Football: Glassboro's Johnson commits to Penn State

By Phil Anastasia

Juwan Johnson said he never had a favorite college football team as a youngster.

That changed on Sunday.

Johnson, a wide receiver at Glassboro and one of New Jersey's top recruits in the class of 2015, made a verbal commitment Sunday to attend Penn State on a football scholarship.

"The people up there are great," Johnson said Sunday on his way home from State College. "The facilities are great and I had great chemistry with everybody there."

Johnson, a four-star recruit by rivals.com, said he made the commitment to Penn State coach James Franklin during a visit to the campus on Sunday.

The 6-foot-4, 195-pound Johnson helped Glassboro to the South Jersey Group 1 title as a junior. He returned an interception and punt return for touchdowns in the championship game against Penn Grove.

Johnson also is a track star who won the Group 1 state title in the 200 meters as a sophomore and placed fourth in the Meet of Champions.

Johnson has offers from every Big 10 school as well as Alabama, according to Glassboro coach Mark Maccarone.

Johnson was seriously considering Boston College, Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State.

Johnson called the offer from Alabama last week "an eye-opener" but said he preferred Penn State because of his relationship with the coaches and also because of its relative proximity to his home.

"That was a big factor," Johnson said of the ability of family and friends from the South Jersey area to attend games at Penn State.

Johnson said he plans to major in sports marketing.

He said the recruiting process was "stressful" but also enjoyable.

"It was a very stressful process but I did enjoy it," Johnson said. "You only go through it once so I wanted to make the best of it."

-- Contact Phil Anastasia at panastasia@phillynews.com

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