Senior QB Darian Stone winner of 2014 Robert Hill Johnson Award
Senior quarterback Darian Stone been voted by his Tennessee Tech football teammates as the winner of the team’s prestigious Robert Hill Johnson Award for 2014.
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Senior quarterback Darian Stone been
voted by his Tennessee Tech football teammates as the winner of the
team’s prestigious Robert Hill Johnson Award for 2014.
Stone was recognized Thursday evening during Tech’s
basketball doubleheader in Eblen Center, and will formally accept
the honor at the team's annual Awards Dinner on Sunday, March
1.
“Darian had an outstanding career, and he has meant an awful
lot to this program,” said head coach Watson Brown. “I
am really proud of him.”
The 6-foot senior from Clinton, Tenn., led the team in rushing
each of the past three years and in passing the past two years. He
finished his career throwing for 2,753 yards and 19 touchdowns, and
rushing for 1,664 yards and 10 touchdowns, accounting for 4,402
yards of total offense. He ranks 10th all-time in
Tech history in passing yards, 12th in rushing yards,
and 6th in total offense.
“We created the QW position and he was doing really well in
that role,” Brown said. “Then we lost all our
tight ends and Darian had to go back to quarterback. He had missed
out on all of the training at quarterback, so it took him a game or
two, but by mid-season he was doing well.”
He completed 53 percent of his passes in 2014, throwing for 929
yards and five touchdowns. He also led the team in rushing with 495
yards on 142 carries, with another touchdown. As a receiver while
playing the QW position, he had 12 catches for 71 yards and two
more scores, to account for eight total touchdowns.
In addition to his contributions on the field, Stone was a team
leader.
“He’s a great kid and a real team player,” Brown
said. “He has such a positive attitude, and he always wanted
to do well for all the right reasons. He was a quiet kind of
leader, who led by example, and he had some really great
games.”
In the final game of his career, a 41-15 win over Austin Peay last
November, Stone was 15-for-18 passing for 186 yards and one
touchdown, rushed 17 times for 130 yards, and also caught a
five-yard touchdown pass.
That wasn’t the finest game of his career, however. That
came during his sophomore season when Stone earned FCS National
Offensive Player of the Week honors. He accounted 467 yards of
total offense against UT Martin, throwing for 277 yards and rushing
for 190 more.
He finished with four 100-yard rushing games and three 200-yard
passing games.
Stone is the third quarterback in the past six years to receive the honor, following Lee Sweeney in 2009 and Tre Lamb in 2012. He is only the eighth quarterback to win in the 64-year history of presenting the award. Grant Swallows won it in 2001, the first signal-caller selected in 30 years since Jim Waddell in 1971. Others included Jim Ragland in 1963, Richard Mann in 1958, and William Robinson in 1956.
The award is named for Robert Hill Johnson, a native of Sparta, Tenn., who was a student and assistant football coach at Tennessee Polytechnic Institute when he was killed in an auto accident in 1952, at the age of 22.
The son of Mr. and Mrs. A.E. Johnson, he attended White County High School and was a standout in football for one year. He then transferred to The Baylor School in Chattanooga where he earned three football letters.
He enrolled at the University of Alabama, but a shoulder injury ended his playing career. In the fall of 1951 Johnson became a student at TPI, where he also coached offensive and defensive ends.
After just one season at TPI, Johnson was killed instantly when his car crashed into a concrete bridge railing at Cripple Creek, about seven miles east of Murfreesboro, on U.S. Highway 70.
Previous winners of the Robert Hill Johnson
Award
1951 Flavious Smith, E
1952 Tom Fann, T
1953 Ken Broyles, HB
1954 James Passions, T
1955 Johnny Clark, RB
1956 William Robinson, QB
1957 Kenneth Wright, FB
1958 Richard Mann, QB
1959 W.J. Shumaker, HB
1960 Tommy Hackler, E
1961 Lowell Smith, C
1962 Jackie Corbin, HB
1963 Jim Ragland, QB
1964 Bob Borkowski, OG
1965 Ron Reeves, FB
1966 Sherold Walker, T
1967 Larry Schreiber, RB
1968 Larry Schreiber, RB
1969 Larry Schreiber, RB
1970 John Tanner, LB
1971 Jim Waddell, QB
1972 Jim Youngblood, LB
1973 Dana Winningham, LB
1974 Elois Grooms, DE
1975 Ronnie Fain, DE
1976 Joe Jachimowicz, DT
1977 Lamar Mike, RB
and Mark
Shrum, LB
1978 Craig Rolle, WR
1979 Steve Davis, P
1980 Wayne Anderson, K
1981 Brad Millice, TE
1982 Billy Blaylock, DB
1983 Danny Templin, OT
1984 Jeff Daughtry, LB
1985 Barry Wilmore, LB
1986 Nate Hooks, WR
1987 Lorenza Rivers, RB
1988 Mike Thornton, ROV
1989 Fred Edgington, LB
1990 John Webb, FB
1991 Ricky Sanders, DL
1992 Marrio Thomas, LB
1993 Maurice Draine, LB
1994 Brian Pankey, DT
1995 Michael Penix, TB
1996 Robert Taylor, CB
1997 Sammy Sanders, LB
1998 Josh Harris, DL
1999 Branon Vaughn, DL
2000 Chad Evitts, LB
2001 Grant Swallows, QB
2002 Daniel Wentzel, LB
2003 Jason Ballard, RB
2004 Tommy Harrison, LB
2005 Larry Shipp, WR
2006 Anthony Ash, RB
and Larry
Shipp, WR
2007 Larry Shipp, WR
and Derek
White, RB
2008 Tim Benford, WR
2009 Lee Sweeney, QB
2010 Tim Benford, WR
2011 Tim Benford, WR
2012 Tre Lamb, QB
2013 Jordan Johnson, DT
2014 Darian Stone, QB
