On Sunday Avery Johnson took his first unofficial visit to Kansas after receiving an offer from the new coaching staff. The minute he arrived for the visit the Kansas coaches were giving him the best treatment they could.
“Pretty much the thing that stood out is when I rolled up, Coach Schoonover, was right there,” Johnson said. “He greeted me and my family and let us know he was happy we were there. It's a great feeling whenever you pull up to a place and you got somebody to meet you outside. That just shows that they were looking forward to getting me down there and looking forward to seeing me right away.”
Right Johnson arrived he was meeting with head football Lance Leipold.
“I was the first person in Coach Leipold's office,” Johnson said. “He wanted to talk to me first. So that's also like a great honor to be able to get in there and talk to the head coach of Kansas and be the first recruit of the day.”
The Jayhawks offered Johnson a scholarship after Leipold took over. The quarterback from Maize caught the staff’s attention early in the process and was one of the first recruits in the 2023 class that Leipold spoke with on the phone.
This time, the two got to meet in person.
“We had a great talk,” Johnson said of Leipold. “He was telling me about his background and telling me about all the stuff before Kansas. We had a good conversation. And then after that, we got the visit started.”
After meeting with Leipold, Johnson met with quarterbacks coach Jim Zebrowski. The two spent a lot of time together and Johnson said he likes the way Zebrowski handles his position group.
“Everybody thinks whenever they meet a coach, if they're going to be like super strict and super uptight, but Coach Z's pretty much the opposite of that,” Johnson said. “He's a super laid-back guy, and he was telling me all the people he works with, or talk to any quarterback that he worked with, they would tell me he likes to build relationships.
“It's just not all about football for Coach Z. So pretty much he likes to build relationships with his players and just all around have a good time. I mean, he's really laid back and likes to have fun. He's a great guy and a great coach to be around.”
A very busy month is starting to wind down for Johnson. He was scheduled to attend camp at Missouri but a possible injury to his thumb will alter the schedule. After that, a visit to Notre Dame is in the plans and that will put an end to June visits.
It all started with a trip to Kansas State on June 1, and he has been going strong ever since.
“Kansas State was the first school we went to,” Johnson said. “Later in that week, I flew down to Florida, and we were in Florida for a few days before we actually went to Tallahassee. And we went to Florida State, and I was there on Saturday and Sunday.
“And then, we bused from Florida to Georgia. On Tuesday, we were at Alabama and Auburn, and saw the facilities there. We didn't do any camps. On Wednesday, we were at LSU and then we drove to College Station, and we camped at Texas A&M on Thursday. On Friday, we drove to the University of Texas, and we just toured the facilities there.”
Johnson said his parents met him at Texas and they drove to TCU where he participated in the camp. The next stop was Arkansas and then back home to start camp with his high school team.
It was a busy month with a lot of stops and he did his best to take everything in to be ready for the future.
“You kind of take mental notes in your head and even write them down,” Johnson said. “I put stuff down on my notes just to kind of compare all of these schools that I'm seeing because, when it gets down to whenever I want to make my decision, I want to remember things that went on this summer and all the stuff that I saw. Because I definitely want to be kind of picky when it comes time to make my decision because I want to figure out what place is best for me.”
