JUCO DB PICKS UK: Cats land Lonnie Johnson

Kentucky's second commitment of the day might be prepared to make an immediate impact for the program.

Junior college defensive back Lonnie Johnson committed to Kentucky at a media event held in Gary, Ind., early Tuesday evening.

The 6-foot-3, 210-pound prospect, most recently of Garden City C.C. in Kansas, has been recruited to play cornerback at Kentucky. Johnson's other finalists were Georgia and West Virginia.

West Virginia is the first Power Five school that Johnson officially visited as a junior college recruit. The Mountaineers assumed the top spot on Johnson's list after that.

Johnson told Cats Illustrated that Kentucky had narrowed the gap and pulled even following his official visit to Lexington during the weekend of December 2nd.

Georgia offered Johnson shortly after he finished his official visit to UK and he promptly switched a planned official visit to Memphis out for one to Georgia.

In spite of the Bulldogs' prestige and historic recruiting success, they weren't able to sway Johnson from Kentucky.

Vince Marrow had previously built a relationship with Johnson when he was a Class of 2014 high school recruit from Gary (Ind.) West Side. Kentucky recruited Johnson then and when he officially visited Kentucky he said that being around Marrow was like spending time with family. Johnson also said he enjoyed getting to know defensive backs coach Steven Clinkscale.

Johnson is Kentucky's second commitment of the day. The first was four-star Olney (Md.) Good Counsel defensive end Joshua Paschal.

Johnson nets Kentucky 75 points according to the Rivals.com recruiting ranking formula. Paschal's commitment had pushed Kentucky up to No. 25 in the national recruiting rankings. Johnson's commitment moves Kentucky up to No. 22 nationally and moves the Cats' class ahead of Michigan State, Southern Cal and Arkansas.