Johnson confirms he accelerated LSU decision
By DARRYL MAXIE / dmaxie@ajc.com
So, did Storm Johnson actually commit or not? He says he did.
After telling the Rivals and Scout recruiting services that he would commit on July 11, Loganville’s 6-foot-1, 217-pound rising senior confirmed that he accelerated the decision-making process and committed to LSU on Tuesday.
“I already had the schools I wanted on my list,” Johnson told the AJC Thursday evening. “I sat down with my family and we went over who was a good fit for me.”
That he determined LSU is the best fit isn’t surprising, considering the Tigers had been his favorite all along. He still plans to make the trip to Baton Rouge on July 11. Before he enrolls in 2010, he wanted to make sure his senior season would be more challenging, which is why he transferred from Class AA Buford to Class AAA Loganville.
“At Buford, you don’t play four quarters,” said Johnson, alluding to the Class AA champion Wolves’ propensity to blow out overmatched opponents and then play reserves for long stretches. “I wanted to feel what the other teams feel when they played us. I want to be the underdog every now and then.”
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Guides
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2011 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
68 comments Add your comment
Diamond Dawg
July 2nd, 2009
8:24 pm
Who Cares!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All Knowing
July 2nd, 2009
8:50 pm
nope your just mad because a 5′7 white guy started over and was better than you.
Scout. com
July 2nd, 2009
8:58 pm
So where is this 5′7 white guy playing college ball at Buford Jr. College? He should have been third string.
I smell like Corn Dogs
July 2nd, 2009
9:59 pm
Storm Davis and his me first mentality won’t be missed in Buford. Have fun being fourth string in Baton Rouge.
H OBAMA
July 3rd, 2009
12:06 am
NO MORE STORIES ON THIS PERSON PLEASE!!! STICK TO IN STATE LOYAL PLAYERS
Boris
July 3rd, 2009
12:34 am
Deal with it
He is a greatback
The white player was a superstar back
He was just too small for college
Storm will be all sec
Cry about it Lsu and storm haters
buckblue
July 3rd, 2009
4:43 am
Maybe he just wants to go a college where he can win a championship?
DawgFan
July 3rd, 2009
8:29 am
Seems I heard a story that his father demanded a certain number of carries a game and when Coach S told him thats not how we play ball at Buford they decided to transfer. And don’t give me this crap or Loganville and being an underdog. His parents have created a tradgedy in the making. And yes the5 foot 7 kid you were referring to will be attending the AirForce accademy on full scholarship. Parents need to strart dropping their egos at the door. This kid was in a great situation but daddy wanted a superstar. You see how those turn out. “Dog Fighting Anyone”
tip
July 3rd, 2009
8:39 am
He wants to be an underdog now and then but chooses to play college for a team who is favored probably 90% of the time. I get where he is coming from but if he likes mediocrity he should play for Tech.
Loganville HS
July 3rd, 2009
8:49 am
Well, you are going to a school where you will always be the underdog. Enjoy! Hope you can win at least 5 games. I guess we will see if the other 10 players matter in Highschool football. Last time I checked, this was a team sport.
GW
July 3rd, 2009
9:09 am
He better run a little lower, behind those shoulder pads, for his 25 carries per game.
UGASlobberknocker
July 3rd, 2009
9:33 am
Not everyone on Earth is a perfect fit in Athens. Good luck to the kid in every game except vs. Ga.
Damn Good Dawg
July 3rd, 2009
11:03 am
Yawn….
Mad Dog
July 3rd, 2009
11:12 am
Sometimes parental tinkering doesn’t work out. Just ask Mitch Mustain’s mama how USC is working out for her baby boy.
LHS Coach
July 3rd, 2009
11:32 am
Loganville is AAAA, Maxie sure knows his sports.
78 DAWG
July 3rd, 2009
12:29 pm
Why are you doing stories on playes that don’t commit to the DAWGS? It’s just d*mb!
78 DAWG
July 3rd, 2009
12:30 pm
and boring
Braindawg
July 3rd, 2009
2:41 pm
Enjoy the bench kid….
Cherltey
July 3rd, 2009
5:16 pm
I read somewhere that he is allergic to offensive guards. That would explain why he doesn’t run between tackles. Is this true?
WOLFMAN
July 3rd, 2009
5:28 pm
Georgia did not want this kid-they would not have offered him in a million years.The Getz kid was a far superior runningback and his father could not stand it.He tried to pull a power play on Coach Simpson at Buford and that was a huge mistake.He will go 5-5 next year at Loganville.All running backs look the same behind a bad offensive line.The holes and competition he played at Buford will not be there at Loganville.This kid will end up playing football at a div 3 school you can bet the farm on it.
Former Student
July 3rd, 2009
11:40 pm
Congratulations LSU you just signed at THUG. A guy who thinks he is the stuff, someone who transfered school because he had less touches than the “super star” Cody Getz. Cody played with heart and Storm is just in it for the show. A guy who post stuff on his facebook like “where are you going again? oh thats right you can only go to UAB or the Air Force Acadmey? Oh well I have 13 offers on the table and I can go wherever I want to go” So Good Luck at Loganville Storm there is one thing that is for sure it sure has been sunny in Buford since the Storms left.
& UGA fan we should all consider ourselves blessed that Richt did not offer him!!!
LHS Coach
July 4th, 2009
3:44 am
Ya’ll are all full of it. First, Loganville has a good offensive line, that’s why they went 9-1 with a decent offense and a stout defense last year. Storm will help out on Offense while the defense will be solid. Why didn’t Georgia offer, or Georgia Tech, because Storm told them early in the process that he didn’t want to go anywhere in state, the end. The kid is 6′1, 217lbs, is very weight room strong and runs a 4.5, that’s why he had over 20 offers, just because UGA didn’t offer doesn’t say anything about his character. How many UGA players have been arrested the last 2 years, gimme a BREAK you haters. One of the guys blocking for Storm has committed to Georgia Tech as well, and not from a sorry AA school like Buford who plays the school for the deaf and blind and blocks 145lb defensive lineman. All you haters need to get over yourself because you never played college football and your rich parents have Georgia season tickets and you whine when someone goes out of state to a place like LSU so they can compete for a National Championship. Something UGA hasn’t done in what……….28 years?????? Shut your mouth.
Sugar Hill Dawg
July 4th, 2009
8:09 am
I wonder how many of the comments prior to mine have been made by someone who actually has first hand knowledge of the kid’s decision making process. I’ve taught in the Gwinnett County system for 34 years – I’ve been involved with a lot of kids (the kind you’d want your daughter to marry, and some who belong at the big house in Reidsville). What runs through their minds as they weave through this process is hard to fathom. I don’t know this kid – in fact, I’d never heard of him until this story broke a few days ago – but I’m gonna say to him “Good luck! Geaux Tigers!” Except, of course, when LSU comes to Sanford Stadium this fall – if he gets onto the field, I expect the Dawgs to treat him very rudely. (Also, since my son’s in the Auburn University Marching Band, I guess I should also hope Auburn kicks his rear end as well.)
Paul The Vol
July 4th, 2009
9:55 am
They only do stories about players that commit to UGA in the Athens papers. This isn’t Athens, it’s the capital of the South, so deal with it.
I smell like Corn Dogs
July 4th, 2009
10:10 am
Storm is a player that puts the ME in TEAM. I wonder what kind of car he will be driving when he hits campus?
THE ORIGINAL MADDOG
July 4th, 2009
10:53 am
ARE WE SAYING THAT EVERY GREAT OR GOOD PLAYER THAT GEORGIA OR GEORGIA TECH DOSE NOT OFFER HAS CHARACTER ISSUES?
IF THAT IS THE CASE, THEN THE STATE OF GEORGIA IS FULL
KIDS WITH THIS TYPE OF FLAW.
THERE ARE ONLY SO MANY KIDS THAT WILL BE OFFERED FROM THE STATE OF GEORGIA BY THE TWO MAJOR PROGRAMS.
PEOPLE, GET A LIFE.
GOOD LUCK YOUNG MAN.
K
July 4th, 2009
11:19 am
Why all the hate? Unless this kid did something to one of you personally, wish him well or leave it alone. Maybe he really did want to play against more competition. Lets face it other than Buford AA is kind of weak…further more, last I checked the 5′7″ RB has graduated and moved on to AFA, so was he really a factor in this kid leaving????…Also regardless of what anyone else thinks of him 20 D-1 schools were interested so please put your hate aside. Good Luck Storm! (btw that is a pretty cool name)
braves fan in las vegas
July 4th, 2009
12:33 pm
LHS Coach, check your facts. UGA won a national title in 80. so lets do the math and subtract 1980 from 2009 and we get…..19. I hope you aren’t a coach in charge of shaping young minds.
WOW
July 4th, 2009
1:24 pm
2009-1980=29
LHS Coach
July 4th, 2009
1:40 pm
HAHA! WHAT AN IDIOT! Stay in Vegas, I hope you can count better on the Blackjack table.
W
July 4th, 2009
3:10 pm
@braves fan in las vegas – Thank you SO MUCH for the great quote. You obviously attended that fine intsitute of knowledge.
jarvis
July 4th, 2009
10:16 pm
Rich parents with season tickets? That’s quite the insult…..
I didn’t realize we were all supposed to aspire to living in split level homes in the a$$ crack between Gwinnett and Walton County.
I smell like Corn Dogs
July 4th, 2009
11:43 pm
Braves fan in Las Vegas is really Reggie Ball incognito.
Pi$$onaDawg
July 5th, 2009
11:18 am
braves fan in vegas I hope you don’t try to make a living off gambling because you can’t count.
buford football
July 5th, 2009
12:12 pm
LHS coach, we at buford are not “sorry” at all and call up our coach we would LOVE to play yall. And you and everyone in loganville KNOWS we would beat the living SH*T out of yall. Dont even pull that one. We have former players on National Championship and Super Bowl winning teams while you send guys no where. Storm is garbage and the only way he will have more than 1500 yards if yall count east and west yards. Cody won us the championship last year, all storm did was give him a play off. and get the ball inside the 10. Cody got the ball there. So before you go calling our school that has produced 100s of DI players, know where youre coming from, cause we would beat yalls A** up and down the field
buford football
July 5th, 2009
12:16 pm
o coach one more thing, i meant cody got the ball inside the 10 and storm took the touchdown. But i know for a fact that georgia didnt offer him because they didnt want him, not because he didnt wanna stay in state. and i have first hand knowledge on that. they offered lattimore out of byrnes and brown out of MLK, they didnt wanna offer three backs
b town big boi
July 5th, 2009
1:00 pm
With tech not offering him. Now correct me if I am wrong but I have a hunch that tech runs the ball…ALOT. Like all but 7 plays a game. Now correct me if I’m wrong. So the coach must want alot of running backs, I mean look at tech’s roster. They want either guys that are super fast or guys that are big, bruising, and can turn on the jets. Say guys that are 6`1 217 or so maybe? Somewhere near ACC poy Jonathan Dwyer. Storm seems to fit that bill. He rushed for over 1300 yards on a state championship team and no offer from an in-state school that predominately runs the ball? interesting…Yet Charles Perkins from Collins Hill committed to Tech and he is from a spread offense…So when storm is offered by all these top -notch schools ( he says he is when if you have sources ON those teams they will tell you he was not) why didnt Tech?…Look at his highlight tape. kid cant run between the tackles every run is bounced outside. And the sec is far better competition than the acc…I smell a transfer to a directional school in someones future if history is the best predictor of the future
buford football
July 5th, 2009
1:06 pm
couldnt agree more. people dont know storm other than looking at his rivals page and combine numbers. play with him, or watch him in a game and youll realize it LHS coach. hell, he had like 10 yards in yalls spring game (reported by ajc)
JustMyOpinion
July 5th, 2009
3:03 pm
I’ve never seen this kid play nor have I seen him on youtube, but it seems that all the comments from Bufurd are ‘hating’ on this kid’s character. Remember that this young man is only 17-18 years old, and would you feel the same way about him if he was staying, along with his 1,300+ yards, at your school? And if your answer is ‘yes’, fine, let him run or ruin Loganville’s team. But take the high road, and move on. And ‘grown men’ stop bashing teenagers while hiding behind screennames!LOL
buford football
July 5th, 2009
4:36 pm
im not a grown man. and i never liked him when he was here so yes i would feel the same way if he was here. there was obvious tension on the sidelines when he came off the field for about half the season. there was an obvious difference in the way cody did things and the way storm did things. we grow backs over here so i was glad when i heard he was gone because we have more. he is a great player, dont get me wrong, but as a team we are better without him
LHS Coach
July 5th, 2009
6:07 pm
Buford is like USC in the Pac-10, recruit SEC caliber players, but play doo doo competition and keep your players healthy until the big games. Would you beat Loganville, most definitly, but LHS doesn’t hand pick their teams, we have a bunch of slow white people and try to get the most of our kids. No one said you didn’t have a great program, never said that, but you’ve got to admit that ya’ll have tons of “move ins” and don’t play competition worth crap. If you watch Kolton Houston’s highlight film, it is a joke because all he does is block 140lbers and half the time he doesn’t even block, he just cuts. There’s no comparision in AA and AAAA, and I think that’ll be a good opportunity to see what Storm can do against higher competition. But as far as this Georgia and Georgia Tech goes, he may not be good enough for them but he’s good enough for LSU and Florida, and I think if you look at the LSU-GT and FL-GA games, those will speak for themselves. But what do I know, I’m just a baseball coach, so take it for what it’s worth.
jj
July 5th, 2009
6:22 pm
I like the fact that he wants to be an underdog and have to work hard to win. Congrats on picking LSU. Wish it could have been our local underdog, GT, but at least you aren’t jumping on the mutt bandwagon. I do like the UGA math that now makes GT’s National Championship 2009-1990 = 9 years ago. Awesome
Good size. Too bad he won’t be wearing the white and gold. It will be interesting to see how he performs against the AAAA competiton at Loganville.
b town big boi
July 6th, 2009
10:38 am
All hail the mighty loganville schedule, the greatest competition in the state!!!!! there’s no way buford can wain against the likes of Monroe Area. 0-10 or winder-barrow.1-9. that competition seems comparable to cross keys and avondale. Same competition in those two teams. ok everyone plays bad teams so lets move on. Can’t forget 5-5 salem that d-1 powerhouse sure produces a lot of SEC caliber talent.or 7-3 apalachee with their proud history of a program. 2-8 madison sure was a juggernaut. Habersham posted a definite top 10 record of 6-4. Clarke Central had a great 9-1 record. Surely they’d dominate the playoffs. O wait never mind they lost in the first round. OOPs. Cedar Shoals pulled an upset after a 6-4 record but was shutout in the 2nd round of the playoffs. This region is representing itself well amongst the state
Mighty heritage failed to make the playoffs. Our friends at rockdale had a crappy season nonetheless. And here’s the icing on the cake. one team wet 9-1 losing the only game by three points!!! now that’s not bad pretty good right there! Never mind they lost in the first round 
, who was that team? the best team in the region. LOGANVILLE!!! And i know the county churns out division 1 talent like no other right?? O well they’re 4A so they must be better? BUT WAAIIIT Storm know this that’s why he wants to be an UNDERDOG… he sad it not me! I wonder what a coach would think knowing that a kid publicly said his team is gonna struggle in games? That’s a team player right there if I’ve ever seen one
b town big boi
July 6th, 2009
10:42 am
O um im pretty sure georgia beat lsu 52-38 at baton rouge but you might wanna look that one up. And i would bet my life’s money florida did not offer storm.
buford football
July 6th, 2009
11:04 am
kolton houston beat 300 lb lineman and is a bruiser of a blocker. he has more potential than dallas lee and WILL be all-sec so dont give me that bull. we play big schools and AAAA is one of the weakest classifications is GHSA, size doesnt matter. We dont hand pick our team etiher, people hand pick buford. so quit your whining, youd love to have kolton houston blocking for you. he has:great explosion, knock, technique, and finish and would blow any DL in the state. thats pathetic that you brought that up. If all yall can get is slow white kids then thats your problem. we played no 140 lbers anyways. Point one out please. we played a handful of DI linebackers matter of fact.
buford football
July 6th, 2009
11:10 am
florida didnt offer storm. i have buddies playing there and they said uf didnt offer. cant believe all you hear, itll get you in trouble LHS coach. We would beat 99% of AAAA teams, i just have that much confidence, win a state championship and youll have it. we beat higher classified teams all the time. hell we beat an equivalent to a AAAAA playoff team in ga from texas.
AJay
July 6th, 2009
4:14 pm
Congrats Storm. Stick with the POSITIVE and remember…LET YOUR HATERS BE YOUR MOTIVATORS!!!
LHS Coach
July 6th, 2009
4:49 pm
Florida offered Storm, you can call and ask Coach Kenny Carter if you’d like 352-375-4683. And second of all, being a former college athlete, coaches don’t come in the locker room and tell the players who they have offered, haha, what a joke you are.
buford football
July 6th, 2009
5:36 pm
im not buying. the guys i know that played there asked the coach if they were looking at anyone from buford and he said no, this was when storm was still there. they didnt ask if they offered storm, and arent u a baseball coach? how do you know this guy? stick to baseball and stay off this board bc obviously know nothing. and ajay, im not storms hater, im just someone trying to put this all in realistic terms. he will never play at lsu til his junior year. MARK MY WORD. His “haters” motivated him to quit on a school that won him two states and got him all the offers. obviously he cant handle haters
b town big boi
July 6th, 2009
6:59 pm
giving out a college coaches number over a message board…priceless
and your right. coaches dont tell players who they offered yet they will answer a complete stranger’s phone call to tell them.