How Kiyaunta Goodwin helped Kentucky land Hayes Johnson

Kiyaunta Goodwin is no longer with the Kentucky football program, but the Big Blue Nation can still thank him for the assist with Hayes Johnson.

Johnson, a three-star offensive tackle out of Taylor County (Ky.) High School, announced his commitment to the Kentucky Wildcats on Thursday morning. He kicks off the class of 2024 as the first pledge for the ‘Cats, bringing his 6-foot-3, 295-pound frame and goose-hunting skills to Kroger Field. A lifelong fan of UK, it wasn’t exactly a tough decision to make for Johnson in the end, but he was still courted by several big-name programs.

Goodwin was actually the catalyst for helping initially put Johnson on Kentucky’s radar.

As many know by now, Goodwin left UK after spending the 2022 season in a limited role as a freshman. The former five-star recruit put his name in the transfer portal in December and committed to Florida earlier this week. But not before Goodwin put in a good word with the Kentucky staff about Johnson.

Goodwin and Johnson both trained together at Aspirations Gym in Louisville. When Johnson went to UK for a camp two summers ago, it was Goodwin — still an uncommitted recruit at the time — made the pitch for Johnson.

“When we get to the UK camp, Kiyaunta goes up to Coach (Eric) Wolford, who was the o-line coach at the time, and Kiyaunta was like I got somebody for you,” Johnson’s dad, Paul Johnson, told KSR shortly after his son committed to UK. “So Hayes had a great camp and Coach (Vince) Marrow and Coach (Mark) Stoops came up to him after camp and gave him an offer.”

BBN what y’all think @K_Goodwin2022 #BBN pic.twitter.com/h8hG3OCr5b

— Hayes Johnson (@hjohnson_71) December 16, 2021

And just like that, Johnson’s recruitment took off, eventually leading to scholarships from the likes of Baylor, Michigan State, Tennessee, Louisville, Cincinnati, and Purdue. But there was plenty of work that went into him receiving that offer from UK in the weeks leading up to the camp. It didn’t take long for someone as big and as skilled as Johnson to realize he could be a Divison I prospect — he just needed the proper training.

Enter Chris Vaughn and Aspirations Gym.

“It really kinda all happened fast,” Paul Johnson said. “When (Hayes) squatted 585 pounds and I’m like oh my gosh, did you hurt yourself? I’m a physician so I’m automatically worried that he’s done something but he was good and his coaches said you need to get him to a trainer that can really work with him. So one of his teammates put him in touch with Chris Vaughn at Aspirations Gym, and it was like an interview. He went up to Chris and worked out Hayes and said he’s got the metrics, he’s got the size to play D1 football. So we worked out for a couple of weeks.

“We went to Western (Kentucky) and did a camp then we went to UK. So we’re working with Chris for two weeks, we go up to UK, he has a great camp — also, during the workout, he was working out with Kiyuaunta Goodwin and (William) Woo Spencer and they were really going at Hayes, because Chris wanted to see what he was made of. Hayes had blood running down his face, his shirt was ripped off, and he just kept going. Chris was like ‘you need to wipe the blood off your face’ and he was like ‘nah I’m good’.”

The decision to train at Aspirations Gym soon proved to Hayes and his family that he belonged. He started going to more and more camps, performing at a high level and ultimately drawing interest from powerhouses such as Alabama and Tennessee.

“Hayes and Kiyaunta were working out together at Aspirations. There was a bond with those guys,” Paul Johnson said. “You always wonder, can my son compete at that level? And so I wanted to get him to Aspirations because I knew he would go against guys that were at that level. Last spring he really got after it in training and he wanted to go to camps, in particular the Alabama camp, and compete against the best.

“And actually (Kentucky ’23 commit) Malachi Wood was down there with us (at an Alabama camp), Kam Pringle, who’s the number one o-line (prospect) he just committed to South Carolina, he was down there. And Hayes went toe-to-toe and had a great camp at Alabama.”

Interestingly enough, Johnson met another future Wildcat while on that same Alabama trip: offensive lineman Tanner Bowles, a native of the Commonwealth who spent his first four college years with the Crimson Tide before transferring to Kentucky in early December. Bowles was the one who worked out Johnson while the latter was camping in Tuscaloosa.

Even though the Tide never offered Johnson before he committed to the Wildcats, his father says Alabama was still in Hayes’ Top 3, along with Tennessee and Kentucky. Had Hayes decided to draw out his recruitment, it’s possible Alabama takes a harder look. But it was always going to be tough for him to turn down an opportunity from the team he grew up rooting for, regardless of how much interest head coach Nick Saban and Eric Wolford expressed.

“It’s a dream come true,” Paul Johnson added. “We’re generational Kentucky fans and have grown up watching games since I was a little kid. So it was a dream come true for a parent to have your son play for the University of Kentucky.”

Even if Goodwin never made a significant on-field impact with Kentucky, he helped leave a pretty nice parting gift on his way out.

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