Calif. lineman says he’ll play for Rebels

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, Jan. 13, 2000 | 10:10 a.m.

UNLV's football recruiting continued to pick up steam on Wednesday when one of the top line prospects in Southern California announced he would sign with the Rebels on national letter of intent day Feb. 2.

Marcus Johnson, a 6-3, 295-pound two-way star at Lakewood's Mayfair High, said he was reneging on an earlier verbal commitment to Big Ten champion Wisconsin so that he could join Monsoon teammates Joe Hunter and Terrence Young in Las Vegas.

"He has great size and moves well," said Dick Lascola of the Fallbrook, Calif.-based Scouting Evaluation Association, which distributes player evaluations to 90 of the nation's 114 Division I colleges. "He showed good upper body strength. He's still a little raw, though."

Johnson originally committed to Wisconsin in December but began to have second thoughts a few days later when Hunter, a 6-0, 175-pound wide receiver who was a fellow first-team Dream Team pick by the Long Beach Press-Telegram; and Young, a hard-hitting fullback-linebacker who was a second team choice, decided to commit to the Rebels.

He said the final straw was when Wisconsin coaches failed to show up for a scheduled home visit with him and his mother the night following Wisconsin's Rose Bowl win over Stanford.

"They still haven't called to apologize," he said.

Johnson also had scholarship offers from Kansas and Colorado State, but confirmed rumors that had been circulating for several days on Internet recruiting sites that he was switching to UNLV.

"I still haven't called the coaches at UNLV to tell them," he said. "I'll do that tonight."

Johnson's stock rose during his senior season when many felt he got much the better of his matchup against Bellflower St. John Bosco offensive lineman Paul Molicer (6-5, 300), a second team USA Today All-American headed to UCLA.

"Yeah, I had a real good game against him," Johnson said. "He's a good player, but he might have been hyped a little too much."

Johnson, Hunter and Young are now working on UNLV coaches to bring in another Mayfair player, offensive guard Jesse Bender (6-2, 255), who also visited in December.

"We'd like to make Las Vegas kind of Mayfair East," joked Hunter, who caught 36 passes for 800 yards and six touchdowns as a senior and is a cousin of Rebels defensive back Amar Brisco.

In other recruiting news:

* Nevada-Reno picked up a Chris Lemon-clone in running back Josh Griffin (5-10, 190, 4.5) of Arizona state 4-A champ Chaparral High in Scottsdale. Griffin rushed for 1,811 yards and 28 touchdowns for the Sabercats and also is a top-notch baseball prospect.

* Running back Terrell Suggs (6-4, 245, 4.6) of Hamilton High in Chandler, Ariz., the Gatorade state player of the year, turned down an offer from Tennessee to play for nearby Arizona State.