Tennessee is going after some highly-rated quarterbacks in the 2020 recruiting cycle. They’re in a good spot already with with the No. 2 pro-style QB in that class, Harrison Bailey, and UT’s coaches are looking at a few other talented prospects at the position. And this weekend, they sent out an offer to one of the top quarterbacks in the class.
Max Johnson is a four-star quarterback from Watkinsville, Georgia who already holds over a dozen offers after just completing his sophomore season of high school. And he added to that offer list this weekend when Tennessee gave him an offer.
Thankful to receive an offer from Coach Pruitt! #GoVols pic.twitter.com/uABI1N5FCO
— Max Johnson (@qbmjohnson2020) June 24, 2018
Tennessee had actually already offered Johnson under the Vols’ previous coaching staff, but Jeremy Pruitt and his staff re-offered and made that scholarship offer official.
According to the 247Sports Composite rankings, Johnson is the No. 52 overall player and No. 4 pro-style quarterback in the 2020 class. The 6-foot-4, 214-pound signal caller already has offers from Georgia, Auburn, Ohio State, Michigan, Miami, Florida State, and others.
Johnson is the son of former NFL quarterback Brad Johnson. His father played for 15 years in the NFL and accumulated over 29,000 passing yards, 166 touchdowns, 122 interceptions, and a 61.7 completion percentage in 177 games. Brad Johnson played for Florida State in college from 1988 to 1991.
The younger Johnson has some considerable talent, especially considering he just finished his second year of high school. He can really sling the ball down the field, and he doesn’t have trouble making a number of throws to different part of the field. He’s a lefty, but he’s good at throwing on the run while rolling out to his right and left both. He won’t tuck it and run very often, but he’s surprisingly mobile whenever he does run. The only problem with his delivery is that he has a windup as he prepares to throw. He’ll need to work on that and a few more mechanical things, but he certainly has a ton of potential and a strong arm.
As a sophomore for Oconee County, Johnson completed 52.8 percent of his 235 pass attempts for 1,918 yards, 10 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions according to MaxPreps.
Tennessee’s coaches seem to be targeting the 2020 class as the class in which they’ll pull in a highly-rated quarterback. And luckily for them, there are plenty of options. Johnson will continue to get attention from the Vols’ coaches as the 2020 cycle moves on.
