COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- Four seniors were announced as the permanent football team captains to put the finishing touches on the 2014 Golden Eagle season, and team award winners were recognized at Tennessee Tech's annual Football Awards Dinner Saturday evening. The team also celebrated its departing Senior Class.
Senior safeties Austin Tallant from Alcoa, Tenn. and Marty Jones from Cincinnati, senior receiver Cody Matthews from Gallatin, Tenn., and senior quarterback Darian Stone from Clinton, Tenn., were introduced as permanent captains of the 2014 season.
The top honor of the day was the announcement of senior quarterback Darian Stone (photo below) as winner of the 61st annual Robert Hill Johnson Award. Stone led the team in passing and rushing, making a position change in the early season into the starting quarterback assignment. He threw for 929 yards and five touchdowns, hitting 53.1 percent of his passes, and rushed for 495 yards and another TD on 142 attempts. He also caught 12 passes for 71 yards and two touchdowns.
The Robert Hill Johnson Award was established in 1952, and is considered the most prestigious award presented to a Golden Eagle player each year.
The team's Academic Award went to three players. Junior wide receiver Steve Wilson from Nashville, Matthews and senior safety Partrick Prewitt from Vestavia, Ala., shared the honor. Wilson is a business major who owns a string of semesters with a GPA above 3.0. Matthews graduated in December with a 3.50 GPA in English-professional journalism, was named CoSIDA Academic All-District and earned a spot on the FCS ADA Scholar All-Star team. He was honored by the National Football Foundation as a University Scholar-Athlete. Prewitt produced a 4.0 GPA while earning his degree in EXPW/pre-physical therapy. He was a nominee for Academic All-America honors and the university’s prestigious Derryberry Award.
Senior long snapper Ben Viaene and senior runningback Stephen Bush shared the Unsung Hero Award. An agricultural engineering major from Hortonville, Wis., Viaene handled all of the long snapping chores for the past two seasons. Bush, an accounting major from Cookeville, played in the first three games of the year before being sidelined by an injury. He rushed for 62 yards on 17 carries and caught one pass for 17 yards, and continued to provide vocal support from the sidelines despite his injury.
The Tech Pride Award was presented to Jones, a first-team all-OVC selection who started all 12 games and topped Tech with 113 total tackles to rank second in the OVC. He also topped Tech with four interceptions. Wrapping up his sixth season on the squad, Jones returned to action after missing two full seasons with injuries and earned three degrees along the way.
The Sonny Allen Team Leadership Award, as well as the Most Valuable Defensive Player Award, went to Tallant, who ranked second on the team and third in the OVC in tackles, making 102 stops in 12 games. He also forced four fumbles, made six tackles-for-loss and snared two interceptions. Tallant won the Tech Athletics Unsung Leader Award for the month of October.
Offensive lineman Randall Reeves, a senior from McCalla, Ala., won the Bill Dupes Inspiration Award. Reeves was a starter for the final 30 games of his career.
The Tony Stone Bumble Bee DB Award was presented to Jones for the second consecutive year. Among his 2014 highlights was setting a school and OVC record with four interceptions in one game, and also scoring the game-winning two-point conversion in that contest against Eastern Kentucky.
Stone and redshirt freshman Brock McCoin were co-winners of the Most Valuable Offensive Player honor. Stone directed the offense, ranking as the team’s leading rusher for the second consecutive year. McCoin, a slot receiver from Livingston, Ala., earned a spot on the OVC all-Freshman team after ranking second on the team in receiving with 43 catches for 417 yards and two touchdowns.
Return specialist Ladarius Vanlier accepted the Most Valuable Special Teams Player Award. A junior from Nashville, Tenn., Vanlier captured three All-America honors and was named second-team all-OVC. He ranked first in the OVC in punt returns with 14.4 yards per try with two returns for touchdowns, and third in kickoff returns with 22.3 yards per carry and another score.
Five additional MVP Awards were presented to position players.
In the trenches, Jibrin Linge was named the Most Valuable Offensive Lineman while Kevin Robinson-White took home the Most Valuable Defensive Lineman awards. Linge, a junior business major from Marietta, Ga., has made 31 consecutive starts while playing, at times, both guard and tackle. Robinson-White, a sophomore from Cincinnati, ranked second in the defensive line with 31 tackles and also had six tackles-for-loss.
The Dog Daggett Most Improved Player Award, named for the team’s former equipment manager, was presented to Cooper Jackson, a fullback from Nashville.
The other MVP honors were for linebacker, receiver and offensive back.
Jay Rudwall, a junior finance major from Ooltewah, Tenn., was named the Most Valuable Linebacker winner. He ranked third on the team with 101 total tackles, making it the first time in school history that three players topped the 100-tackle barrier. He also had two sacks, 6.5 tackles-for-loss, forced two fumbles, recovered one and had one interception.
The Most Valuable Receiver honor went to Matthews, who finished his career ranked eighth all-time with 110 catches for ninth in yards with 1,647 while scoring16 touchdowns. He led the Golden Eagles in both receptions (48) and receiving yards (670), while adding six touchdowns in 2014.
The Most Valuable Offensive Back award was presented to Vanlier. In addition to his play on special teams, Vanlier also ranked second on the squad in rushing with 494 yards and five touchdowns on 89 carries, posting a team-best 5.6 yards per carry average. He caught 21 passes for another 517 yards and two touchdowns. Altogether, Vanlier accounted for 1,428 all-purpose yards, an average of 118.8 yards per game.
The final activity at the dinner was recognition of the team's senior players on hand, many of them joined by their parents and family members. The seniors at the dinner were:
WR Neil Gannaway, Birmingham, Ala.
S Marty Jones, Cincinnati, Ohio
WR Cody Matthews, Gallatin, Tenn.
S Patrick Prewitt, Vestavia, Ala.
OL Randall Reeves, McCalla, Ala.
DL Avery Rollins, Gadsden, Ala.
PK Zach Sharp, Maryville, Tenn.
S Conor Sparkman, Sparta, Tenn.
QB Darian Stone, Clinton, Tenn.
S Austin Tallant, Alcoa, Tenn.
LS Ben Viaene, Hortonville, Wis.
S Cory Webber, Forest Park, Ohio
The roster included five additional seniors who were not able to attend the event:
DE DeJuan Brown, Smyrna, Tenn.
CB James Huguely, Atlanta, Ga.
CB Tevin McDermott, Athens, Tenn.
DE Midoho Okpokowuruk, Charlotte, N.C.
OL Matthew Smith, Jonesboro, Ga.
