Three-Point Stance: Huskers land big fish, Michigan-OSU Twitter war

Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell offers his thoughts three at a time in his regular Three-Point Stance column. In today’s edition, Mike talks about Nebraska’s big recruiting addition, Ezekiel Elliott putting Jim Harbaugh in his place and another prospect with a famous father.

Class of 2017 wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson Jr., who committed to Nebraska on Wednesday, obviously comes from excellent bloodlines as the son of former college and NFL star Keyshawn Johnson, who was also an ESPN talking head for years. As a four-star wide receiver, Johnson Jr. could have a major impact at the college level although it’s perhaps wishful thinking that he will have the same career as his father, be the No. 1 overall pick in the draft and write a best-selling book.

But regardless how well he does in college, he is important to the Nebraska football program already. That’s because Johnson Jr., a huge name in recruiting circles, chose the Huskers over programs such as USC, his dad’s alma mater, Alabama, Clemson, Florida State, Ohio State, Tennessee and many others. And with his commitment, a message is sent to the rest of the 2017 and 2018 and even 2019 recruits around the country. That message is this: The son of a former NFL star believes that Nebraska is going to return to greatness and you should, too.

Sure, it helps that head coach Mike Riley recruited his father to USC and was his offensive coordinator back in the day with the Trojans. The trust factor was there. And no, Johnson Jr. isn’t the highest-rated recruit Riley has reeled in since taking over in Lincoln, but to find a bigger name from an important state like California would be tough.

The dividends started showing even before Johnson Jr. decided to commit as the popular wide receiver became good friends with Missouri four-star Jaevon McQuitty, who committed to the Huskers a couple weeks back. And Johnson Jr. is friends and/or teammates with some big fish out in Cali, namely five-star cornerback Darnay Holmes and four-star quarterback Tristan Gebbia (both teammates) as well as four-star defensive end Hunter Echols, four-star cornerback Deommodore Lenoir and three-stars Jamire Calvin, Rahyme Johnson and Nick Pickett. And more will become interested from California now more than ever as they take notice of his commitment and with Keyshawn Sr. being a well-established 7-on-7 coach out there.

So even if Johnson Jr. never catches a pass at Nebraska, obviously very unlikely, he’s arguably the most important commitment for the program in many, many years.

I love Jim Harbaugh’s sub-tweeting. I’ve said it many times. In fact, his social media presence amuses and fascinates me for some reason, kind of like a dumb fish that can’t stop staring at a shiny lure. But an odd thing happened this week. I found myself hoping someone would put the Michigan coach in his place. Here’s the brief backstory as you probably know. Harbaugh held spring practice during spring break at IMG Academy in Florida, the most talented high school in America, and ticked off everyone in the Southeast except those, like Florida coach Jim McElwain, who politically and wisely appeared to be fine with it.

Then someone asked Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer if he’d consider doing the same thing next spring and he admitted he would consider it. Meyer immediately backpedaled in a way that would have made Charles Woodson proud and Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith came out on Tuesday and said, “If we were jump-starting our program, I would probably do that too” while insinuating, and rightly so, that the Ohio State football program is on much better footing than Michigan. To which Harbaugh tweeted (clearly not sub-tweeted)…

Obviously Smith hit a nerve with Harbaugh and in response the Michigan head coach called out the AD for being the man at the helm when numerous Ohio State players were dismissed for selling memorabilia and autographs for free tattoos in violation of NCAA rules back in 2011. Head coach Jim Tressel was fired, Smith was nearly ousted and it was a big black eye to Ohio State. I didn’t really see the need here for Harbaugh to personally attack Smith who wasn’t, in my opinion, taking a shot at Michigan in any way (and has since apologized even though I don’t think he needed to) and I found it a tad annoying seeing media members stating that Harbaugh “owned” Smith or “won this round” right after the tweet. I love a Twitter beef as much as anyone, but is this really a “win” for Michigan?

When I was a kid, I was taught that the best response to taunting was simply saying “scoreboard” back to my opponent if my team was winning, especially if we were winning big. I expected Smith to do something similar since Ohio State has won two national titles since Michigan shared their last one and the Buckeyes pulverized the Wolverines 42-13 at the Big House this past season. But instead, it was former Buckeyes star running back and surefire NFL first-rounder Ezekiel Elliott who responded perfectly …

Scoreboard!

Man, I love rivalries.

Johnson Jr. wasn’t the only son of a famous former player to choose a school his father didn’t attend this week as 2017 quarterback Cade Weldon picked Miami over offers from Kentucky, USF, South Carolina and others. Weldon is, of course, the son of former FSU star quarterback Casey Weldon, who was the runner-up in the 1991 Heisman race and was 16-2 as a starter in Tallahassee. And, as was the case with Johnson Jr., it was a long-time relationship with the head coach that helped the decision.

New Miami coach Mark Richt was the offensive coordinator at FSU when Casey was putting up big numbers and finished behind Michigan’s Desmond Howard for the biggest honor in college football. It may not be compelling to many, especially those too young to remember the careers of Weldon and Johnson Sr. as players (Johnson Sr. finished No. 7 in the Heisman balloting in 1995 behind guys like Eddie George, Tommie Frazier, Danny Wuerffel and Peyton Manning). But to me it’s an amazing coincidence that both sons ended up committing to a different school than dad’s alma mater where the head coach happened to be the father’s offensive coordinator during his playing days.

Follow that? Confusing, I know, but pretty cool.