Cedartown senior Jayden Johnson is exactly the kind of athlete a coach dreams of having on a football team. He can throw, catch, run, tackle and intercept the ball and make defenses miss him on the ground, and offense wish they didn’t have to face him in the secondary.

However this Bulldog – who had signed to become a South Carolina Gamecock – is now heading off to college to play with the Arkansas Razorbacks when they take the field next fall in 2021.

Finishing up his time at Cedartown High School early, Johnson is poised to get a running start at the Fayetteville campus as soon as possible. He finished his second semester courses at CHS while still in his first semester as a senior, Head Coach Jamie Abrams said.

He gave a speech after a program honoring his achievement as the latest Bulldog to sign with a Division I program in recent years in which he honored his family, his friends, coaches and fellow teammates for their support throughout the years.

“It was a great three and a half years here, ,” Johnson said. “I will never forget the bonds and memories I’ve created. You’ll forever be in my heart.”

He joins the ranks of Tony Mathis Jr., Kobe Pace and Taji Hudson as notables who have headed to bigtime college programs in recent seasons.

The son of Chandra Dulaney and Corey Johnson, he was a fixture in the Bulldogs backfield over the past two years and played in the defensive secondary for the Bulldogs, but will focus fully on defense for the Razorbacks. He hasn’t fully decided on which career path he’ll chose to focus his studies, but said that he is thinking about Business with a potential focus on Real Estate, or Sports Management.

He finished the 2020 season with 530 yards on the ground, 348 yards in catches, and scored nine touchdowns. On defense, he had 22 tackles, four interceptions, and a fumble recovery among other notable stats.

Johnson received a number of offers from bigtime college programs, including South Carolina who he de-committed from earlier this season when former Head Coach Will Muschamp was fired from the Gamecocks program, along with Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Virginia, Liberty, The U.S. Naval Academy and Coastal Carolina, among others.

“Arkansas, they’ve been on me heavy before I even committed,” he said. “I just felt like it was the right fit for me. The relationships I built with coaches. I feel like I can go there and do great things.”