Hunter Johnson and John Hart were a package deal.

Hart, a one-time coach at Warren Central in Indianapolis, was offered the head-coaching job at Brownsburg (Ind.) in December 2015. Johnson, a rising senior at Brownsburg at the time, was thinking about transferring to powerhouse IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.) for his final season after IMG came calling.

 So, before Hart took the job, he phoned Johnson to settle the situation.

“I called him because all the rumors were out there about IMG,” Hart told The Clemson Insider recently. “He had been offered and recruited heavily by IMG, and his concern was about the hiring process.

“So we made a pact that if he was coming, then I was coming, and that’s kind of how our relationship started.”

Johnson and Hart opted for Brownsburg, and it worked out well for both. Brownsburg won its first conference championship in four years, led by Johnson, who was named the state of Indiana’s Mr. Football at the end of the season after throwing for 2,233 yards and 25 touchdowns while rushing for 525 yards and three scores.

Hart knew from the beginning what he would be working with in Johnson, the nation’s No. 1 quarterback in the 2017 recruiting class.

But what Hart didn’t know and learned in just one season is what kind of person Johnson is.

“He’s as solid, good of a person slash kid as he is an athlete,” Hart said. “If he’s the one percent of the one percent in the country throwing the football — which, in my opinion, he is — he’s also that kind of person.”

Dabo Swinney prides Clemson’s program on recruiting not only great players, but great people as well.

That’s what he got in Deshaun Watson for three seasons, and that’s what Hart says he will get in Johnson at Clemson.

From what Hart has heard about Watson and the high quality of his character on top of his gifts as a player, it sounds a lot like Johnson to him.

“The Deshaun Watsons of this world are rare and it probably isn’t fair to compare anybody to people like him,” Hart said. “But when I read stuff about Deshaun Watson and when I hear coach Swinney say stuff about Deshaun Watson, it’s the same things I want to say about Hunter.

“Everybody knows about (Johnson’s) gifts. What a lot of people don’t give him enough credit for is his faith and his love of family and his humbleness. He wants to get better every single day, and not very many people want to do that when you’re the one percent of the one percent.”

Watson and Johnson, who enrolled at Clemson in January, took similar paths to the school as highly touted five-star prospects and top-ranked quarterbacks in their classes.

Both are exceptional athletes, though Johnson may not get the credit he is due for his athleticism.

“What a lot of people don’t know is at the Elite 11 (quarterback skills competition) and the other places where they had in common, Hunter as a senior in high school actually tested higher in most athletic competitions than what Deshaun did,” Hart said. “So, he is a very underrated, great athlete, and obviously he’s a throwing phenom.”

Hart said Johnson’s combination of arm strength, accuracy and athleticism among other traits will help him perform at a high level right away as he tries to win the battle for Clemson’s starting quarterback job next season.

“I think he’s going to come in being exceptional. And then character, he’s going to come in being exceptional,” Hart said. “His challenges in converting from the high school game to the college game are all the pre-snap and post-snap reads. In college football, it becomes faster obviously, and that’s going to be his challenges as being a freshman coming in.

“That’s where everybody’s going to have a jump on him in spring ball, but that’s where he’s going to have the jump on everybody else come fall ball.”

Johnson finished his high school career with a whopping 6,657 passing yards and 69 passing touchdowns — both school records.

Looking ahead to Johnson’s future, Hart has no doubt he’ll leave his mark on Clemson’s program.

“Having coaches like (Brandon) Streeter and (Jeff) Scott and Swinney, they’re going to elevate his game, and I really believe that,” Hart said. “And he’s a great student of the game, has a great passion for the game. As long as he progresses on those things, there’s no doubt in my mind he’ll play on Sundays and be the next great quarterback at Clemson.”

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