Football can take people many places, and one former Bobcat player hopes that place is in the pros.
Stephan Johnson, concrete industry management senior, played four years as a safety on the defense for the Texas State football team. He explained what it meant to him to be able to have a March 26 pro day. Pro day is for former football players at colleges to perform Combine events in front of NFL scouts.
“It was an opportunity to pursue my lifelong dream,” Johnson said. “A chance to show what I can do and impress the scouts enough to at least give me an opportunity in their organization.”
Johnson is expected to graduate in fall 2018. In the meantime, he wants to continue to grow mentally, spiritually and physically. Johnson hopes to finish his last semester strong and get the degree he has been working towards. Johnson wants to help others as best as he can, spread wisdom and gain more of his own.
Johnson said he has not yet decided what he wants to do after college and everything is on hold until he sees what is going to happen with football.
“If I get picked up and signed to a team then that is one thing,” Johnson said. “But if not, then I plan to continue to train and work towards achieving my goals, or jump into my engineering career field, or even have an option to pursue coaching.”
Johnson knows he has many things he could work on for both himself and the team.
“It’s always a chase for perfection,” Johnson said. “Even though you’re never going to be perfect, you always want to strive for it. I want to get faster, stronger, quicker and even though I have a pretty good knowledge of the game, I want to learn a lot more.”
Johnson has much support from friends and family. Darrell Green, Johnson’s friend, is happy to see Johnson’s career gaining opportunities.
“I know he’s going to go somewhere,” Green said. “I’ve been watching him and have been supporting him since we met. He is doing his thing and I know it’s something he has worked hard for.”
Riah Mosley, former Texas State football teammate, explained the hard work Johnson put in while he was his teammate.
“He always worked hard at practice,” Mosley said. “(I) never really heard him complain much. He would make sure that he was in the best position to make a play in the game.”
Johnson said he would be grateful and blessed to get the opportunity to play for any team.