Life after football led three-star defensive lineman, Joshua Horton, to commit to North Carolina

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Three-star defensive lineman, Joshua Horton, recently made his commitment to the University of North Carolina. While many recruits look at their options for what the school can do for them football wise, Horton looked at his options, especially North Carolina, about what the school can do for him after football.

Joshua Horton is a 6-foot-5, 300-pound defensive lineman from Langston Hughes High School in Fairburn, Georgia. He is ranked as the No. 98 defensive lineman in the country, No. 85 recruit in Georgia, and the No. 849 overall recruit in the country. On Thursday night, Horton joined me on Instagram Live to discuss his commitment to North Carolina and more.

Joshua Horton Interview

https://www.instagram.com/tv/Chs-z19skJD/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Horton, like many other elite high school football players, hope to develop their talents enough in college to make it to the professional level. But Horton sees college as more than a developmental stage; he sees it as a time to prepare for life beyond football, or whenever the time comes that football will end.

“Football is my dream, to play professional football and things of that nature. But NFL doesn’t last too long; at the most, you’ll get 10 years, 10 years is not that much life,” Horton said. “You have all this life after football, you need to align what you’re going to do, and UNC was the best option for me.”

Not only did North Carolina provide everything Horton needs for his future, but he would be accomplishing all his goals beyond people who motivate him. While he is still strengthening his relationships with his future teammates, he is excited to be on the same team with them. “My official visit weekend was about the most commits I’ve seen. So I built a bond with those guys over the weekend I was there,” Horton said. “Seeing them commit and knowing I get to play with them is pretty cool.”

The recruiting process was a fun experience for Horton, but when it came down to making a decision, it was hard for the pressure not to get to him. “It was the funnest period of my life. You got a lot of people boosting your head, which you can’t let get to your head, but it feels good,” Horton said. “But towards the end, a lot of people get to pressing you about committing here, and doing this, and doing that, and that’s when it starts to get stressful.”

Now that Horton has his college commitment out of the way, he is able to put full focus toward his senior season. His team at Langston Hughes last season was a 6A State Runner-Up last season, and was a field goal away from winning the state title. The Panthers have a lot of talent returning, and Horton hopes they can make another deep run in the playoffs this season. “The team’s been good enough, but we have room for improvement and we’re improving daily,” Horton said. “I’m looking forward to us peeking out later on in the season, and I don’t think anybody will be able to run with that.”

Regardless of how his senior season may turn out, Horton will move onto a bigger stage in his career at North Carolina next fall. But the important thing is, he knows that the decision he made will set him up for success beyond football as well.