Mustang Freshman has Seen Recruiting Take Off Since Oklahoma State Offer

Oklahoma State has often become a springboard for recruits to get a plethora of scholarship offers. There are a lot of schools that when they see Oklahoma State offer jump right it and Mustang freshman athlete Jacobe Johnson is recent proof.

STILLWATER -- It is almost like a trigger mechanism and we've seen it many times. Oklahoma State will offer a football prospect a scholarship and then here come a hoard of schools following suit. Now, the case of Jacobe Johnson is a little different in that it is rarely a freshman in high school that is that recruit. We had heard about Johnson's offer and reported it in our Community section as well as our own Marshall Levenson putting it in a recruiting story but we should have known better and done a full blown feature on the two-sport Mustang athlete. 

The Oklahoman high school sports reporter Cameron Jourdan beat us to the punch in featuring Johnson in a top story on the front page of the sports on May 11. The 6-3, 180 pound defensive back and basketball guard now has offers from Baylor, Iowa State, Memphis (former Mustang and Oklahoma State receiver David Glidden is the recruiter), Michigan, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. 

The offer from the Cowboys was ignited by a Twitter video showing jumping up on a brick mailbox while wearing resistance bands. It was Oklahoma State safeties coach Dan Hammerschmidt that saw the video causing him to immediately call Mustang head coach Lee Blankenship and inquire about the freshman. Hammerschmidt also showed the video to head coach Mike Gundy and he was apparently all for it.

"He literally got his first offer from him putting a video of him jumping up on a mailbox," Blankenship told The Oklahoman.

I am excited and honored to receive my first offer from Oklahoma State University!#GoPokes #WeAreMustang @CoachGundy @CoachTimDuffie @JoeReynoldsOSU @danhammer11 @CoachLeeBlank @CoachKMcFarland pic.twitter.com/3OnAYr1vVV

— thejacobejohnson (@JacobeJohnson24) April 22, 2020

Moving from Rush Springs to Mustang last summer, Johnson was a late arrival, but the Broncos coaching staff figured out soon enough that the son of former Lawton High School, Junior College All-American, TCU Horned Frog, and professional basketball player Malcolm Johnson was gifted enough to play as a freshman. 

Johnson started out on junior varsity instead of the freshman team and by mid-season was starting at corner for the Mustang varsity. Later he started returning kicks and then played some on offense at wide receiver. 

"I was actually kind of shocked at what I did this year,” Jacobe Johnson told Jourdan and The Oklahoman. “It was really just something that came to me."

On the basketball court he was a starter from the beginning and was the second leading scorer averaging a robust 16.3 points a game and playing strong defensively. 

Johnson seems to be very level-headed for experiencing the kind of recruiting attention that doesn't find a prospect until they are into or coming out of their junior season.

"I just want to stay one of the top players in both sports," Johnson added in The Oklahoman. "I want to keep working and improving and growing my abilities and helping my teams."

He's also going to learn to manage his time on the phone, on social media, and reading all the emails and letters that will be piling up from college football and most likely basketball coaches as well.