Recruiting Report: Owen Johnson/Mankato West (2021)

<strong>MANKATO--</strong> After stirring up a Twitter war last week that divided the city of Mankato about their quarterbacks, I took to the westside of Mankato to chat with West RB/SS <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="18096" first="Owen" last="Johnson"]</strong> who I will say off the bat, will be highly-ranked in the Mankato Area city rankings for running backs. We chatted with Johnson about his 2019 season, his recruiting journey, and much more! Johnson is a top 75 prospect in our Class of 2021 rankings which will be updated in the next week and a half, so stay tuned! <strong>Get to Know [player_tooltip player_id="18096" first="Owen" last="Johnson"]</strong> Johnson, a two way player at running back and strong safety, stands 5’11 and a strong 195 pounds for the Mankato West Scarlets. As a player and a person, Johnson is a humble and hardworking prospect that will certainly draw a surprise to some people once they see the gains he has put on this offseason. Johnson says "I love the offseason as much as the season," although, during the lockdown, there was a lot of lost time to lift and less time being together as a team. Johnson’s biggest strength on the gridiron is his athleticism and his physicality he puts in on every rep he’s on the field. <strong>Bests About Safety/Running Back</strong> Johnson has a similar mindset to both positions he plays. "I love how at both SS and RB you can set the tone for how physical the game is going to be," Johnson said to Prep Redzone Minnesota. Linemen can see when a running back is hammering the defense for extra yards and that gets them to want to start working even harder according to Johnson. It turns into 11 dudes beating the other team together as one unit. As for strong safety, it’s a similar feel. "When the linebacker has a guy by the jersey, and you come downfield to finish the tackle everyone on defense starts wanting more of that action and pretty soon all 11 guys are gang tackling and racing to get to the guy before he is down," Johnson said as an example of what the best part of the safety position is. <strong>Recruiting Interest</strong> Johnson has gotten quite a long list of programs recruiting him. He’s up to 14 schools from Division I FBS in Minnesota, to for now high-level Division III in St. Thomas. He’s heard from about half the Northern Sun conference and a ton of programs in the Missouri Valley. As for his elevator pitch, Johnson had this to say to the coaches that might be listening: <strong>I was hoping camps would have happened so I could have coaches see my times in person. I ran a 4.53 laser at the MFCA combine back in February and I’m quite a bit faster than that now. With my size, speed, and strength (535 squat, 325 bench, 300 clean) I feel like I could play RB or SS at any level. Plus I think I’m getting better at football all the time. Especially when considering in college, I’ll be able to focus on one position and develop position-specific skills.</strong> <strong>Offseason Improvements</strong> Johnson, being newer to West football, it was the playbook that was brand new to him on both sides of the ball. Johnson said the biggest thing he noticed was he was not playing as fast as he wanted and had a mindset that he was doing more thinking than reacting from play to play. This offseason, Johnson has hit the film room hard and sees exactly what slowed down his game last season. "I can’t wait for the season to show how much the offseason workouts and focused film prep will change what I do on the field," Johnson said. <strong>Owen’s Mentor</strong> Johnson’s mentor, which is his father, was one who got him into the game of football. From 2nd grade throughout his youth, Owen’s dad was "his coach" and remains active to this day in making sure Johnson is on the right path as far as working out, and know what Owen needs to do to get even better at football. <strong>2020 Goals/Looking Back on 2019</strong> Last season, Johnson got up to 195 pounds from 175 pounds in his sophomore year for Mankato West. Getting to that playing weight made Johnson a lot stronger than most running backs and safeties he was going up against giving him an advantage to "wear out" teams with his great physicality and stamina. This offseason, Johnson took a different approach. His approach was speed, agility, and strength was his motive of focus going into the 2020 season. His goal is to get back to state and win a state championship, in which Mankato West was successful in 2008 and 2014. "We are due for a championship in 2020. That is the dream! Walk off the field as a senior winning state," which I don’t think any high school football player would have it any other way as a senior! Johnson is an absolute bulldozer at running back and runs extremely hard. At safety, he has excellent vision as well. Check out his junior tape <a href="http://www.hudl.com/v/2CU5pa">here</a>! &nbsp;