Johnson 'ecstatic' to land first offer from UCF
Dante Johnson will never forget his first offer.
For years, the Wekiva High School lineman has had his eye on UCF. He's attended games at Bright House Networks Stadium, thinking about what it would be like to play for the Knights one day. He's been on campus several times this spring for practices and Junior Day.
He would have been excited to land any offer, but it was something special to get one from UCF on Wednesday.
"After practice I went home and I had a message from (offensive line) Coach (Greg) Austin for me to call him," Johnson said. "He offered me when I called him. He was at the practice and said he was really excited to see me. He liked what he saw. He liked my leadership and got to see how hard working I was. He really saw something in me as a UCF player. He said I was the kind of player he was looking for.
"It was really exciting to get that offer today. I guess I kind of expected it, but I didn't expect it this early. I knew Coach Austin really liked me and had told me before that I was one of their top prospects. He said he was going to talk to the head coach about me and show him my film. I was ecstatic. My very first offer, especially from UCF, that's something that's really special to me."
Johnson's recruitment has progressed a little slower than he would probably like, but there's a good reason for that. He missed his entire junior season with an ACL injury so coaches have only his sophomore film to evaluate. It's been seven months now since the surgery.
"I'm coming back strong," Johnson said. "I haven't played for a whole year. Even though I'm only seven months into a nine-month process, UCF noticed something in me. I feel like I'm a lot better now from where I was."
Johnson, who is 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds, isn't sure which side of the ball UCF has in mind. He does play both the offensive and defensive lines for Wekiva.
"So far (Austin) has seen me as an offensive lineman," Johnson said. "He likes that I play both sides of the ball. He said he likes my leadership as well."
Suffice it to say UCF is his No. 1 school.
"They took that stand to come to me and offer me first," Johnson said. "I respect that. It's a prestigious school. I care a lot about UCF. They've got great academics. The team works hard. I was watching a lot of the offense and defense and I can see myself playing in that system. It's a real nice school, really big. The first time I went there it really caught me by surprise."
He plans to make a return trip to UCF on June 10 to attend their individual prospect camp. Could a commitment be on the way?
"This is something I'll definitely be talking to my parents about," Johnson said. "UCF is a school I would really consider going to. At the same time, I kind of want to wait and see. I want to get to know everything about the school itself and see how things go from there. It's first my first offer. It's great. It's something I've got to think about, but it's exciting."
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