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UW Offers SoCal Running Back, Somewhat Off the Recruiting Beaten Path

The Huskies haven't signed a lot of players out of Palmdale, California.
Dan Raley|
UW Offers SoCal Running Back, Somewhat Off the Recruiting Beaten Path
UW Offers SoCal Running Back, Somewhat Off the Recruiting Beaten Path

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Washington Huskies

Palmdale, California, located north of Los Angeles and out in the desert, has been home to a lot of secret stuff. They've assembled military bombers, tested commercial jetliners and rolled out the first Space Shuttle there.

Marion Robert Morrison even lived in this dusty, out-of-the-way place and later had a USC football scholarship in hand before he ended up in Hollywood and became John Wayne.

Now comes Brandon Johnson, a 5-foot-10, 190-pound running back from Palmdale's Highland High School, who's been operating a little behind the scenes himself in this largely military environment.

On Saturday, the University of Washington offered a football scholarship to Johnson, who's not been heavily recruited but still checks off many of the football measurables demanded by the Huskies and others — such as 4.43-second 40-yard dash speed. 

Johnson, from the class of 2023, also holds offers from Fresno State, Colorado State, Nevada, Northern Arizona and Princeton.

The Huskies haven't pulled too many players out of Palmdale over the years, with guard/center Jim Nevelle from the 1991 national championship team possibly the most notable. He played for rival Palmdale High before coming to the UW.

Johnson, who shows excellent cutting ability and the patience to wait for a play to develop, comes off a junior season in which he rushed 169 times for 1,580 yards for 20 touchdowns, averaging 9.3 yards per carry, for a 10-3 team. For his efforts, he earned Gold League Most Valuable Player honors. 

In a pandemic-shortened sophomore season, he ran 57 times for 347 yards and 6 scores for a 5-0 Highland team. 

The first time he touched the ball as a freshman, Johnson returned the opening kickoff 91 yards for a touchdown.

Johnson regularly posts a lot of videos of himself lifting in the weight room and training in the Palmdale sun, showing his football motivation. He's got excellent grades, hence his scholarship offer from an Ivy League school.

In December 2020, with the first year of the pandemic coming to a close, Johnson also revealed he is somewhat on his own. The teen shared photos on social media of his young father in military fatigues and told how this man had recently passed away. 

The dutiful son was raising money through a Go Fund Me account to send his father back to his home state to be buried.

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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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