Michigan Football: Did Wolverines seal the deal with Nate Johnson?

Michigan football’s top quarterback target in 2022, Nate Johnson, recently visited the Wolverines who feel like the team to beat with a decision looming. 

It’s become clear that three-star quarterback Nate Johnson is the top priority for Michigan football at the position and the Wolverines recently hosted Johnson for an official visit.

The 6-foot-2, 183-pound quarterback who is ranked 722nd overall and 51st among quarterbacks according to the 247 sports composite rankings, is an intriguing prospect, especially with his 10.49 time in the 100-meter dash.

That’s incredibly fast for a quarterback and with Johnson improving abilities as a passer, he’s started to move up in the recruiting rankings. He’s also been the top target for U-M and while there are some viable threats in the Pac-12, the Wolverines have to feel good after his visit.

Johnson told Sam Webb of The Michigan Insider this about his official visit: “Michigan was on another level.” Webb also tweeted that the visit “Checked a lot of boxes,” and also that a decision “Is on the horizon.”

You don’t have to be an expert to know that it’s usually a good sign when a recruit starts talking about making a decision after visiting your school.

Johnson visited Utah before taking the trip to Michigan and he’s supposed to throw for Chip Kelly and UCLA at some point. Oregon State also got a visit from Johnson but the Bruins and Utes are probably the biggest threats right now to the Wolverines.

The Bruins would still have to extend an offer but with Kelly’s reputation of doing great things with dual-threat quarterbacks, UCLA could have an attractive pitch to Johnson, who is a dual-threat quarterback.

His performance throwing the ball at the Elite 11 opened some eyes. Matt Weiss, Michigan’s new quarterbacks coach has even told Johnson he sees some Lamar Jackson in him. During his visit, he even re-enacted Denard Robinson’s first touchdown run, the one where he lost his shoe.

Predictions for Nate Johnson, Michigan football

Webb put in a crystal ball prediction for Johnson to the Wolverines earlier in the spring and sounds like he has no reason to change it now.

Michigan did flirt with some other quarterbacks, including Cal commit Justyn Martin, but Johnson has a ton of upside and has moved up to 23rd among quarterbacks according to 247 sports own rankings. For comparison’s sake, he’s the 51st QB according to the composite rankings.

EJ Holland, the top recruiting expert for Michigan at Rivals, also has a Futurecast pick in for Johnson to Michigan, so it’s safe to call Johnson a U-M lean at this point.

And unless UCLA really shakes this thing up, it sounds like Michigan might finally be getting its quarterback commitment in the 2022 class.