Georgia Tech Football: Five-star offensive lineman visits The Flats

The Georgia Tech football team had a premier football player in the country visit The Flats over the weekend in five-star offensive lineman Paris Johnson.

Georgia Tech’s coaching staff has been working tirelessly on the recruiting trail over the last month and a half on both the 2019 recruiting class and the 2020+ recruiting class(es). The Jackets this past weekend hosted several official visitors but also hosted a pretty big-time 2020 recruit in five-star offensive lineman Paris Johnson.

Johnson, a native of Cincinnati, OH is currently committed to Ohio State but has visited several schools since his commitment, of course now adding Georgia Tech to that list. Johnson is ranked by 247Sports’s composite rankings as the sixth best player in the country as well as the top ranked offensive tackle and player in the state of Ohio.

It seems like Johnson enjoyed his trip to The Flats and former NFL offensive lineman Willie Anderson was along on the trip with Johnson. Anderson, the owner of a training facility for offensive lineman posted a picture on Twitter of himself, Johnson Jr., and Georgia Tech offensive line coach Brent Key. Key does have a past relationship with Johnson as he was Johnson’s secondary recruiter during Key’s time at Alabama.

Ultimately, Johnson is most likely not going to end up being a Yellow Jacket at the end of his recruitment and the Jackets would pull of a shocker if they did so. That being said, getting Johnson on campus is a statement for the Yellow Jackets. Sure, the visit could’ve been under the direction of Willie Anderson or even because of the past relationship between Johnson and Key but either way the Jackets were able to get an extremely heralded prospect on campus and open his eyes a bit about Tech.

It may not result in a commitment at the end of the recruiting cycle but at the very least it gets the ball rolling with Johnson and with how recruits talk to each other today, if the visit went well, Johnson will surely tell other recruits. That’s how recruiting works today, get the top players on campus, open their eyes, and get some momentum rolling with other recruits through word-of-mouth.

Overall, with Johnson and without any inside information, I don’t expect the Yellow Jackets to play a big role in his recruitment going forward. I expect them to remain in touch but unless he gets down to Atlanta a few more times before using an official visit on the Jackets, I don’t expect them to really be in the race. I ultimately expect Johnson to stay with Ohio State but only after officially visiting a few other programs. That being said, remember as said above about word-of-mouth recruiting, this visit will benefit Georgia Tech most likely with getting other top talent on The Flats.