OT: Lane Johnson, Oklahoma

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dpodoll68

dpodoll68

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Since this board is currently deader than dead, I'm posting an interesting story I'd never heard until today:

Lane Johnson played QB in HS for Groveton, TX, a small town and a small high school by most standards, and certainly by Texas standards.

He was very lightly recruited out of HS, and was listed at 6'6", 202 lbs. on his Rivals profile.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-Lane-Johnson-65014 (Check out the profile picture.)

He played the 2008 season (at QB) at Kilgore College, a small community college in Texas. He was offered a scholarship to TCU after one season there, but instead chose to walk on to Oklahoma. He showed up for spring ball reportedly weighing around 225 lbs. Oklahoma invited him in as a TE, and he spent the 2009 season redshirting, bulking up, and learning his new position.

Midway through the 2010 season, he realized he probably would never see the field as a TE, and was convinced to give DE a try. He saw the field a little bit that season, but didn't record any statistics.

In spring camp leading up to the 2011 season, he again realized he probably couldn't make much of an impact on the field at DE, so he switched again, this time to OT. He was so good at his new position that he started 12 of 13 games that season at RT.

In 2012, he played all 13 games, starting 11 times at LT, and was named 2nd team All-Big 12, 3rd team All-American, and is projected to be among the first 10-15 picks in this year's NFL Draft. His Oklahoma bio lists him at 6'7", 303 lbs.

http://www.soonersports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/johnson_lane00.html (Again, check out the profile picture. Is that really the same person?)

This entire story is amazing to me. How many guys in the history of time have played both QB and OT at the college level, and were so good that they will almost assuredly end up as a very high draft pick? And they did all of this not at some MAC or Sun Belt school, but at one of the best football schools in the country? I'm frankly shocked that I'd never heard of this guy and his story before today. Simply unbelievable.
 

Wow, and the guy gained over 100lbs!

Good story, thanks for sharing. It's fun to cheer for guys like this.

Go Gophers!!
 

To lesser extent, we have a similar thing going on with Duke. He started out a bit bigger than this kid and will likely end up a bit smaller, but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Duke ended up at DT.

Duke's recruitment started at QB, a lot of people thought WR and maybe TE. He's now (as a young FR) already a pretty large TE. According to Kill he's over 250 lbs already. It's weird how much more weight some kids can put on than other kids. Duke was perfect for putting on a ton of weight. He is really young for his grade (he didn't turn 18 until the day before the Syracuse game), he has a large frame and he supposedly hadn't lifted a ton. It's entirely conceivable (probably expected) for him to get a little taller and has the capablities of putting on ever more weight, if they want him to switch positions.

(I'm not saying that he's like this kid in terms of ability)
 

Another example of why you should never give up and chase your dreams. Good for him.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
It's weird how much more weight some kids can put on than other kids. Duke was perfect for putting on a ton of weight. He is really young for his grade (he didn't turn 18 until the day before the Syracuse game), he has a large frame and he supposedly hadn't lifted a ton. It's entirely conceivable (probably expected) for him to get a little taller and has the capablities of putting on ever more weight, if they want him to switch positions.
Click to expand...

It is bizarre how that goes. I know a former player who really struggled keeping his weight up to where they wanted it. The guy practically made himself sick every time he ate. He finally got up to the weight they wanted, then he got mono and lost a bunch. Ended up leaving the team so he could concentrate on classes, and lost all the weight almost instantly.

I kept offering to do a lipo-transfer, but for some reason he never accepted... :)
 


Let's Moses to OT pronto!
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
To lesser extent, we have a similar thing going on with Duke. He started out a bit bigger than this kid and will likely end up a bit smaller, but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Duke ended up at DT.

Duke's recruitment started at QB, a lot of people thought WR and maybe TE. He's now (as a young FR) already a pretty large TE. According to Kill he's over 250 lbs already. It's weird how much more weight some kids can put on than other kids. Duke was perfect for putting on a ton of weight. He is really young for his grade (he didn't turn 18 until the day before the Syracuse game), he has a large frame and he supposedly hadn't lifted a ton. It's entirely conceivable (probably expected) for him to get a little taller and has the capablities of putting on ever more weight, if they want him to switch positions.

(I'm not saying that he's like this kid in terms of ability)
Click to expand...

I must be one of those kids... I have been able to put on quite a bit more weight than most other people the last few years.... It is just a gift.
 

That is an excellent story. I think it also shows some of the disadvantages of being from a small school or town. Probably never had to lift a weight until college. Kids go some good genes.
 

Very interesting. I had never heard of him either, but looking at a bunch of mock draft sites, most have him in the 10-20 range. That's going to be a nice payday.
 



And after all that he becomes the 4th overall draft pick.
 

This has probably been mentioned on this board a thousand times, but a high school team's best athlete tends to be qb. That's how guys like KJ Maye and Maxx Williams end up there.
 

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