It’s been a tough Tuesday for the Georgia Bulldogs, who lost a pair of five-star defensive players in the 2026 recruiting class to the Texas Longhorns.
The Bulldogs failed to bring in Georgia native Tyler Atkinson, the No. 1 linebacker in the 2026 recruiting class, earlier in the day.
Then, only hours after Atkinson’s commitment, Rivals National Recruiting and Transfer Portal reporter, Hayes Fawcett, broke the news of the 2026 class No. 1 defensive lineman James Johnson flipping his commitment from Georgia to Texas.
Texas hosted both Atkinson and Johnson for official visits on the same day — June 20.
“I think when we moved into the SEC, it was a lot more natural for players from Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, to be willing to come play at the University of Texas,” head coach Steve Starkisan said at SEC Media Days.
The Fort Myers, Florida, native has been one of the highly touted defensive recruits in the 2026 class, recently earning a five-star rating by Rivals. His flip comes as a surprise after committing to the Bulldogs on June 28, touting Georgia as “Defensive Lineman University” in an interview with Rivals’ Chad Simmons.
“Georgia is DLU,” Johnson said to Rivals. “They are all about development. What made Georgia No. 1 is the way they develop defensive linemen.”
But it seems that Johnson had a change of heart.
In two seasons at North Fort Myers High School, Johnson put together two solid seasons racking up 111 total tackles, 42 tackles for loss, 12 sacks and 18 quarterback hurries despite playing sparingly. Johnson’s junior season ended prematurely with a knee injury, watching from the sidelines as his team went on to lose in the first round of the Florida 5A playoffs.
“(Johnson) has the skill set to develop into a dangerous interior pass rusher,” Charles Power, director of scouting and rankings for On3, wrote in his analysis of Johnson. “An elite finisher in the backfield. (He’s) one of the most productive defensive linemen in the cycle on a per-game basis, racking up 29 tackles for loss in nine contests as a junior.”
Johnson will play his final high school season at the defending Florida 3A state champions, Miami Northwestern High School. Unfortunately for Johnson, Northwestern head coach and former NFL quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was suspended by the school yesterday for allegedly providing
impermissible benefits to players.
Despite Bridgewater’s suspension, Johnson is still set to have a dominant season at Miami Northwestern to close out his high school career before he makes the jump to the next level.
Johnson joins an already loaded defensive recruiting class. Currently, Texas boasts the sixth-best class in the 2026 cycle, but after the commitments of Johnson and Atkinson, the Longhorns’ rating will only go up.
