two things: Meyer and the football program. Since re-opening his recruitment after Meyer’s retirement, he took a closer look at Ohio State after visiting other schools.
“My commitment is now to the campus, to the university, to the alumni, to the community,” Johnson said. “Before, it was really Coach Meyer. But now I found other reasons to stay, and I’m more comfortable than I ever was.”
Ohio State is in pursuit of one of the best recruiting classes in the country. Keeping Johnson a part of it is no longer a worry.
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