Inside The Huskies

Huskies Offer Highly Touted 2027 Midwest Back

Myson Cook-Johnson has played for a different high school every year.
Dan Raley|
DeSoto's Myson Cook-Johnson is tripped up by Miller's Delson Cavaness at the Alamodome in 2024.
DeSoto's Myson Cook-Johnson is tripped up by Miller's Delson Cavaness at the Alamodome in 2024. | Angela Piazza/Caller-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

On Saturday, Myson Cook-Johnson received a University of Washington football scholarship offer, which he now can add to the other 41 he holds.

The Huskies likely might have proposed something sooner to the 5-star running back, but they first had to find this guy who resembles an over-the-top character from the popular book, movie and TV show that all identify with "Friday Night Lights."

Can you say Bobbie Myles?

This particular larger-than-life kid from the class of 2027 now carries the football for East St. Louis High School, which is located just like it sounds.

A year ago, Johnson-Cook lined up in the backfield for DeSoto High School in Texas, in the Dallas metroplex.

And the year before that, he drew game snaps for McArthur High in Decatur, Ill.

Talk about reversing his field a few times.

Johnson-Cook lists himself at 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds, though he might be a little shorter than that, and says he runs the 40-yard dash in 4.39 seconds, and he's probably a little faster than that.

For DeSoto High, a Texas school that previously sent cornerback Jabbar Muhammad to Oklahoma State, Washington and Oregon, Johnson-Cook ran 88 times for 911 yards and 14 touchdowns -- and he wasn't even the lead back.

This year, the junior has rushed 77 times for 939 yards and 13 scores as his 10-3 Missouri team prepares play for the 6A state championship next Saturday.

This has all brought him a tremendous amount of attention. He's been ranked as the No. 2 player in the ESPN 400 and as the No.1 player in Illinois.

“It feels great to be one of the top recruits in the nation as it just shows me all my hard work is paying off and there’s still a lot more for me to do,” Johnson-Cook told High School on SI.

In October, he narrowed his schools to a dozen, among them Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Georgia, LSU, Alabama, Missouri and Miami, but the offers keep coming.

"For me to sign it’s going to come down to relationships on and off the field, seeing how coaches treat their current and former players, and, last but not least, seeing how well I fit into their offensive scheme," he said.

An Illinois native, it's unclear why he keeps changing schools, though everyone is fairly mobile in football these days.

“When it comes to straight football, I like to have fun here and there, but I’m adapting a professional mindset where I do things like a pro because this is a business to me and I’m not here to play games," Johnson-Cook said. "No matter if it’s in the classroom, on the field, off the field or even on social media, everything is serious and business to me.”

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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