Analysis: Illinois lands a great athlete in Justin Johnson

Evanston (Ill.) junior Justin Johnson committed to Illinois on Wednesday.

Johnson is a four-star on Rivals and the state’s No. 11 junior.

He is no doubt one of the best athletes in the state. At 6-foot-1, 180 pounds, he has run 10.6 in the 100-meter dash and 21.4 in the 200.

Some of the early question on Johnson was which position would suit him best. As his recruitment developed and as his junior year went on, cornerback increasingly became his most clear college projection.

At Illinois, this is a good match because Corey Parker is a good coach who can help him maximize his potential. We see room for improvement with Johnson in terms of technique and positional experience. He’s been a two-way guy in high school and has been a fairly dynamic offensive player who can line up in multiple spots including wildcat quarterback.

His ball skills are there having played receiver, the closing speed is there, he’s a physically strong player who will get stronger. It would be good for us to see him a little more in man coverage to assess hips and change of direction but we see a really strong all around skill set here.

He had multiple family ties here as his parents are Illinois grads but some other Big Ten and Power Four programs made a nice run at him so this is a good grab for Illinois as their first in-state commit of the ’27 class.

Credit to Nate McNeal in addition to Parker for getting this one day and on the early side.

Johnson has huge upside with high-caliber starting potential if he continues to develop.