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2015 LB Clay Johnston commits to Baylor over Texas Tech, SMU, and Duke

We are now officially low on spots for the 2015 class with the addition of Abilene Wylie LB Clay Johnston.

A new Eddie Lackey in the mix?
A new Eddie Lackey in the mix?
Ronald Martinez

Let's get this started right, with the commit tweet from the Man Himself, Coach Art Briles:

The 325 area code is that of Abilene, Texas, home to one Clay Johnston, the latest commit in Baylor's 2015 recruiting class.  Johnston committed to Baylor after a recruitment process that included visits to the Bears, Texas Tech, and Texas.  Tech ended up offering Johnston a week or two ago before putting on what has to be considered a full court press.  We can probably assume they finished second for his services.

Vital Statistics:

Name: Clay Johnston
Position: LB / NB
School: Abilene Wylie (Abilene, TX), Mascot: Bulldogs
Height: 6-2
Weight: 200
Rankings: Composite: 82.78 (3*), 247: 80 (3*)
Profiles: 247Sports, Rivals, Scout, ESPN
Video: HUDL, Youtube (embedded below)

Johnston burst onto the recruiting scene around the same time as an extremely impressive NFSC performance in Dallas wherein he earned a 124.86 SPARQ rating for overall athleticism.  From what I've read and been told, lateral movement is definitely his strength, and though most Baylor sites have him labeled already as a NB in our system, he may eventually grow into a weakside linebacker role in our 4-2-5.  Ian Boyd, one of the people I asked immediately upon Johnston's commitment for his thoughts, offered that Johnston was as close as he'd seen in this class to Eddie Lackey, a comp that should fill most Baylor fans with tremendous glee.  That was right after Boyd tweeted his reaction at the commitment in the form of Darth Vader's infamous emphatic statement of displeasure.  Considering he's a Texas fan at heart, I'll take that as a good thing.

Johnston is the 11th commitment, 5th on defense, in Baylor's 2015 recruiting class.  The class at this point:

QB: Chad President
QB/WR: Blake Lynch
RB: JaMycal Hasty
WR:
Devontre Stricklin
OT: Maurice Porter (JUCO)
C: Sam Tecklenburg

DE/LB: Louis Brown
CB:
Jordan Tolbert
CB: John Humphrey
LB: Breckyn Hager
LB/NB: Clay Johnston

With 11 in the books and a class projected, after recent attrition, to be somewhere in the range of 16-17 commits, I expect us to finish with something along the lines of: RB, HS OT, JUCO OT, DT, DE/LB, S.  Check the recent recruiting thread for my thoughts on how those positions currently stack up.

Oh, and welcome Clay Johnston to the 2015 recruiting class!  His commitment tweet: