Kentucky, Louisville among schools standing out to Trinity 2027 QB Zane Johnson

Not many high school freshmen are named the starting quarterback at a powerhouse program such as Trinity in Louisville, KY. But not many high school freshmen were as talented as Zane Johnson. Following a 2-3 start in 2023, Johnson helped fuel the Shamrocks to 10 straight wins and another 6A state championship — the school’s 28th overall title.

Now a sophomore, the class of 2027 recruit is beginning to ramp up his recruitment. Following Trinity’s 23-13 win over Frederick Douglass in Lexington over the weekend in what was a top-five matchup, Johnson spoke with KSR to provide an update on where things stand.

Johnson listed Louisville, Kentucky, Miami (OH), Purdue, and Indiana as schools he’s hearing regularly from. He noted that Louisville and Kentucky, in particular, are making a more apparent push at this stage.

“A little bit more advanced talks (with UL and UK) but the other schools are just kinda light talks still,” Johnson, who has unofficially visited both schools several times over the last couple of years, said.

Kentucky’s new offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan has quickly made an impression on Johnson. The talented quarterback has already met with Hamdan twice since he was hired, the first during a spring practice session and the second during a camp setting where Johnson was able to throw in front of him.

“I like the new offensive coordinator there,” Johnson said. “I came for a spring practice and I was listening in their meeting and they had a lot of nice plays that I really liked. People are open all the time.”

Great time at UK today. Really enjoyed meeting new OC @BushHamdan. I love what he is doing offensively at Kentucky. I will be back for camp, I could definitely see myself in Blue and White! @CoachPerry_UK Thank you! @RowlandRIVALS @PolacheckKSR @TomLoy247 @SWiltfong247 pic.twitter.com/C4Up1QDP4X

— Zane Johnson (@ZaneJohnson_3) March 31, 2024

As of Friday night, Johnson does not have any fall gameday visits scheduled at this time, but he added that Kentucky and Louisville will “probably” both get visits at some point this season. He still has a way to go before making a college decision, but he already has an idea of what he’s interested in.

“Are they heavy run? Then I probably don’t want to go there because I’m not a runner,” Johnson said. “I want to throw the ball so that’s what I’m looking for.”

Going back to his freshman campaign, Johnson finished his season with 2,289 passing yards and 30 touchdowns with just eight interceptions. He played in 15 games for Trinity, completing 58.4 percent of his passes. Through two games (both wins against ranked opponents) as a sophomore, he’s thrown for 266 yards and four touchdowns with one interception.

Johnson had an unusually tough challenge facing him during the Week 2 win over Frederick Douglass. The Broncos trot out four-star EDGE Cedric Works on defense, who is committed to Kentucky and transferred in state just before the season began. Works found ways to make his presence known, but Johnson knew what was coming.

“We game-planned for him a little bit,” Johnson said of Works. “He didn’t play the first drive, he didn’t play a couple of drives but he’s tall and got long arms and we saw his film on him, he likes to knock down passes. We tried to keep his hands down when we’re throwing and if we’re throwing his way we can’t let him knock any balls down.”

Following the win over Douglass, Trinity jumped up to No. 2 in KSR’s statewide rankings. With Johnson leading the charge, the Shamrocks are primed for another state title run.