Oregon Football Recruiting: Ducks Battle Cal For Thomas Johnson

When recruiting experts were looking at the loaded wide receiver class for the 2012 season, people looked along the West Coast and saw plenty of great players to check out, particularly at the wide receiver position. Current verbals have Deontay Greenberry to Notre Dame, Darreus Rogers to USC, Bryce Treggs and Jordan Payton to Cal, Derrick Woods to Oklahoma. California definitely is exporting a lot of quality talent at the wide receiver position.

But the best wide receiver in this class might not come from California. It might come from deep in the heart of Texas from a player who was originally a Longhorn. But now he's opened it up and is looking elsewhere.

Thomas Johnson is considered to be one of the best pure talents in this recruiting class at the receiver position and one of those almost certain can't miss guys. With his reopening of his recruitment, Texas will likely turn their backs on him, leaving him to check out two West Coast schools--the California Golden Bears and the Oregon Ducks. TCU is also in the mix.

The issue with Johnson won't be playing time. He's very likely to start from Day 1 in either program. Cal has only Keenan Allen coming back among feature receivers, and Oregon returns Josh Huff and scruff. But Johnson would probably have to think in Oregon he could be the feature receiver to complement the kind of offense the Ducks run. At Cal he would be competing with (count them) SIX wide receivers already committed. The Bears are probably leaving one spot open for either Johnson or Stefon Diggs, but you have to figure Oregon might have a slight edge due to the likelihood of touches and ability to feature him in the offense the Ducks run.