Texas is on the board for the 2019 class. Many have wondered when Tom Herman and his staff would land their first 2019 target, and until now it has been a bit of a mystery due to the staff’s focus on the 2018 class. Well it’s a mystery no longer, as Texas has landed long time Texas lean in Port Neches-Groves quarterback Roschon Johnson.
Johnson has held an offer from Texas for some time now and has long been high on the Longhorns and the staff has long been high on Johnson, which showed by him being the first quarterback offer for the 2019 recruiting cycle. With that said, this commitment came as a bit of a surprise due to the timing and the previously mentioned focus on the 2018 class.
Texas now has its gunslinger and class leader for the 2019 cycle and he is likely going to get to work right away on getting more players to join him in Austin.
Film Analysis
Lets take a quick look at the numbers before diving into the film. Johnson accounted for almost 4,000 yards and 56 (26 passing, 30 rushing) total touchdowns during his sophomore season. That’s a decent number I suppose. Those kinds of numbers reflect his dual threat ability, as he has the capability to hurt a defense through the air and on ground.
The film shows that Johnson is the ideal fit for the style of offense Herman and Tim Beck are going to be deploying in Austin. They like to feature the quarterback in the run game and Johnson shows on film he is capable of doing just that and he has wheels that can hurt a defense and has good wiggle and elusiveness as well. While I do worry about him being on the smallish side currently, he is going to be a guy that is going to have his athleticism utilized. When he pulls the ball down, he is dangerous in the open field and can make defenders miss, and he shows the ability to keep plays alive and buy time with his feet.
As far as his arm talents go, he doesn’t have the biggest arm and that is something I will be monitoring as he develops. I wonder a bit about his velocity and ability to really push the ball down the field like I did with Casey Thompson, but maybe not to that degree. He has solid ball placement, which is important when you don’t have a big arm, and he does a good job of leading his receivers. Since we’ve only seen his tape as a sophomore, there is a chance that arm strength and velocity increase over time as he gets bigger and stronger. Johnson has been described as a hard worker, so that is important to remember as we continue to watch his development.
Final Verdict
While we saw the Jalen Green commitment, it is safe to say nobody saw Johnson getting in the boat this evening at the Stars at Night camp. When it started going around that an underclassmen was on the verge of pulling the trigger we all had a bit of puzzled look on our faces as we checked into it.
The reason for the confusion is for a couple of reasons. For starters the coaching staff has been doing their due diligence when it comes to 2019 recruits and that goes double for the quarterbacks. There has been chatter that the staff was wanting to see how Allen’s Grant Tisdale looked this fall in live action before extending an offer. That led us to believe that it could be awhile before we saw movement on a quarterback decision despite Johnson holding an offer for some time. We are not sure what changed this evening, but the staff obviously felt good enough to go ahead and take Johnson’s commitment tonight.
With that said, Johnson is no slouch and shouldn’t be taken for granted. As I mentioned previously, he fits the mold of what Beck and Herman look for in a quarterback in their offense and he now gives Texas their leader for the 2019 class. The in-state crop of talent in 2019 is absolutely loaded, so getting Johnson in the boat now allows him to get to work on helping the staff put together another stellar class.
