Ethan Johnson is a Mountaineer man, much like Elando Johnson and Elijah Johnson before him. While it might feel like Appalachian State Mountaineers football was a destiny destination for the Huntersville, N.C. native, there’s more to his story than simply following in family footsteps. Yes, he’s a legacy, but he’s making his own mark on and off the football field.
Ethan Johnson Makes His Mark as a True Mountaineer Man, Earns National Recognition
Johnson arrived at Appalachian State in 2022, a freshman out of Hough High School with a name that already resonated around the halls of the school. Quiet and reserved, he let his play on the football field tell his story. He’s a standout cornerback with all-conference honors who enters the 2025 college football opener against the Charlotte 49ers as a key part of the Mountaineers.
Yet, that isn’t all that he is. Early in an exclusive interview for PFSN, Johnson admits that “a lot of people don’t know who I am as a person.” That’s often the case with student-athletes, with college football players. It’s easy to assume that the persona you see on a Saturday afternoon in a stadium packed with adoring fans is the person that exists beneath the helmet and pads.
Ahead of his final season in Boone, plenty is known about Johnson the football player. He’s snagged 15 career pass deflections and bagged an interception against the James Madison Dukes that changed the course of Sun Belt history. As impressive as he has been on the football field for Appalachian State, his contributions away from it — as a person — are equal.
This offseason, Johnson was nominated for the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team. The award recognizes excellence in the community, in the classroom, and in leadership. The man who recruited him to Appalachian State, Rod West, once called him a “great kid and phenomenal person who leads by example,” and that seems like a good place to start to understand the man.
Johnson is reflective and measured when I ask him what that means to him. “That’s the guy who recruited me and gave me the opportunity to play here, so it’s very much appreciated. Everything that me and him went through. He’s a big part of my journey, up to this point, so it means a lot for him to say that.”
Johnson leads by action. He leads by faith. His ability to do so comes from the example that he was set. Like his journey to the Mountaineers program, his ability to lead in school and in the community was fostered by the family that paved the way.
“They definitely had a big influence on me, in this area, really in all areas of life,” Johnson explains. “Growing up, I can remember doing community service things. I remember going to a homeless shelter and feeding the homeless a few times with my dad. We did Operation Christmas Child when I was young. We did a food bank event, and a few things with the church.”
“My parents always instilled in us to serve others.”
Being active in the Boone community, in and around Appalachian State, has a heightened sense of meaning when you’ve been around the program and the community your whole life. Johnson helped “uplift the community” alongside his teammates when Boone suffered unthinkable flood damage last fall. When the area suffers, you’re in pain too. It just means more.
“Very important,” Johnson reflects when asked what it means to be able to give back to the community that is inextricably linked to him. “My whole family going here, we’ve all loved our time at App State. We feel very strongly toward this university. Giving back to the community, you know, we’ve been in that community, coming to games and everything like that.”
“So, seeing little kids, you know, that was me at one point. It’s definitely something that means a lot to me, especially with my journey.”
Johnson’s Journey Through Faith to Appalachian State
“It’s very, very important. I’d say it’s a turning point in my life, up to this point. So, we can get into it.”
Calm and diligent are two words that Johnson uses to describe himself. People know him as a football player, but not really as a man, perhaps because of his reserved, quiet nature. He won’t shout about his accomplishments, but it’s clear he’s achieved a lot as a person. Part of the reason we’re together on a July afternoon outside of football season is to understand that.
To fully appreciate who he is as a human being, you have to talk to Johnson about his path to and through Appalachian State, far from the Mountaineers’ sporting trail. His journey is one of football and faith that could have gone much differently if not for the events of 2020, a time of global disruption that proved to have a galvanising force on the direction of a 16-year-old boy.
“We weren’t playing football at that time,” Johnson begins. “So, I was just working out and doing online school, a lot of downtime. My brother was in college at that time, and he was doing a Bible study on Zoom. They were talking about what they were giving up for the Lord in their life personally. It kind of touched me, like, what exactly am I giving up for the Lord?”
“I went into my room and prayed and had an intimate moment with the Lord,” Johnson continues. “After that, I changed a lot of things in my life, and I’ve been living my life differently from that point.”
When someone tells you that they made a commitment to change the direction of their life, there’s a natural inquisitiveness that makes you want to understand more. Johnson might be quiet and reserved, but he’s approachable and amenable as we dive into the why behind his approach to life.
“Not anything specifically,” he answers when I ask what he felt needed to change. “Just the way I was living my life as a whole. I wanted to do things differently. I don’t think I was necessarily doing anything people would deem as bad, but for me personally, there were changes that I wanted to make.”
Alongside his own journey of faith-based discovery, the Johnson family provided a foundation for him to build, describing their influence as having “planted the seed, and they continued to water it,” until he found his own direction.
Somewhere between his upbringing, his own experiences, and his generally reserved nature, the Appalachian State cornerback has found his own way to help others with their journey of faith.
“That’s my testimony, so I’ve shared it,” Johnson explains. “You know, I think everybody’s testimony is powerful in its own way, so I’m not just going around proclaiming. I’m not really that type of person, but you know, if the topic gets into that, I definitely try to explain what changed in my life. They didn’t know me at 16, just know how I am now. It’s a good conversation to have.”
Continuing the Johnson Legacy at Appalachian State
There aren’t many true freshmen who come into college football and make an immediate impression. However, with the weight of expectation carried on his nameplate, Johnson shone early and often for Appalachian State in 2022. Playing in nine games with two starts, he made tackles, broke up passes, and made his mark at the start of his college football journey.
While family has influenced him both on and off the field, Johnson talks passionately about the high school that helped hold him, that helped allow him to step up to the college level without skipping a beat. On a team full of stars at Hough High School, it also likely helped form the man he is away from the field.
“It wasn’t a high school where, you know, there’s one good player, he’s the best player, and he runs the town and all that,” he says of an environment that helped keep him grounded. “No, it was a bunch of great players and we had to compete just to play, and then we had fun when we won.”
There’s been a lot of winning since he arrived in Boone, too. In his freshman year, the program went 6-6, but in 2023, Johnson was an All-Sun Belt honoree on a team that went 9-5, won six games in the conference, played for a Sun Belt title, and won the Cure Bowl against a strong Miami RedHawks team. That year made a very clear impression on the Appalachian State corner.
“There were definitely some moments my sophomore year,” he smiles.
“JMU was probably the one that sticks out to me. We’re on a win streak, but JMU were ranked, College Game Day, everyone’s picking JMU, counting us out, and then to be able to win in a hostile environment. Just celebrating in that locker room, I’ll never forget that game.”
That season was followed by one that didn’t match expectations of the program. Although Johnson continued to be a thorn in the side of opposing receivers, Appalachian State slumped to a 5-6 record and won just three Sun Belt games. With pressure mounting, Shawn Clark was relieved of his duties, and former South Carolina offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains took over.
“The new staff has been great. So much experience,” Johnson begins to talk about the 2025 season. “As far as expectations, everybody’s counting us out, and I feel like that’s good for us. Everybody should be counting us out. We have a lot to prove.”
“This new staff has instilled getting back to that standard of what App State football is. So, we’ve been putting in the work, and now we’ve just got to prove it and win some games.”
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2025 will be Johnson’s last season with Appalachian State.
He arrived as a legacy, the latest of his name to represent the program at a high level. His journey has been one of matching the expectations set before him while leaving his own mark. The nomination for the Allstate Good Works Team speaks to his success there, but what does Johnson want his legacy to be?
“I wanted to carry on the legacy of my family. I wanted to do some things that, you know, maybe my dad or brother weren’t able to do. But, also, I guess I want people to say, who I was as a person, how I treated people, the way I lived my life, how I worked and impacted people. Hopefully, they’ll say ‘he was a true Mountaineer’ and that I gave everything for the black and gold.”
