Franklin on how Jan Johnson joined PSU Wrestling
- Thread starter El-Jefe
- Start date
Awesome, glad to see CJF supporting all our sports and what's best for all our student athletes. It sounds like Jan Johnson is no longer playing football and totally switched to wrestling.
What was Jan Johnson rank nationally in high school? I thought he was a top wrestler at his weight class.
What was Jan Johnson rank nationally in high school? I thought he was a top wrestler at his weight class.
It was nice to hear more details from the story. I suspected it was pretty much the way CJF detailed. CJF and CS became pretty good friends the first several months after CJF was hired. CJF's family was still down in Tennessee (his wife and he took some time to purchase a house, and his wife and daughters stayed in TN until the end of the girls' school years). CJF attended most of the PSU home wrestling duals that winter. Reportedly, the two also had a great time on the Coaches Caravan the post 2 years.
Most of the rankings are premium content. D1CW had Johnson as the 37th top kid in the 2015 wrestling class. The had him as a 197 lbser, and the 3rd rated senior at that weight. They also had 2 285 lbers ranked above him, though like Johnson 1 of them elected to play football in college. FloWrestling had him as the 8th ranked guy at 197, and the 6th at that weight if you only ranked seniors.
Jan is totally switching to wrestling....... this year. This has been the case since day one. When the move was announced there was all sort of speculation about JJ's weight. JF just confirmed it is 230 now. A cold soda says he outgrows OLB and ends up a 265/270 DE by the end of his time at PSU.
Another outlet (the BWI premium forum) had JF saying that Johnson was at 235 lb. Not sure what JF really said, but close enough either way.
Hey guys, sorry I missed the show last night, but Nate Bauer listened in and transcribed it. Here's the entirety of what Franklin had to say about Johnson and Cael:
"They had a guy that's not going to be able to wrestle for a good period of time or for the year, and (Cael) called me and he said, 'Hey, you've got this guy in your program that's not playing for you right now - Jan Johnson - and we have a spot open.' And legitimately, a spot completely open. They don't have a backup. So they were going to have the (197)-pound wrestle-off, and whoever lost was going to have to wrestle heavyweight, and heavyweight goes 285. So he said what do you think? I said, hey, I'm all for it. I think this would be awesome. But give me an opportunity to talk to Jan. I brought Jan in and talked. Jan's about 230 pounds now, won two state championships in a row in high school, and it was interesting to be honest with you how he handled it. He was excited about the opportunity, but he was also really concerned that if he did it, how much would it set him back from a football perspective? Kind of asking about the schedule, when spring ball would start, when wrestling would end. I thought he handled it extremely well. His mom happened to be in town, so she came over. I told Cael it would probably be good for him to come over and talk in person. It was like a recruiting visit. At the end of practice, Cael is standing there ready for him.
"Now, the only negative is, I saw Jan the other day and he is wrestling and he's going to do both, so basically what I just described, he's going to wrestle but then he's going to come back to football. I saw him the other day in study hall because we still want him part of our program so he's still doing our study hall and our training table. I saw him and he kind of had that wrestling look where he had some scuffs and abrasions on his forehead and stuff. I said, 'How's it going?' He said, 'Good. But...' I said, 'But what?' He said, 'Because I'm the heavyweight, I have to wrestle Cael every day in practice.' And he looked at me and said, 'Coach, you have no idea. They have all these guys that come back and are part of the Penn State Wrestling Club. Of all the Olympic guys, no one can still beat Cael. He just beats the heck out of me all practice.' I think there's a part of him that loves it, but there's a part of him that wished Cael would get sick and call in sick for a couple of days of work."
"They had a guy that's not going to be able to wrestle for a good period of time or for the year, and (Cael) called me and he said, 'Hey, you've got this guy in your program that's not playing for you right now - Jan Johnson - and we have a spot open.' And legitimately, a spot completely open. They don't have a backup. So they were going to have the (197)-pound wrestle-off, and whoever lost was going to have to wrestle heavyweight, and heavyweight goes 285. So he said what do you think? I said, hey, I'm all for it. I think this would be awesome. But give me an opportunity to talk to Jan. I brought Jan in and talked. Jan's about 230 pounds now, won two state championships in a row in high school, and it was interesting to be honest with you how he handled it. He was excited about the opportunity, but he was also really concerned that if he did it, how much would it set him back from a football perspective? Kind of asking about the schedule, when spring ball would start, when wrestling would end. I thought he handled it extremely well. His mom happened to be in town, so she came over. I told Cael it would probably be good for him to come over and talk in person. It was like a recruiting visit. At the end of practice, Cael is standing there ready for him.
"Now, the only negative is, I saw Jan the other day and he is wrestling and he's going to do both, so basically what I just described, he's going to wrestle but then he's going to come back to football. I saw him the other day in study hall because we still want him part of our program so he's still doing our study hall and our training table. I saw him and he kind of had that wrestling look where he had some scuffs and abrasions on his forehead and stuff. I said, 'How's it going?' He said, 'Good. But...' I said, 'But what?' He said, 'Because I'm the heavyweight, I have to wrestle Cael every day in practice.' And he looked at me and said, 'Coach, you have no idea. They have all these guys that come back and are part of the Penn State Wrestling Club. Of all the Olympic guys, no one can still beat Cael. He just beats the heck out of me all practice.' I think there's a part of him that loves it, but there's a part of him that wished Cael would get sick and call in sick for a couple of days of work."
"I think part of him wishes Cael would call in sick for a couple days ..."
Hilarious.
Hilarious.
Pretty incredible when you hear stories like this about Cael and Dan Gable still kicking ass well after their Olympic years of glory.
Tangling with Gingrich too so he gets the feel of really working with the heavy heavyweights. Especially important for getting off bottom etc. Cael will give him the relentless feel while Ging will give him the feel of guys who will simply lean on you until you make a mistake....or take you to SV.
