By Chadd Cripe
ccripe@idahostatesman.com

Ian Johnson’s goals for the 2008 offseason:

Stronger.

Faster.

Fatter.

Wait, fatter?

Johnson has bulked up to 202 pounds — he finished last season at about 194 — and hopes to reach 210 pounds before the season begins. He’s doing it in part by increasing his body fat, a response to the two internal-organ injuries he has suffered in the past two seasons.

“One thing that has always, not been a fault, but it has come up, is that I don’t have much body fat,” Johnson said Friday, “and it does lead to the possibility of internal injuries.”

Johnson missed one game with a partially collapsed lung in 2006 and two games with a bruised kidney in 2007.

He is participating in spring ball this year after missing all of spring practice in 2007 and most of it in 2006 with other injuries.

Going into this offseason healthy allowed Johnson to get stronger — he was the strongest skill-position player in winter testing — while retaining excellent speed. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.51 seconds, a solid number for a running back.

In fact, Johnson was one of five players on the team to reach the highest level in strength coach Tim Socha’s scoring system for winter conditioning.

“I had some goals for myself,” Johnson said. “I fell a little short on some of them, but I definitely set some very lofty goals and took this offseason very seriously. I impressed myself on some of the things I was able to come through with.”

Johnson is a two-time All-WAC first-teamer. He was a Heisman Trophy candidate in 2006, when he rushed for 1,713 yards and scored a national-best 25 touchdowns. He followed up with 1,041 rushing yards, 312 receiving yards and 17 total touchdowns last year, when he missed all or most of three games.

His role in the offense might slip this year with three other excellent tailbacks on the roster, but he will return kickoffs and could land roles on other special-teams units, too.

He likes the idea of returning kickoffs, a job he would have had in the Hawaii Bowl if he hadn’t sprained his ankle in practice and sat out most of the game.

“It comes down to open-field running, which is something a running back has a lot of experience doing,” he said. “Now it’s whether or not you can stick with your blocks, whether you can catch the ball and just be fearless enough to run 100 miles an hour into a wedge hoping there’s no one else with a perfect angle to cut your head off.”

By the way, Johnson’s first carry in a team situation this spring came during a hurry-up offense session. The result: a 70-yard touchdown run.

It gave him a good first impression of the new offensive line.

“I was like, ‘Wow!’ ” he said.

Audio: Ian Johnson talks about his beefed-up body and 2008 role.

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Don’t expect to hear much from senior quarterback Bush Hamdan this spring. Hamdan told the media in January that he would be available on a limited basis this spring. He turned down requests for Friday, when the other three quarterbacks did show up.

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Johnson’s comment on the youth of the offensive line:

“It’s, ‘Man, you’re barely out of high school. I’m not sure you can tie your shoes.’ ”