Johnson starts official visits this weekend

The season is over for Garden City (Kan.) Community College defensive back Dontrell Johnson and enrollment in a four-year institution is fast approaching. The 5-9, 174-pound Johnson has just a few weeks to take official visits and make a decision, and he will start that process this weekend.

"I've got Toledo this weekend," Johnson reported. "I don't know anybody up there, I just decided to take a visit. I probably talk to their coaches the most. I'm going to go watch the game and after that check out the campus and everything."

Johnson also has an official visit scheduled to UAB for the first weekend in December and he is talked with both South Carolina and Oklahoma about potential official visits to their programs. Both South Carolina and Oklahoma would like Johnson to visit their school during Thanksgiving weekend, but he is not sure which visit he will take.

"If I go home [for Thanksgiving], then I'll probably go on the South Carolina one, but if I am [in Kansas] then I will go to Oklahoma. I'm trying to go home," Johnson said.

Home for Johnson is the state of Georgia where he attended Colquitt County High School, so going home for the holidays would put him closer to South Carolina's campus.

But Oklahoma's interest has also caught Johnson's interest and he would like to see their program before he decides. Sooners assistant Bobby Jack Wright is the coach he is in contact with down in Norman.

"They haven't offered me, but I have been talking to him for about a month," Johnson said. "Both of their cornerbacks are leaving, so they feel I can help them out if I come in as a December grad."

South Carolina assistant coach G.A. Mangus has been recruiting Johnson since last spring. An official visit to their campus was originally scheduled for a weekend in October, but the Gamecocks decided to push the date back until after the season.

"I don't really talk to them that much," Johnson said of South Carolina. "They mostly talk to my defensive coach and I get a couple letters."

This fall, Johnson was part of a Garden City team that went 4-5. He tallied 43 tackles and three interceptions from his cornerback position, earning all-conference accolades for his play.