It hasn’t all been a fairy tale

It turns out once again that no life is perfect -- not even “pinch-me” Ian Johnson’s.

It was a lot to expect that the most talked-about star of Boise State’s miracle victory over Oklahoma in last season’s Fiesta Bowl would get a seamless romp from his walk-off, two-point conversion run in overtime, to his post-game marriage proposal on national television, to today’s buzz-of-Boise wedding to cheerleader Chrissy Popadics.

Johnson made it seven months between big plays -- Statue of Liberty to Tie the Knot -- with nary a hiccup.

He thought, at times, he was living in a fantasy world.

“It’s been out of control how great this has been,” Johnson said of his post-Fiesta Bowl life.

However, Johnson, who is black (with traces of other races), is marrying a white girl, and that still isn’t OK with some people.

Johnson told the Idaho Statesman this week that he has received about 30 threatening letters and phone calls regarding his nuptials.

“You take it for what it is -- the less educated, the less willing to change,” Johnson told the paper.

Johnson did not raise concerns during his media session Monday at the Western Athletic Conference’s annual media day in San Jose.

He was his usual giddy, effusive, mile-a-minute self as he looked forward to his walk down the aisle.

“We opened it up to about 700 at the ceremony,” Johnson said of the plans. “Because when you pay for the church, you pay for the whole church. Might as well let people show up. As far as the money, money took us to only about 150 people for the reception.

“We wanted to have a nice, classy reception, and to do that we could only have about 150.”

Johnson, Boise State officials confess, probably didn’t know his public comments regarding the threats would make such instant and important news.

He’s a star now, though, and has almost unfailingly tried to hold up his end of the responsibility.

“These people are the ones who make this jersey sell,” Johnson said of his fans.

“These people are the ones who fill the seats. Without them, I’m just playing a game in the stadium and nobody cares. I asked for all this.

“The least I can do is to spend some time and say here’s a handshake, here’s a hug, take a picture.”

Johnson and his family are determined not to let a few people ruin their weekend plans. They know Idaho is a predominantly white state, with a black population of only about 0.6%.

Johnson told the Statesman that Idaho wasn’t the problem.

“We’ve had just as many threats from outside the state as inside the state,” he said.

Athletic department spokesman Todd Miles said Friday that Johnson, with his wedding fast approaching, has chosen not to comment further about the threats.

Colleen Johnson, Ian’s mother, said the family is moving forward.

“Stuff like that happens,” she said. “We’ve put it on the back burner and are going on about life. It’s all we can do. You can feed it or let it die.”

And the family chooses to let it die?

“Yes we do,” Colleen Johnson said.

Boise State has received permission from the NCAA under the “special circumstances” clause to use school funds to pay for extra security at Johnson’s wedding.

No one expects the worst, but that doesn’t mean you don’t prepare for it.

The honeymoon?

Well, that’s been put on hold.

For Johnson, who grew up in San Dimas and attended La Verne Damien High, there is still football work to be done. He soon enters his junior season, a high-beam light this year instead of a reflector. He led the nation in 2006 with 25 touchdowns and finished eighth in the Heisman Trophy race.

Just talk of his being a preseason candidate leaves Johnson in various states of flabbergast.

“What?” Johnson says. “Why?”

He and his teammates are out to prove that Boise State’s 13-0 record last season was no fluke.

The wedding is today, and the football resumes tomorrow.

A belated honeymoon will be hitched onto the end of Boise State’s final regular-season game, Nov. 23 at Hawaii.

Ian and Chrissy, the tailback and the cheerleader, first met in Hawaii, on a previous Boise State football trip.

An eternity, seemingly, has passed between then and now.

“It’s got its own little place, and we give it a lot of attention,” Johnson said of newfound celebrity, “but we never let it affect other aspects of our lives.”

Isolated pockets of ugliness aside, the whirlwind of America’s College Football Couple continues.

On top of that, they still have to remodel the house.

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chris.dufresne@latimes.com