Having over twenty Divison I college offers, 2023 dual-threat quarterback Avery Johnson is keeping busy in the off-season with football plans while currently playing baseball for Maize High School. 

With the school year ending and baseball playoffs coming soon, Johnson is staying busy with football. With big time schools like the Kansas State Wildcats, Arkansas Razorbacks, and the Missouri Tigers and many others having their attention on Johnson, college football programs look forward to his commitment coming in the next few weeks.

Avery Johnson plays a large role in the college football recruiting world, rated a four-star quarterback from ESPN.com and being rated as high as a #3 dual-rated from Rivals.com Standing at number two in the nation in the 2023 class of dual-threat quarterbacks, it isn’t surprising that he plays at such a high level in three different sports.

“He is a high level athlete. A multi-sport athlete. Every sport he plays is at a high level, he has the skills. All the offers that he is getting are definitely well deserved. At this point I don’t know how many offers he has, he has a bunch and it is keeping me busy as a coach,” said Guzman. “Talking to coaches everyday about him, getting texts or calls or visits. I get the chance to know a lot of coaches. It been crazy process for him. I think he’s been handling it really well, not letting it get to him.”

Keeping up with all of these offers means Johnson stays busy even outside of baseball, leaving school early to go on a visit or not being able to celebrate with his teammates after a win on a Friday night.

Johnson feels simply blessed to have dozens of schools interested in his quarterback play.

“It definitely gets overwhelming because they ask for your time and you have to give some of your time back to them. So I would say it gets overwhelming at times, but it’s definitely a good type of overwhelming to have and I’m blessed to have as many offers as I have,” said Johnson.

He keeps close relationships with his family, even through the recruiting process pulls him away at times around the country. Putting Johnson in football at an early age and being around the sport brought him to be what he is today. 

“Really my parents. They put me in at a young age and I kind of grew up just being around my brother’s team. So I kind of got to watch him grow up through football and then ever since I picked one up (a football), my dads always coached me and my moms always been there to support me. And really just my family in general that has done a great job of preparing me to be the football player I am today,” said Johnson.

Building connections with the coaching staff at each school is important to Johnson before making his final decision. Arkansas and Kansas State have been able to build that relationship with him from the beginning.

“Really the connections I have at both schools,  I haven’t been in touch with Arkansas recently because they got a quarterback commit in my class and usually they only take one quarterback in each class,” Johnson said. “But there’s some other schools I’m really close with but it really just starts with the relationships for me and if I can build good relationships with the staff then I usually tend to like them and like the coaches and like that school a little bit more than the others.”

Johnson actively watches Twitter and Instagram to see what his top choice programs’ fan bases look like and to see what other recruits the school are interested in.

“Whatever Avery thinks is best for him, I’ll totally support that. I honestly don’t even know right now what his top choices are because I don’t wanna have that conversation with him. I want that to be his decision and I’m sure that there are a lot of people that talk about it to him right now, trying to encourage his decision to go to this school or that school for whatever reasons,” said Guzman. “I just wanna leave that alone and let him come to a decision on his own and when he is ready to share that with me, I’ll be happy to know and I’ll be excited for whenever he’s going. I mean, the schools that he has been getting looked at are big time schools, so wherever he goes is gonna be a good one.” 

Johnson plans to make his final decision towards the end of June or early July on which program he plays for.

“Yeah, I got to take my officials. My official visits are ones that they pay for and I have to take those early, or just throughout June and then end up committing at the end of June so I haven’t had the schools set up yet but I kind of have the dates set up,” said Johnson.