The rough 2015 football season appears to have claimed yet another victim with high-profile offensive lineman Jordan Johnson announcing that he is no longer committed to Georgia Tech. Johnson, a high three-star recruit out of Ed White High School in Jacksonville, committed to Tech in early July. He announced his decision via Twitter earlier today.
Ive decided to decommit from Georgia Tech I had a bad experience at yesterdays game I would to say thank you to all of the faculty and staff
— KeltonJordanJohnson™ (@3rdJohnsonboy) November 29, 2015
I truly can't imagine what could have happened at the game to make Johnson change his tune, but there is some unconfirmed speculation that his decision was spurred on by an incident of racial profiling by a GTPD officer. Johnson maintains that he is just "weighing his options" again, but I'd put his odds of becoming a Georgia Tech commitment again at roughly 0%. Paul Johnson values loyalty and has strict policies about these types of situations, though I'm not sure about how this specific situation will be handled. It is very discouraging to hear about something like this happening.
Good luck to Johnson wherever he ends up. I hope that more information about the incident that allegedly took place so that more educated conclusions can be arrived at by all. The 2016 Georgia Tech recruiting class now stands at nine with just months to go until signing day.
UPDATE:
Johnson confirmed to FTRS over Twitter that the incident was, in fact, an encounter with a GTPD officer. When recruits visit games, they are identified by a lanyard which is worn around their necks as opposed to a ticket. In this case, Johnson and his brother went to the concession stand and returned to see their mother being approached by an officer who said that she had to leave because she had no ticket. According to Johnson, who showed the officer his lanyard, the officer "felt as though we had forged those badges and we didn't belong in the game". Johnson then told the officer that he would decommit because of it, to which the man responded that he "wouldn't care because he would still have his job if I went there or not".
It is tough to know exactly what happened in a situation like this, but we will be looking for comment from others and the GTPD in coming days. For now, it is disappointing to lose a promising commitment for the 2016 class.