Johnson Gives Cajuns Verbal

Ragin’Cajuns Head Coach Mark Hudspeth’s in home visits have already started to pay dividends for the 2011 Football Signing Class. Mississippi All-State linebacker Trae Johnson gave the coaches his commitment today.

Mississippi All-State linebacker Trae Johnson didn’t want to wait any longer to make a decision on which program he will play college football at for the next four years. The “6-1”, 229 pound all-star out of Mendenhall Mississippi is an early high school graduate and wanted to make his decision now to enroll in college this month.

“I didn’t want to wait until signing day to make my decision,” Johnson stated. “Southern Miss wanted me to come in fall, but I’m an early graduate and enrolling into college this month was important to me to acclimate myself to college and participate in spring football. Coach Hudspeth told me that they wanted me to come in right away and compete for a starting position in the spring; that’s all I really needed to hear from him and I really made my decision before he came in today on a visit.”

Johnson is rated the #169 OLB with Scout.com, but he will play middle linebacker for the Cajuns.

“Coach told me that I would play middle linebacker in their new system,” said Trae. “He said that they needed some help at that position and I would have every opportunity to come in the spring to compete for a starting position. He also talked about being part of something special at ULL and winning SBC championships. You definitely want to play for a coach like that; he knows what he wants to accomplish and feels he has the staff in place to get the job done.”

Trae Johnson was named 2010 4A 1st Team All-State by the Mississippi Association of Coaches and he was also selected to play in the Mississippi/Alabama All-Star Classic. Johnson finished the 2010 season with over 106 tackles, five sacks and 2 FF.

““Playing in the all-star game was fun,” Johnson stated. “You really want to play against the best and measure yourself against some of those guys. When you play against that kind of talent, it raises your performance on the field and you don’t want to look bad. I’m really excited to get my commitment out of the way now and head down to Lafayette to enroll next week. I was supposed to come in for a visit on January 14th, but I need to come in sooner to go through registration. I look forward to officially becoming a Ragin’Cajun next week!”