CROOTIN’: 2017 Alabama Linebacker Thomas Johnston Picks... UAB Blazers

Man, what a turn of events. Less than 48 hours after Johnston declared he had narrowed down his recruitment to three schools, he has made his decision. However, he didn’t pick Iowa, Ole Miss, or Arkansas, which are the there schools he listed.

Instead, Johnston will be headed to UAB to play football for the Blazers as they are set to resume playing football in the upcoming academic year. He cites his dream to play college football with his older brother (who committed to UAB a year ago to play quarterback) as a main reason, if not the main reason, for his decision, so it turns out that family was a pretty important factor in where he chose to go to school.

Here is the tweet where he declared his commitment to the Blazers:

All-in-all, this one hurts, as Iowa still doesn’t have a linebacker committed to the program with just over a week to go until National Signing Day, and at this point in the process, they do not currently have any scholarships offered to linebackers. People are wondering if they’ll turn their attention to Nate Wieland, an Iowa City product, but that seems unlikely, as he recently cancelled a visit to Iowa to reaffirm his commitment to Northern Illinois to play quarterback.

At this point, it doesn’t look like Iowa will offer a linebacker in this class, which means that they’ll be sticking with the players they already have on campus. Maybe that won’t be so bad.