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Oklahoma Lands Commitment from CB Derrick Johnson II

Brent Venables and the Sooners have reeled in a pledge for the third day in a row, this time from a California cornerback with an NFL lineage.
John Hoover|
Oklahoma commit Derrick Johnson II
Oklahoma commit Derrick Johnson II | Screenshot via Derrick Johnson on Twitter/X

Brent Venables is having a summer.

After hosting dozens of elite high school football recruits over the weekend, Oklahoma’s head coach landed a verbal commitment Tuesday for the third straight day.

Derrick Johnson II, a cornerback from Murietta, CA, revealed his commitment to On3 recruiting insider Hayes Fawcett. He’ll sign as a member of the 2026 recruiting class.

During a segment on KREF radio, he told OU Insider’s Parker Thune what ultimately swung him to the Sooners.

“Coach Venables and Coach (Jay) Valai and just even all the other coaches have just been showing an amazing amount of love throughout my whole entire recruiting process,” Johnson said. “And then I went up there for a junior day, and that went really good. So I already knew going into the OV weekend that there would be a good chance of me committing throughout the whole visit — just from the meetings in the beginning, I kind of just knew that it was — it was home.

“And throughout the whole visit, I mean, there was an extreme amount of love shown. And even just like the connections I had with everybody, even the players, when I got to talk to the players. It was great. So they just really made me feel at home and made me feel like I was a priority, and that was really just what made me make my decision.”

Johnson, who’s father played cornerback in the NFL, is listed at 6-foot-2 and 170 pounds. Rivals, 247Sports and On3 all rate him as a 3-star prospect. He’s ranked by Rivals as the No. 45 cornerback in the nation, and is similarly ranked by 247Sports (50) and On3 (57).

Johnson has had a busy summer of official visits lined up, but he seized his opportunity to come to Oklahoma, choosing the Sooners over offers from Utah, Kansas, Washington, UCLA, TCU, Arizona, Arizona State, Cal, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon State, Purdue and others.

Johnson II got his Oklahoma offer in January. His primary recruiter has been Valai, OU's cornerbacks coach, as well as associate head coach and co-defensive coordinator Todd Bates.

Johnson is OU’s 10th verbal commit of the 2026 class and, after a slow start, continues the recent momentum created by last weekend’s Brent Venables Elite Camp and this past weekend’s big official visit weekend.

Defensive end Matthew Nelson of Bryant, AR, committed on Monday, and offensive lineman Noah Best of Midlothian, TX, pledged on Tuesday. More verbals are expected soon from the weekend visitors.

Johnson is also the Sooners’ fifth defensive commit, joining Nelson, linebacker Jakore Smith of Little Rock, defensive lineman Brian Harris of Jacksonville, FL, and safety Niko Jandreau of Chandler, AZ.

Johnson said he and Valai had exchanged a few messages before the official offer came, and Valai said he was coming out to California for a school visit. Johnson said he “got excited about that,” but then Valai upped the stakes.

“What he didn't tell me was he had a little surprise for me when he came to the school,” Johnson told Thune on KREF. “It wasn't just him that showed up. There was four coaches and it was crazy, because I've never, like, I've never seen that. I've never, like, heard of that. Coach Venables is there, so the head coach is there. It was Coach Valai, Coach Todd Bates, and then Coach JP Losman (now at Washington). 

“So they all came and they showed me, like, a huge amount of love. … It was just great right off the bat. I just felt the love, and I could just tell that with all four of them flying out to come see me, and they only came out to see a couple others, so it just really showed that I was really a priority. And they wanted to make sure that I knew how much of a priority I was and how much they really wanted me there.”

Johnson’s commitment to OU opens the door for additional recruiting success down the road: his younger brother Darius Johnson is a 4-star cornerback in the class of 2027 who’s being recruited by many of the same schools as his brother, with offers from OU, USC, Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, Kansas, North Carolina, Oregon, TCU, UCLA, Washington and others. 

Johnson II is a two-sport athlete who also runs track, with personal-best times of 11.28 in the 100 meters as a freshman in 2023, and 22.11 in the 200 and 49.98 in the 400m as a sophomore in 2024.

In 13 games as a sophomore in 2023, Johnson compiled 57 total tackles, eight passes defensed and three interceptions with one touchdown. During his freshman season, he made 41 tackles, broke up nine passes, had two interceptions and forced two fumbles.

On offense, he caught 38 passes for 584 yards and five touchdowns in 2023.

His father, Derrick Johnson Sr., played at Washington and was a sixth-round NFL Draft pick by San Francisco in 2005. 

The elder Johnson played in 19 games in his two-year NFL career with the 49ers, Texans and Falcons, and made five starts as a Niners rookie, which included a 78-yard fumble return for a touchdown as well as 40 total tackles and two tackles for loss before a thigh injury disrupted his season.

Johnson II has taken official visits this summer to TCU, UCLA, Washington and OU. He had official visits scheduled later this month for Kansas and Utah, but has now canceled those.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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