LITTLE ROCK — Claude Johnson’s final pass in last year’s Class 6A football state championship game fell incomplete.
It’s apparently the final pass he will ever throw.
A little more than a year after holding scholarship offers from multiple Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly NCAA Division I) programs, Pine Bluff ’s record-setting quarterback has signed to play baseball at Arkansas State.
The move ends maybe the most baffling story of the 2009 football recruiting season.
Johnson went from the can’t-miss prospect to a prospect who, seemingly, is going to miss out on playing college football.
“I don’t have any idea what it takes to be a Division I football player anymore. None,” Zebras Coach Bobby Bolding said. “Thought I did, but I don’t. Don’t have a clue.”
Johnson, 6-0, 195 pounds, was the centerpiece of Bolding’s rebuilding project after he took the Pine Bluff job in 2007.
Johnson started every game at quarterback and led Pine Bluff to a share of the 6A-South Conference championship in 2008 and to the brink of the school’s first state championship since 1995 last fall.
The polished Johnson rewrote the school’s record book with his strong right arm and nimble feet, throwing for 6,932 yards and 77touchdowns while rushing for almost 2,000 yards in his career.
Johnson, who only threw eight interceptions his final two seasons, was named to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette All-Arkansas team and was the Little Rock Touchdown Club Class 6A Player of the Year as a senior.
But on signing day in February, Johnson’s name was nowhere to be found.
“I didn’t expect it to go this way,” Johnson said. “But everything happens for a reason. I feel like I’ve got an even better opportunity playing baseball.”
As far as football, Johnson was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Johnson was offered a scholarship by Ole Miss during his junior season, but it was withdrawn in the spring of 2009 after the Rebels received a commitment from a junior college quarterback, Bolding said.
The quarterback was presumably Randall Mackey, who originally signed with Ole Miss after a stellar career at powerhouse Bastrop, La.
Bolding said Louisiana-Monroe offered Johnson a scholarship during the spring of 2009.
That became moot, Bolding said, because Warhawks Coach Charlie Weatherbie was fired in November.
No other FBS school pulled the scholarship trigger.
“I have no idea what went wrong,” Bolding said. “Me and Claude have talked about it. We don’t have any idea. July 1 of last year, everything just went dead.”
Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Central Arkansas also offered scholarships, but Johnson was adamant about playing on the FBS level, Bolding said.
Bolding said academics or off-the-field issues weren’t part of the puzzling equation, either.
“Character?” Bolding said. “Lord, no. Most outstanding character young man I’ve ever been ever been associated with. I mean, he’s what you want at [quarterback], because that position is the face of the program.
“Everybody knows Claude and thinks the world of him.”
Initially bitter, Johnson said he moved on long agoand is looking forward to playing baseball at Arkansas State.
Johnson was a pitcher/ shortstop at Pine Bluff, but he said he expects to play third base for the Red Wolves.
Not surprisingly, Johnson said ASU coaches have left the door open about playing football, too.
“I wouldn’t set it in stone, but I probably won’t put any more pads on,” said Johnson, who declined a chance to play quarterback in the 55th annual Arkansas High School Coaches All-Star game last month. “I think I’m done.”
Bolding said he believes Johnson is done playing football, too.
“I think he’s at a point where if somebody is committed to him to pay for his schooling, that he thinks maybe he owes it to them to concentrate on that,” Bolding said. “I hope he goes to AState, has a great career, gets drafted and becomes the next Torii Hunter.”
Hunter, a star baseball player at Pine Bluff in the early 1990s, is an All-Star center fielder for the Los Angeles Angels.
Sports, Pages 29 on 07/25/2010