[LeeCoUKFan]

Johnson hopes he's a priority recruit for Stoops

Justin Rowland
CatsIllustrated.com Football Recruiting Analyst

When Joker Phillips was the head coach at Kentucky his staff had made 2016 offensive lineman Eli Johnson a priority. Will Mark Stoops' staff do the same?

Johnson certainly hopes so.

The 6-foot-3, 288-pound interior lineman from Oxford (Miss.) Lafayette projects as a guard or a center at the college level and he already has offers from Ole Miss, Mississippi State and several FBS schools not in BCS leagues.

While Johnson is a Mississippian he doesn't seem to have any preference for the local schools, though he is open to them.

"I guess if you could say I grew up liking anybody it would have been Ole Miss but not too much," Johnson said.

Johnson has visited Ole Miss, his hometown school, and he's impressed with the job Hugh Freeze is doing in trying to turn around the program. He was especially impressed by their big signing class in February.

"With them signing that last class they did and making an offer out to me, that really impressed me because of how early they offered me and the quality they're getting," he explained.

He visited Kentucky last year in October even though the Wildcats hadn't offered and he was very impressed with what he experienced in Lexington.

"The whole indoor facility was awesome," Johnson said. "It was really big. I loved the stadium and how it was set up. The time I went up there they played really well and Georgia barely beat 'em. So the atmosphere was just crazy there."

Johnson has also visited Arkansas, UL-Lafayette, Arkansas State and Tulane. While he doesn't have any favorites he did acknowledge that he sincerely hopes Stoops and his staff take a close look at him. That's a testimony to his interest in the UK program and how well his last trip went.

"I've got like 300 Kentucky fans following me on Twitter," he laughed. "I would really, really love an offer from Kentucky. I know they're kinda in rebuilding mode right now but I don't know too much about (the new staff). I would be really interested if they start recruiting me."

Ole Miss is recruiting Johnson as a center while Ole Miss is recruiting him as either a guard or a center.

"I think I could play either in a power or pro-style offense but in a spread type offense where they're looking for a big, rangy, athletic type of guy I would probably have to play center," he said.

http://kentucky.rivals.com/content.asp?C...&PT=4&PR=2