Micah Johnson rates ND visit a 10

Linebacker Micah Johnson, the No. 43 player in the country out of Ft. Campbell, Ky. took his second official visit of the season last weekend to South Bend. The 6-foot-2, 267-pounder with 4.7-second speed enjoyed spending time with the players, coaches and witnessing the atmosphere at Notre Dame.

"I liked it up there and I think it was a really nice school," he said. "I got up there Saturday and toured the school and then went to the game. That night I hung out with my host Victor Abiamiri. He was really cool as were all the players. Then on Sunday, I toured the campus some more, checked out the academics and met with the coaches. I got to talk to coach Weis and it was cool. I enjoyed talking to him because he's a really good man. He mostly talked to me about the school, academics and what he's trying to do here."

Notre Dame's impressive victory over Syracuse was perhaps the four-star prospect's favorite part of the trip.

"It was a really good game, I liked it a lot," he said. "The atmosphere there was great as the fans got into it with lots of chants and it was just a lot of fun. The players played really well together and had a good game. I especially watched the linebackers closely and Corey Mays played a great game. I really liked the defensive schemes they were running out there."

Johnson rated his visit an impressive perfect 10.

"I think it was a really good visit, and there was nothing negative about it," he said. "I'd say they stand close or at the top of my list along with Kentucky and Georgia. The visit was very comparable to my trip to Athens earlier except they had different atmospheres on campus. I'd still say Kentucky leads overall right now."

The No. 2 strongside defensive end in the country confirmed he plans to schedule an official to Virginia Tech sometime soon, although he hasn't worked out any details yet.

Last Friday the Falcons dropped out of the third round of the playoffs in a tough 28-25 loss to Owensboro Catholic.

"In the game, I had 182 yards of offense and two touchdowns. I also had over 10 tackles," he said. "I loved playing with everyone on this team and I'm going to miss them. It was disappointing we lost because we know we should have won and we let them come back into the game. I'm still proud of our undefeated regular season record though."