UM commit Tyler Johnson, younger brother of Jaquan, knows he has a legacy to follow
The COVID-19 pandemic meant, for a lot of people, it was a summer spent with family and often family alone. For Tyler Johnson, it meant a summer spent with a recent Miami Hurricanes legend.
Johnson, who has been orally committed to Miami for more than 20 months, is the younger brother of Jaquan Johnson, who spent part of the summer in South Florida before returning to New York in July to begin training camp with the Buffalo Bills. There were no organized spring and summer workouts for football players across Florida, but the Johnson brothers had each other.
“Mostly, I was running up hills,” the younger brother said Monday, “jogging a lot, trying to stay in condition.”
In a lot of ways, Johnson is similar to his older brother. They are both instinctual players and use those instincts to some of the physical limitations at their preferred position — Jaquan Johnson was a slightly undersized safety and his younger brother is a bit small to be a defensive end at the next level.
They also both knew early they wanted to play for the Hurricanes. Their parents are massive Miami fans, so Jaquan Johnson orally committed to the Hurricanes in the summer before his senior year. Tyler Johnson made his decision even earlier — he was only a sophomore when he pledged to Miami last year.
It was always obvious where he would play college football, he admits.
“Yeah, it kind of was,” said Johnson, who plans to early enroll and added he’s “100 percent” committed. “Miami — they’re my dream school. I always wanted to go there since I was a kid, so there was an opportunity, I’m going to take it.”
The only question left in his recruitment, then, is where he will play once he gets to Coral Gables.
The 6-2, 200-pound linebacker is a three-star outside linebacker in the 247Sports.com composite rankings for the Class of 2021, but his versatility has always been intriguing.
Now at Miami Killian, Johnson was a first-team all-county selection by the Miami Herald last year for his play as an edge rusher at Homestead South Dade. He logged eight sacks as a junior, mostly playing as a defensive end and stand-up pass rusher, and then transferred to Killian — his older brother’s alma mater — for his senior year.
He will unofficially begin his final high school football season Friday when the Cougars play a preseason game against Miami Columbusm, and he has lofty goals, beginning with springing an upset on the reigning Class 8A champion. Johnson wants to more than double his sack total this year, setting 17 as a target goal, and help Killian win a tri-county title.
While the Cougars will ask him to play downhill and wreak havoc in the backfield, they also want to use him as a more traditional linebacker, taking advantage of his versatility. It also fits with the Hurricanes’ plans for him.
“Mostly, I’m going to be playing more of linebacker because Miami — they want me playing linebacker,” Johnson said, “so I’m going to be trying to get more into that.”
Johnson said he speaks regularly with coach Manny Diaz, strikers coach Jonathan Patke and safeties coach Ephraim Banda, who has a close relationship with older brother and the entire Johnson family. They like him as a striker at the next level.
Moving Johnson from an edge-rushing position down to linebacker or even striker fits with what the Hurricanes have done recently for slightly undersized defensive ends. Linebacker Sam Brooks Jr. was the Miami-Dade County leader in sacks one year at Miami Nortwestern and the Hurricanes decided to move him to an inside linebacker spot. Linebacker Patrick Joyner Jr., who played with Johnson at South Dade, made the same sort of move after playing defensive end for the Buccaneers.
Johnson is open to the striker move and said he often talks with Gilbert Frierson. He likes the way the striker is playing so far this year, with six tackles for loss.
In many ways, Frierson has been a successor to Jaquan Johnson — a lifelong Hurricanes fan, who became a vocal leader on defense once he seized a starting job. Tyler Johnson knows there’s a legacy to follow there, too.
“I’m a leader, in a way,” Johnson said. “We’re two different people, but I’m still a leader, too.”
This story was originally published October 21, 2020 at 11:35 AM.
