2016 IndyStar Mr. Football: Hunter Johnson's decision to stay home for senior year pays off

INDIANAPOLIS — When John Hart arrived as Brownsburg’s football coach in December of last year, he didn’t know if Hunter Johnson would be returning as quarterback.

Johnson had options. IMG Academy, with its swanky facilities in Bradenton, Fla., and a coach from Indiana in Kevin Wright, told him it could use a quarterback. Hart’s first task – and maybe his most important one – was to try to keep Johnson from getting away.

“We made a pact,” said Hart, the one-time Warren Central coach. “I said, ‘I’ll come if you’re 100 percent sure of staying.’ And he said he’d stay if I was 100 percent sure I’d come. So our relationship started from that point on.”

It’s turned out to be a good one. Johnson stayed and led Brownsburg to its first Hoosier Crossroads Conference championship in four years. On Wednesday, the 6-4, 200-pound Clemson recruit added another big accolade as he was named IndyStar Mr. Football presented by Marian University.

Johnson received 24 votes from the Indiana Football Coaches Association ratings board, which annually selects the top high school senior for Mr. Football. Center Grove running back/receiver Russ Yeast was the runner-up with 11 votes and Cathedral linebacker Pete Werner third with seven votes.

A four-year starter at quarterback, Johnson passed for 2,233 yards and 25 touchdowns as a senior and rushed for 525 yards and three TDs. His career totals of 6,657 passing yards and 69 touchdown passes are both school records.

Johnson, Brownsburg’s first Mr. Football winner, could have made the jump to IMG Academy before enrolling at Clemson in January. IMG, the No. 2-ranked team in the country by USA Today, featured a lineup filled with top Division I prospects. It could have been a good fit for Johnson, ranked as the No. 2 pro-style quarterback in the country by 247sports.com.

“It was an idea,” Johnson said. “It was something I kept in my back pocket. But I never heavily thought I was going to go there. I thought I’d consider it, but only because we were in the middle of a coaching change. As soon as I found out coach Hart was coming, I knew I was going to stay here.”

Johnson triggered a turnaround from a four-win season in 2015 to an 8-2 mark this year. He played for four offensive coordinators in four seasons, starting originally as a freshman in Brett Comer’s flexbone system. It didn’t take long to see a change to a passing offense was a fit for Johnson’s talent.

It happened faster than expected in Johnson’s freshman season, when senior starter Jacob Lambert was sidelined with a concussion.

“I kind of got tossed in there and away we went,” Johnson said. “It was a great learning experience for me. I think being around guys like Toks (Akinribade) and Tyler Kirtz really helped me. We competed our butts off and wanted to try to be better than the other every day.”

It started clicking for Johnson as a sophomore as he passed for 1,434 yards and 10 touchdowns. It was around that time that his recruitment really started to ramp up. Early in his junior season, Johnson committed to Butch Jones and Tennessee.

Johnson’s older brother, Cole, had also been recruited (he’s a junior receiver at Northwestern). But the heavy level of interest was something new for the family.

“It was a blessing but because it started so early, it was overwhelming,” said Johnson’s mother, Shana. “It got to the point where his days consisted of school, practice, calling 15 coaches and homework. It felt like we were hardly seeing him. He was dedicated to getting everything done, which is great. But at the time he committed to Tennessee, it was also about slowing things down. It was amazing that once he committed there, we just kind of got our kid back. He had dinner with us again and wasn’t calling 15 coaches a night.”

It also gave Johnson time to see his recruitment more clearly. After a junior season in which he passed for 2,545 yards and 31 touchdowns, Johnson reopened his recruitment and committed to Clemson in December 2015.

“When we got to Clemson, we could see it on his face,” Shana Johnson said. “The coaches and the players he met, it was just the right fit for him. You could see it.”

Just a few weeks later, Hart was hired after Comer decided to step down after 10 years leading the program. Johnson preferred the idea of leading the team he’d started with as a freshman to starting over at IMG Academy.

Johnson's father, Reed, a former quarterback at Bedford North Lawrence who played football and baseball at the University of Evansville, didn’t attempt to push him either way. But he was quietly hoping Hunter would choose to stay at Brownsburg.

“It meant more to him to be with his buddies and try to achieve together what they achieved this year,” Reed Johnson said. “That meant more to him than any personal goals.”

Like many young football players from the state, Johnson grew up idolizing Peyton Manning. He even attended the Manning Passing Academy camps held annually in Thibodaux, La. Hart said Johnson’s personality compares to Manning’s.

“If you ever see Peyton Manning work in practice, it’s incredible,” Hart said. “It probably impressed me more than any player I’ve ever seen. (Johnson) is that way. We were in the weight room and some kids were giving him a hard time about his power clean and he steps up and power cleans 275 (pounds) and just walks away. There’s probably not many quarterbacks in the country doing that. He’s gifted athletically but he also has that dry sense of humor that Peyton has. He’s pretty quiet and no-nonsense, but he can pull off some pretty good zingers.”

Johnson is the second consecutive Hendricks County quarterback to win Mr. Football, following Avon’s Brandon Peters last year. Following Yeast and Werner in the voting were Fort Wayne Snider receiver Mic Hippenhammer (six) and Fort Wayne Concordia quarterback Peter Morrison (three), Avon running back/safety Bryant Fitzgerald (two), Columbus East offensive lineman Harry Crider (two), Carmel receiver Jalen Walker (two) and Eastbrook lineman John Ragan (two) with multiple votes.

After playing in the U.S. All-American Bowl in San Antonio on Jan. 7, Johnson will begin classes at Clemson. Even without the Mr. Football award, Johnson said he would have felt fulfilled in his decision to return to Brownsburg for his senior season.

“The (Brownsburg) program expects to win now,” he said. “That’s something our guys are going to hold onto next year and I think they are going to be really special again.”

Call IndyStar reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.