RB Kirk Johnson signs with the Texas Longhorns

San Jose Valley Christian High athlete Kirk Johnson signed his national letter of intent on Wednesday, officially making him a Texas Longhorn.

The consensus three-star athlete was the 50th best player in the state of California and the 366th best player nationally, according to 247's composite rankings. The 6-foot-1, 205-pound Johnson committed to Texas in April of last year.

Johnson is slated as a running back prospect. His BON recruiting profile explains why his numbers never jumped off the page:

His offer from the Longhorns was his first despite having already completed his junior season, there was a major gap between the rest of the services and his 247Sports rating, and his testing numbers from a Nike event last year were good but far from great.

How can all those things be much better informed with more context?

Finding out from his father, Texas legend Johnnie Johnson, that he had intentionally taken the recruiting process slow with Kirk, skipping many recruiting events and camps that would have likely increased his offer list more quickly, that Kirk ran a 4.47 40 at the Army Combine while registering a 36.5-inch vertical leap, and that Kirk played with a number of injuries as a junior that caused him to miss several games. His father said that his son was never more than 60% healthy that season.

...Even when healthy, Johnson is at his best when he's going downhill and quickly exploiting vertical seams, where his sub-4.5 speed tells and he was able to consistently pull away from defenders in a way that he wasn't able to do as a result of injuries during his junior season.

Other than the big difference in acceleration, what also stands out from sophomore film is that Johnson was better making lateral cuts in traffic to find holes and get into the open field -- he looked more fluid in the hips than he often did as a junior.