New Year's Decommitments: Hunter/Johnson

Two major names celebrated their New Year's with two not-so-surprising resolutions. Both of these kids have had rumors swirling around their recruitment for some time now. They both just made it official this week.

Buford, GA defensive tackle prospect Omar Hunter has decommitted from Notre Dame and Ely High (Fla.) standout Patrick Johnson broke off his ties with Miami. Neither is a shock. Johnson has been rumored to have been decommitted for a long time and stories about Hunter had surfaced a few weeks ago.

Both of these players are considered top-100 type players. Both will be featured soon on the Athlon Consensus 100.

The Hunter loss hurts Notre Dame just a bit more however. Notre Dame's top priority this season in recruiting was defensive and offensive line play. Charlie Weis has done a great job of addressing those issues with names like Trevor Robinson, Ethan Johnson and many others. Hunter was a linchpin of the D-Line class though. With the new 3-4 scheme, it is imperitive that a big, versitile tackle can play head-up on the center. It is just a tough task to find guys like that and Hunter is one of them.

Miami is still loaded on the defensive side of the ball in this class. The-U has the best linebacking class in the nation and recently added top-flight safety and former FSU commit C.J. Holton. Plus, I think Patrick Johnson was a bit overrated. When a kid brings this much turmoil upon himself so early in his career, I back off.

Hunter's finalists: Auburn, Florida, USC (my guess is Auburn)
Johnson's finalists: Florida, Florida St, LSU (my guess is Florida)