With recruiting getting into high gear over the next few weeks (only 2 weekends left before National Signing Day), what tends to get lost in the shuffle are the early admits. Those wise 17 year-olds who by-pass their senior proms with kitschy themes (i.e. Enchantment Under the Sea) for the open-armed hostesses that await them in a better place: College.
Though the last-semester high school sweethearts may be tempting, the allure of spring practice was obviously too much for Storm Johnson. Come on, why waste a semester of stress-free, high school living knowing that you're going to the U (for free!) and are probably going to be lit-up by Allen Bailey very shortly:
Maybe those of us faint of heart would take the easy road, but not if you're named after inclement weather and YOU CAN'T BE TACKLED:
Especially, when you plan on doing it Big Time with the other freshman.
(Boring recruiting stuff after the jump)
Just keep in mind this kid was 6'1," 215 as a high school senior (because he's on campus now). That means right now he's 5 pounds heavier than Randy Phillips and the same weight (but 2 inches taller) than Damien Berry. Bigger. Than. Damien. Berry. (PS - who do we have to thank for getting Storm (besides McGriff and Robinson)? Les Miles. Let me be the first to say, thanks Les.)
But despite being überyoung and huge for his age, Storm is stuck contending with current RB's Berry, Mike James, Lee Chambers, and Lamar Miller in the Spring. And from some people I've talked to, Lamar Miller is the real deal (and that's without going back in time - Lamar ran a 100 yd dash faster than Devin Hester and Shannon actually said, during last year, "He’s doing his deal when he gets an opportunity to step in," which is about as close as Randy Shannon gets to dancing).
So for Storm, seeing more than the Greentree is going to be hard enough with the upperclassman he's competing against., but you factor in (possibly) incoming freshman Eduardo Clements (Four Star, but not that those BS rankings matter), Darion Hall (Three Star), and Maurice Hagans (Three Star, who I doubt will stay a RB at 231 pounds) a redshirt is probably in Storm's future. Needless to say, he better look like this if he wants to even sniff the smoke in the fall.