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Inside The Huskies

Husky Roster Review: Elias Johnson Went From Being Sick to Feeling Great

The redshirt freshman cornerback had a stick-out performance in the Spring Game.
Dan Raley|
Elias Johnson is a redshirt freshman cornerback for the UW.
Elias Johnson is a redshirt freshman cornerback for the UW. | Skylar Lin Visuals

University of Washington spring football ended a lot better than it began for Elias Johnson.

The bad stuff: near the end of the second of 15 practices on a warm day, the redshirt freshman cornerback came off the East field in obvious distress, pulled off his helmet and threw it down hard, fell to his knees and vomited.

The 6-foot-2, 175-pound Johnson from Tualatin, Oregon, needed a moment to get his body right. He sat on a bench. He then climbed to his feet and went back in, ready or not giving himself only a brief recovery time.

The good stuff: on his third series in the Spring Game, Johnson ran step for step with redshirt freshman wide receiver Justice Williams for a deep ball, turned his left shoulder inside when Kai Horton's pass arrived and came up with an interception, playing it perfectly.

Redshirt freshman cornerback Elias Johnson makes Spring Game interception.
Redshirt freshman cornerback Elias Johnson makes Spring Game interception. | Skylar Lin Visuals

This is one in a series of articles -- going from 0 to 99 on the Husky roster -- examining what each scholarship player and leading walk-on did this past spring and what to expect from them going forward.

Johnson's heads-up turnover was the first of four interceptions in the Spring Game, making it a defensive day for the Huskies. He actually did more than that, coming up with a pass break-up of a Horton pass on his fourth snap of the day.

It also marked a steady spring progression for the thin and lanky defensive back, who had a tough time early on even before losing his lunch.

At the end of the first UW spring practice, Johnson twice got beat for touchdown catches by Penn State transfer Omari Evans, even while seemingly all over him on the second throw but losing a jump ball.

Yet that's what spring football is all about is getting tested and bouncing back. In cornerback drills, he showed himself to be aggressive in pushing and shoving UW wide receivers on routes. He seemed to make a lot of progress.

He had that Spring Game PBU and interception. And notably he appeared to survive the rest of the month without going down on his hands and knees again.

ELIAS JOHNSON FILE

What he's done: A DeBoer recruit, Johnson spent much of his freshman year at the UW injured and unavailable. He didn't appear in any games. For Jesuit High, he played for three playoff teams and showed a lot of speed, returning a pair of punts and a kickoff for touchdowns.

Starter or not: Johnson largely played with the No. 2 defense during the spring as he continued his UW development. With his size and speed, there's no reason he can't be a Husky starter some day. He showed great instincts on his Spring Game interception.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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