When East Carolina standout Chris Johnson ran the 40-yard dash, all they saw was a blur. The 5-foot-11, 195-pound all-purpose All-America was clocked in 4.24 seconds, the fastest time at the combine this year.

"I was a little bit [surprised] but knew I had the capability," said Johnson, who is projected as an early to middle second-round selection in Saturday's draft.

According to Alex Marvez of FOXSports.com, Johnson initially turned in a 4.29, but he received a text message from South Florida's Mike Jenkins, who told him Arkansas' Darren McFadden had run a 4.27.

That motivated Johnson to crank up his fleet feet and try again. He "got a good start," kicked into another gear and eclipsed the more-heralded Razorback's time.

"I wasn't nervous, just excited to be competing against all the best backs,'' said Johnson, who is in his hometown of Orlando, Fla., where he plans to watch the draft with his mother, father, three brothers and friends.

He expects to be on the edge of his seat at times but says he'll try to "just relax."

Johnson, who set 18 game, season and career records at East Carolina and led the nation with 2,960 all-purpose yards the previous fall, also has covered a lot of ground since the season ended.

He has visited 12 NFL teams, who saw more than a jet-propelled athlete in a helmet.

Joe Segal, Johnson's agent, said the clubs view him as a "difference maker" and were impressed with his "high character and demeanor" as well as his toughness and speed.

Unlike some of the showboating, gyrating backs, Johnson is more "reserved" and is quiet off the field.

As for toughness, the resilient Pirate showed plenty of grit by bouncing back from a neck injury before the 2007 season. In the midst of many violent collisions, he held on to the football as if it were ... well, an NFL paycheck.

He averaged 2.5 fumbles per season and bobbled the ball just two times in his career during road games. That stat will impress a coach, who would rather undergo back surgery than have a fumble-prone back.

"He's strong, and he's no little man,'' said Robert Head, who didn't coach Johnson at Orlando's Olympia High but knows all about him. "He can take hits, and he can dish it out. He's hard-working, focused. He was always well-liked here by teammates and coaches.

"I think he will play running back but not carry the load [in the NFL]. They'll throw to him out of the backfield, use him on kickoff and punt returns as well as a third-down back."

Johnson has always been fast, having run a 10.2 100 meters at Olympia, where he played football for former coach Mike Cullison. A bevy of big schools recruited him, but he qualified late academically, and East Carolina had a scholarship waiting.

For the Pirates, it was like finding Blackbeard's treasure.

Johnson padded softly onto ECU's campus in 2004, a private kid who would rather face a fierce defense than sit through an interview. But that changed as his stature as a player reached high visibility.

"He grew by leaps and bounds," said Tom McClellan, ECU's media relations director. "What he did in football paled in comparison to what he did as a student-athlete and [in] feeling comfortable with the media."

Johnson closed his ECU career in December with 408 all-purpose yards in a 41-38 Hawaii Bowl victory over Boise State and finished the season with a school-record 24 touchdowns.

"He's a tremendous talent," ECU coach Skip Holtz said.

But Johnson has some work to do. He grew up watching Deion Sanders, admiring the former college and NFL star's "flash," enjoying his touchdown celebrations.

The NCAA penalizes college players for excessive celebrations, but now that he's speeding toward the pros, Johnson says, "I've got to come up with some stuff."