Auburn gets its quarterback

Auburn was looking for an elite quarterback to add to its 2013 class and found its man Sunday.

Four-star Jeremy Johnson from Carver in Montgomery, Ala., committed to the Tigers over offers from a number of schools including LSU, Ole Miss, Houston, Purdue, Southern Miss, Tulane and Arkansas State.

“I have officially committed to being an Auburn Tiger,” Johnson said. “...I’m excited, I’m ready to get back home and give the news to my brother and especially my school. I can’t imagine when everybody in the state of Auburn knows. It’s going to be great.

“I just want to thank God. That’s the man that did it for me and gave me the ability to be this person.”

Auburn offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler evaluated close to two dozen quarterbacks in-person over the past four weeks. He scouted Johnson twice this spring including Carver’s spring game last Friday.

“After he saw me throw an under-the-center post route, he just shook his head,” Johnson said. “After he saw me throw those two times, he’s been telling everybody, ‘No.’ He’s been telling Coach Chizik I’m the guy. He said I’m the chosen one.

“...My relationship with Coach Loeffler is great. He’s a great guy.”

Johnson, 6-foot-5 and 215 pounds, completed 198-of-328 passes for 2,380 yards and 22 touchdowns as a junior. He also rushed for four TD’s.

“Now I can just focus on my grades and the football season,” he said. “This is going to be a huge season for me and our team and especially the community. I feel like I should give us a chance to win state this year in football. We did it in basketball.”

Johnson said he wrote down several goals for himself before the start of spring practice.

“It was to be a leader, grow up and just manage the offense. Work on my footwork, my mechanics,” he said. “The things I need to work on, Coach Loeffler said he’s going to help me get it done.

“Really my strength right now is throwing, accuracy and just an all-around player.”

Johnson is a standout basketball player helping Carver to the Class 6A state championship as a junior scoring 16 points in the title game. He had basketball offers from Auburn, Alabama and Mississippi State and may play both sports at Auburn.

“I haven’t said too much about basketball ... but of course I want to play for Auburn,” he said. “It’s been done -- two sports -- and I feel like I could do it. It just depends on how it is when I get up there.”

Johnson is rated the nation’s No. 13 quarterback by 247Sports. He has visited Auburn a number of times over the past couple of years including two games last fall and the A-Day game last month.

Johnson is Auburn’s ninth commitment for the 2013 class and fifth from the state of Alabama. He plans to help Auburn sign a top-rated class in February and already has his sights set on 4-star tight end O.J. Howard from Autauga Academy in Prattville, Ala., who is currently committed to Alabama.

“Hopefully I’ll come down next week to Big Cat,” he said. “Talk to receivers, tight ends. I’m most definitely going to try to get to O.J. I’ve been talking to him. I’ve been talking to him abut high school too. I’ve been trying to get him to come play with me.

“That’s my main target right now, O.J. Howard.”