Kiffin strikes again as 2011 LB Johnson commits to Vols
Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin just won another battle in the recruiting war he declared on Georgia. And this time the Vols’ victory came less than an hour from Athens.
A.J. Johnson, a 6-foot-3, 225-pound junior linebacker from Gainesville, committed to the Vols on Wednesday, shortly after completing a practice attended by UT assistant coach Ed Orgeron. He attended the Tennessee-Georgia game in Knoxville as an unofficial visitor on Saturday.
Tennessee was the first school to offer the swift-footed junior last December. He said he grew up a Georgia Bulldogs’ fan and camped there this past summer but the Bulldogs never offered.
“I’m guessing they were just waiting,” said Johnson, who has 80 tackles so far this season. “They didn’t come after me like Tennessee did. If Georgia had offered me I probably would have committed right there.”
Johnson, who had at least 12 offers, also attended camps at Florida, Clemson and Auburn. He can’t sign an actual scholarship until February of 2011. In the meantime he said Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin told him the Vols wouldn’t be upset if he took official visits as a senior next year.
He may, Johnson said, but there isn’t much of chance he’ll change his mind.
“It’s right,” he said. “It’s a school I’ve been wanting to go to. I wanted to commit while I was there this weekend but everybody told me to hold off. So today I just went ahead and did it.”
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139 comments Add your comment
mark
October 15th, 2009
11:01 am
UGA LIKES THEIR LINEBACKERS 5′ 1 ” 205 LBS AND CAN MAKE TACKLES ALL DAY SEVEN YARDS DOWN FIELD, UGA MUST TRAIN THE LITTLE LB’S TO TRY AND RUN AROUND THE FULLBACKS RATHER THAN MEET THEM IN THE HOLE THE OLE TRIED AND PROVEN WAY
ReptilesRule
October 15th, 2009
11:04 am
Also, Kiffins strategy in recruiting seems to be to offer early and often. I think they must have offers out there to half the Rivals 250 and to anyone Florida may happen to be recruiting. These guys are cut-throat, persistant and will tell a player anything and everything to turn him, true or not. I fully realize that UT is NOT alone in doing this, as the UGA staff was drilling Matt Elam about Urban Meyers “eminent departure” to Notre Dame, but if you want to get an insight as to the overall philosophy just go read the book “Meat Market” starring Ed Orgeron. Also, I see Vol fans on here constantly crowing about how Tenn plucked Eric Berry out of Georgia, but Berry is a legacy player whose Dad played there, and there was never any doubt as to where he was ending up.
collegeballfan
October 15th, 2009
11:05 am
Maybe UGA made a mistake. Maybe UT made a mistake. Maybe the 11 other schools who offered this kid made a mistake.
UT has always recruited exceptionally well in Georgia. They always will. There are enough players to go around. UGA will always get more than their share as they always have.
Just because UT signed the kid doesn’t mean the kid is not a good player. See 45 to 19 last Saturday. Just because UGA did not offer does not mean the kid is not a good player. The Gators & the Tide each have a ton of players UGA did not offer.
unbiased volfan
October 15th, 2009
11:08 am
can’t wait until Toney Williams from Alpharetta runs it up UGA’s a$$ next yr
Paul The Vol
October 15th, 2009
11:10 am
A lot of player evaluation depends on the system you are running. Tennessee just refused a commitment from a 4 star offensive lineman because he wasn’t fast enough to to get to the edge like Kiffin wants. North Carolina took him the next day. Maybe Johnson isn’t the right fit for Florida or Georgia or Alabama but Monte Kiffin looks for certain qualities in a linebacker and saw this guy at Tennessee’s camp and wanted him. That’s good enough for me.
NC Dawg
October 15th, 2009
11:14 am
69 Dawg…..get off the bandwagon!! You are not helping with your complaining! We are recruiting well now and will in the future! We don’t get everyone from the state. I don’t like that, but at least we are getting players we need. The kid could change his mind too. But, then again, there has NEVER been a high school kid change their mind. Time will tell
Kendawg
October 15th, 2009
11:15 am
Does anyone seriously think that Kirby Smart would come to Athens as defensive coordinator? He’s already DC at Alabama and there is no question that at this point Alabama is a better program than UGA. Since Muschamp is now head-coach-in-waitng at Texas, any talk of him coming back to Athens is laughable. If we’re going to get a competent DC, we’re probably going to have to hire one on the way up, and I don’t believe that person is currently on staff in Athens.
#1 BAMA FAN
October 15th, 2009
11:18 am
VOL NATION let the recruits come see the “third Saturday in October”. RTR
kcvol
October 15th, 2009
11:28 am
Paul the Vol: Well said, that’s the point I’ve been trying to make. In the end, only time will tell.
jbts30228
October 15th, 2009
11:30 am
I want to wish this young man nothing but good luck. I am a UGA fan and was at the game Saturday. Tenn fans showed their lack of class with a rousing boo every time Marlon Browns name was anounced. How can you boo a young man just because he choose to go out of state to school? Really ironic that their best player is from Georgia. Please Georgia fans never stoop so low as to boo this young man.
Good luck and stay healthy!!!
cj
October 15th, 2009
11:41 am
chip, your a moron! Tenn didnt beat us out if we did not attempt to go after him. Maybe he’ll be top 20 player in state maybe not, but Tenn did not beat us in a recruiting battle like you want it to seem.
Reality Check
October 15th, 2009
11:43 am
GaDawg-
UF’s academic standards are higher that UGA’s. That’s a fact…look it up.
ratdawg
October 15th, 2009
12:01 pm
I have a fix for our defense…Move Richard Samuel to line backer…where he should have been all along.
Rabun
October 15th, 2009
12:19 pm
IF CMR WANTS EM CMR GETS EM! No big loss here, move along.
ckvol
October 15th, 2009
12:45 pm
I thought it was funny that eric berry said richt didn’t even know who he was when he visited georgia. He said that richt had his name and his stats written on his hand and he kept having to refer to his hand for info. With competition like that it souldnt be much of a war. Of course some kids grow up dogs a you aren’t going to change their minds no matter what.
scott
October 15th, 2009
1:00 pm
Chip he is a junior, give me a break!
Lane needs to watch his mouth, declaring you will NEVER lose to any SEC team is flat out stupid and ignorant. Shows how new he is to caoching, glad his daddy got him a job
2 Best Tenn players are freshman here this yr, we got them for 3 more years, and we’ll enjoy the 2010 win in Athens when Marlon takes one 30 yards on ole Lane/Monte’s “D”:) Hoep Marlon Bown does a dance in the endzone for a flag, if I were CMR I would give him the ok!
Dawg Drool (BaseballVol13)
October 15th, 2009
1:06 pm
cj
October 15th, 2009
11:41 am
chip, your a moron! Tenn didnt beat us out if we did not attempt to go after him. Maybe he’ll be top 20 player in state maybe not, but Tenn did not beat us in a recruiting battle like you want it to seem.
Yes, you’re right CJ! And Tennessee didn’t BEAT your ball lickin’ butts last week because you “pups” didn’t actually play!!! You were there butt you didn’t play, therefore Tennessee didn’t beat you!
UGA Fans See The End Coming
October 15th, 2009
1:14 pm
The end is near and like a person gasping for air, you all are holding on for dear life. There is no excitement in the bulldawg program. The only excitement is AJ Green. The players are boring, the schemes are boring, and game plans to date have been ineffective. Bottom Line! What has UGA done that would want to make Johnson even consider them. How do you know, he didn’ go to UT last week, to evalute UGA upclose. UGA got their head handed to them, by a 1st year SEC Coach, who wasn’t successful with the Raiders.
What does that say about UGA? It’s not about Johnson, UGA’s problems, are about the lack of synergy at UGA. If UGA struggles vs. Vandy, which cld very well happen, CMR will have to fire Bobo and Martinez, just to keep his job.
Maybe Johnson going to UT wasn’t a loss, but UGA’s subpar performance hasn’t been a win. Place blame – where blame belongs. The best critique, is honest self-critique.
A UGA Fan.
dawgster
October 15th, 2009
1:20 pm
Chip, you can spin anyway you want, but as i said also i’ve seen this kid play several times, he is good, but to the best of my knowledge there are some other linebackers that the dawgs are looking at, and Chip if you don’t think you are trying to hype this then you don’t give benefit to your readers…You made the point that gainesville is only 40 to 50 miles up the road, that part is true, however alot of kids have gone through georgia’s camps and not all are offered scholarships especially in their junior year, you are giving Kiffin way too much credit, I’m glad for the young man, I hope he does well..
Vol in Suwanee
October 15th, 2009
2:00 pm
Anybody Monte wants on his defense MUST be good and also have a big upside. Speaks volumes that UGA never went after this kid. Maybe that is what the UGA “fans” need to worry about, that their coaches didn’t see the value.
gavol
October 15th, 2009
2:23 pm
so funny to read on here when another sec school gets a player from ga…we don’t need him …we have others higher on our list. Really? This kid is already on the ESPN 150 watch list…so yes GA needed him. Sad state of UGA football that the staff had not offered him…given that he his thought of so highly. Richt is the Fulmer of the SEC now. The UGA fans on here (most of them) recognize that it is a slap in the face of their program that this kid was not even offered yet. But I for one am glad….the Vols have a good one in him in 2011.
Urban Cryer
October 15th, 2009
2:36 pm
Lots of denial about Kiffin in this thread. I like it. I hope the coaches are taking UT just as lightly as the fans. This is gonna get fun.
Peeps
October 15th, 2009
2:38 pm
Coach Ed Orgeron is the best recruiter in college football. He is renowned for doing this. Identify early, offer before anyone else ect. He was instrumental in the rebuilding of USC. Remember the crazy good miami teams of the early 90s? Think Ed O.
Urban Cryer
October 15th, 2009
2:40 pm
Dawgster..this comment..
“Chip, you can spin anyway you want, but as i said also i’ve seen this kid play several times, he is good, but to the best of my knowledge there are some other linebackers that the dawgs are looking at”
He’ll be one of the top 5 players in Georgia for 2011. You smarter than the folks ranking him in the prep standings? I’m curious as to what other awesome LBs that twit Martinez is looking at to replace the current pylons standing in the secondary. Lie to yourself, if you like it…besides, Johnson will be about 240 by the time he hits college, so he’s a DE if I had to venture a guess
ED
October 15th, 2009
3:04 pm
Gville = AAA school is a ra-tahd.
Charlie
October 15th, 2009
3:20 pm
I’m sure a lot of you guys are unsure of AJ Johnson’s talent and question if it’s good enough for UGA. All I know is Monte Kiffin saw one of his practices last Spring and offered a schollie on the spot. As a HS soph, AJ had over 160 tackles, not shabby regardless of class. Several Rivals guys think AJ will be a lock for the 2011 Rivals 250 and could make the Rivals 100. You may want to re-evaluate your belief he isn’t a real talent.
I read sevel posts of all the talent UGA has, and it’s true. UGA is the only SEC school with 7 straight top 10 recruiting classes and their average 5 years classes are second only to FL. In 4 year average, Bama nudges you out by a whisker. UT started a RS frosh at RT, and senior 260 pound walkons at OC and LG agaisnt you Saturday. UT also started arguably the worst QB in the SEC in that game. That QB had a career day and was SEC O player of the week while UGA’s O couldn’t penetrate the UT 34 yard line. There are many reasons to dislike Lane Kiffin, but there is no debate after Saturday as to whose staff is getting the most from the talent they have. More Johnson might just be the answer to UGA’s woes.
Flo-Ri-Duh!
October 15th, 2009
3:39 pm
Kiffin was given a gift. Tennessee has a better than average defense but the Dawgs made their offense look good. All they did was roll out and throw to wide open receivers with no pass rush just like in practice. That was not great cching by Kiffin but poor coaching by UGA’s defensive coordinator.
Reality Check
October 15th, 2009
3:44 pm
In response to:Change, I agree with most of your takes… Here’s UGA selling points for a QB and RB… To the QB, come to UGA and we’ll develop you into the #1 pick in the NFL Draft… To the RB, come to UGA and we’ll give you the carries to put you in a position to be the #1 RB taken in the NFL Draft… I disagree with you some because Stafford & Knowshon were out of state talent! UT, Alabama, Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma can’t say the same (Southern Cal could though!).
And still not win on a national level! Georgia Sucks!
Charlie
October 15th, 2009
3:57 pm
Flo-Ri-Duh! posted:
“Kiffin was given a gift. Tennessee has a better than average defense but the Dawgs made their offense look good. All they did was roll out and throw to wide open receivers with no pass rush just like in practice. That was not great cching by Kiffin but poor coaching by UGA’s defensive coordinator.”
I’m sure Kiffin would have been very happy to see UGA change the D schemes to try and stop the rollouts. He had planned on UGA adjusting and wanted them to. If they had changed, Kiffin would have given them a healthy dose of Montario Hardesty just like he did the Gators to the tune of over 140 yards. That’s 140 yards with 8 in the box and the Gators knowing UT had to run the ball. Even with UGA’s base D, Hardesty had almost 100 yards on limited carres.
No, it wasn’t a gift, but a theft.
AJC = Yellow Journalism
October 15th, 2009
4:20 pm
Notice the sensationalistic title: “Kiffen Strikes Again…”
Notice the fact tucked away in the third paragraph: Georgia evaluated and decided not to offer a scholarship to this player.
Notice the disconnect between the title and the facts.
Pathetic but this paper gets some attention by this type of “journalism,” so I suppose it works for them.
ugaaccountant
October 15th, 2009
4:40 pm
Chip, this is muck racking garbage. If we “missed out” on a marginal prospect because we didn’t offer him 15 months prior to signing day, then so be it. But you yourself just characterized him as probably a top 10-20 guy in the state, so basically he’s a guy we can’t afford to be offering early in his Junior year of high school. Only the true blue-chip 5 star recruits should have UGA offers in hand at this time of their junior year.
dawgster
October 15th, 2009
5:18 pm
Urban Cryer, my comments about Johnson are not being offered by the dawgs or gators have nothing to do with this kid’s talent, i have seen him play several times as i said, my comment was that the dawgs are looking at several linebacking spots, whether they are as talented or not remains to be seen, but for whatever reason they didn’t feel they should extend an offer at this time early in his junior years, perhaps they still may offer but it possibly will be too late, Kiffin felt he would fit in nicely for the Vols, so good luck, the whole point of this article by Chip was to anger the dawg nation and make it appear we couldn’t or weren’t going after players in the state even they were only 40 or 50 miles from Athens. Every team will make some mistakes in recruiting, the dawgs have surely done that in alot cases, but they also have a very good tract record of finding some good ones, bottom line is doesn’t really matter how many stars they have based on someone’s opinion, but its how they fit into the program and into the schemes run with that coaching staff…
isthatreallycrompton
October 15th, 2009
8:51 pm
people can say what u want to say but if you have monte kiffin as a coach on your team, your going to have one of the top defenses in the country. either way you shake it, his son has character(most people dont like it). kiffin gets under peoples skin, exactly what is his intent. i see big things comming from the vols.
cirkutnatl
October 15th, 2009
10:21 pm
GA fans are in the denial process of death. Your program is dying and you can’t see it!!! you look at “all this talent” that GA has and is “overloaded” with and know that things are changing! Look at TN’s fat phil recruiting classes (besides his 2008 and 2009 until LK took over!) they were talented and went no where! you might have the talent, but you are losing. Not only are you losing games…you are losing recruits.
You guys can talk all your BS about not
ffering”, “needing”, and “overloaded” CRAP!!! But, you best think that people see the UT’s head about taking GA and that sticks in recruits minds.
THIS RECRUIT IS A ESPN Watch list 150! that makes 3 for TN….how many does GA have for 2011?
Talk your BS and watch the you ship sink!!! you need a change….just as UT did!!!!!!
cirkut-atlanta
I Love UGA's Blind Loyalty - To Death!
October 15th, 2009
10:39 pm
Monte Kiffin is one of the most succesful defensive coordinators, that NFL has ever seen. He leaves a very successful NFL career, to assist his son. UT doesn’t have the offensive stars of yesteryear, and must rebuild. It’s easier to rebuild defense, which wins games, than a high powered offense, in one year. Do you not think Monte sees in Johnson, after all of the NFL caliber guys that he has coached, what he needs from and for Johnson. Do you think its luck that Monte identified Johnson this early and offered! Do you think Orgeron offers one defensive prospect without Monte signing off on them? Johnson is 29 miles from UGA, and almost 4 hours from Rocky Top.
What does Monte see that Willie Martinez doesn’t? The obvious answer is talent! UT defense shut UGA down. NO more need be said. UGA fans need to take the loyalty blinders off. Your sleeping through reality! The entire world can see UGA is not getting the job done, but UGA. Auburn and MS State also have 1st year coaches. I wish I cld rest that UGA will win those games. At the present, UGA is 1st year coaches dream. UGA is quickly becoming known as the team in the SEC that never reaches it potential.
Chip Towers
October 15th, 2009
11:41 pm
Urban Cryer, Dawgster: Indeed, Georgia has targeted another 2011 linebacker in the state and invested a lot of time and energy into his recruitment — Tucker’s James Vaugthers.
ugaaccountant
October 16th, 2009
8:29 am
I wouldn’t be too sure on Monte’s eye for talent yet. He’s now judging 16 year old high school juniors instead of pros. World of difference.
realitycheck
October 16th, 2009
8:35 am
To GaDawg who stated that he could not attend UGA because of grades. You also said that the schools that offered him had lower academic standards than UGA. You sir are a bafoon! Have you no knowledge of Stanford? Look it up, they are the Vanderbilt of the pac 10.
Volball
October 18th, 2009
4:42 am
rational dawg needs to learn to read…the headline doesnt say anything about UGA loosing a recruiting battle…..its clear that Kiffin has def. made an impact in GA..