clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Let’s Not Talk Football with Jordan Johnson

JJ dishes on veganism, music and TV

By JeffSharon
COLLEGE FOOTBALL: DEC 01 AAC Championship Game - UCF v Memphis
UCF’s most famous vegan, Jordan Johnson
Photo by Andrew Bershaw/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

This is our first installment of Let’s Not Talk Football, where we ask questions of some members of the UCF Knights’ football team questions that aren’t about football. We’ll be rolling this out over the run-up to the season.

First up: the guy who starts every play on offense.

Jordan Johnson

  • Senior
  • Center
  • 6’2”, 320 pounds
  • Ed White High School - Jacksonville, Florida
  • Twitter/Instagram

Favorite team growing up?

Jacksonville Jaguars.

Favorite athlete growing up?

Either Tim Tebow or Percy Harvin. They were some ballers.

Top three artists in your phone?

Drake, J Cole, Meek Mill. Honorable mention: Old Lil Wayne. Not his new stuff.

Song that’s on your mind right now?

Anything off of “Tha Carter III.”

COLLEGE FOOTBALL: DEC 02 AAC Championship Game - Memphis at UCF
This would be fun to see in a game.
Photo by Joe Petro/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Favorite movie?

The Dark Knight

Favorite TV show?

Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Favorite place to hang out in your hometown?

I do visit my high school to go see how the team’s looking. So I like to go back home and se what they’re brewin’ up. Let ‘em know how they’ll never be as good as my team!

Favorite meal?

I love Asian food. Any kind of veggie stir-fry with rice and vegetables, and some tofu in there sounds good.

Jordan Johnson on Veganism

I’m amazed at how committed you’ve been to being a vegan. How can you maintain a vegan diet and play center on a major Division I college football team?

Somebody has to be the first, you know? A revolution starts with one person. So I just want to let people know that it is possible to only eat vegetables as well as be big and strong.

Have you found it harder to maintain weight?

I wouldn’t say it’s harder. I just have to be more conscientious about it. I have to focus on it. But before, I was just literally eating whatever I wanted, so now, getting down to my last season and thinking about my professional career, I want to be as good as I can be. So focusing on my diet has helped me tremendously.

What’s the one thing that you didn’t expect?

The main thing I can say was, when I went vegetarian last year, my recovery time after a football game. Usually I’m sluggish or I don’t really want to do anything after the game or the next day. But the next day after the game, as a vegetarian, my recovery time was cut in half.

Biggest celebrity you’ve interacted with?

When we went to the Pro Bowl after we won our National Championship, I got to meet Randy Moss. They were doing their press conference down on the field, and I got to walk up to him, asked for a picture, and tell him I played for UCF, and he congratulated us on our season.

If not for football, what sport would you play?

I used to wrestle back in high school, and I grew a passion for wrestling. I do love basketball as well.

What do you want to do when football is over?

I’m going to be a sports commentator.

If you had $1 million to give to a charity, what charity would it be?

I would like to be a philanthropist one day, so I’d like to start my own foundation and give back to the community I grew up in. I grew up in an after-school kids foundation, and I want to have one of my own one day.

Best piece of advice anyone ever gave you?

That’s a tough question. It’s football related. A lot of people think you can just turn it on on Saturday nights. I was always told, “You don’t rise to the occasion; You sink down to the level of your training,” meaning you have to practice how you’re going to play. You’re not going to just practice mediocrity and then on Saturday nights turn it on. You have to practice full speed, practice every rep like you’re in a real game, because when you get in the game, you’re not going to rise to the occasion, you’ll sink to the level of your training.

More From Black & Gold Banneret