Inside The Huskies

At TCU Camp, UW Offers Another Speedster in Louisiana Cornerback

The Huskies are pursuing Jahiem "Joker" Johnson, who can run.

Dan Raley

In this story:

The TCU football camp held over the weekend in Fort Worth, Texas, better resembled a track meet or even a Formula 1 race. It was fast. Dizzy fast.

Zion Kearney, a wide receiver from Hightower High School in the Houston area, was the big news after running the 40-yard dash in a sizzling 4.28 seconds. Right away, he received a bunch of new scholarship offers, including one from the University of Washington. 

Not far behind him was Jahiem "Joker" Johnson, a cornerback from Hammond High in Hammond, Louisiana, which is located halfway between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, He finished a few ticks slower than Kearney, at 4.45, but he was blazing just the same. 

On Saturday, Johnson had his own Husky offer, his 18th overall, as Kalen DeBoer's staff works hard to upgrade the UW roster with elite speed.

A 3-star recruit, the 6-foot, 180-pound Johnson was extremely hard to catch last fall, scoring 11 times for his football team known as the Tornadoes. He went the distance on an 88-yard kickoff return, on 63-, 64- and 67-yard touchdown passes, and a 55-yard interception return.

Hammond used him in many different ways, lining him out wide, in the slot or even in the Wildcat. Often times he just went deep and his quarterback threw one up for him to run under.

Yet defense is what has college football recruiters deeply interested in him, with the kid called Joker unafraid to lower a shoulder and hit someone, let alone display his fast feet. 

Johnson also holds offer from Nebraska, Purdue, Indiana, Mississippi State, Washington State and nearly every Louisiana university except for LSU.

What could become an obstacle for football recruiters is the fact this overly athletic recruit also is considered one of Louisiana's top point guards and has spent considerable time on the AAU circuit. 

He holds a basketball offer from Southeast Louisiana, which has offered him in football, as well.

The Huskies could accommodate him as a two-way athlete if he needed that.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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