By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – In his short career with the Tennessee Tech football team, senior Michael Birdsong made quite an impression.

With his leadership skills, his arm and his competitive spirit, the former James Madison and Marshall quarterback proved himself time and time again as a true Golden Eagle.

Birdsong was selected by his teammates as the recipient of the Robert Hill Johnson Award -- Tech football's highest honor -- for the 2016 season and was recognized on Saturday during the basketball doubleheader against Eastern Kentucky.

"This is awesome," Birdsong said. "It is such a privilege to be honored by my teammates, to be considered the most valuable player to the team. But they know and the coaches know that nothing happens by just one person. It was always a team effort. The things I was able to do, it was because of their abilities and their actions on the field as well."

His stats alone were worthy of recognition – Birdsong passed for 2,577 yards in the 2016 campaign, completing 216 of his 346 passes with 17 touchdowns. He also rushed for 228 yards and four more touchdowns.

But the transfer was able to make a quick contribution to the program – becoming a leader the team needed during the first season of head coach Marcus Satterfield's tenure.

"That was something I knew I was getting myself into when I came down here," Birdsong said. "That was something I wanted to take a part of with this coaching staff. By getting this award tonight, as well as accomplishing those things we did at the end of the season, it all just came together and I think it's really panning out."

Birdsong quickly gained the respect of his teammates, partially because of a fantastic work ethic that saw the senior arrive in Cookeville early enough to work out and build a rapport with his teammates, including fellow transfer Dontez Byrd long before the grueling summer camp work even began.

"When I arrived on the Tennessee Tech campus in May, I had no idea who our quarterback was going to be. A couple of weeks after I was here, Coach Satt brought Michael on a visit -- and I knew right away by looking at him, physically he was going to be the guy we needed at quarterback.

"Shortly after Michael got acquainted with Cookeville, we began hanging out outside of football and also went to the stadium to throw routes so we could build chemistry and get a feel for one another. A lot of the time, it was just me and him on the field working out for an hour or two."

Byrd continued, "Going into the season, I was excited because I knew how special Michael was going to be for our team. He was out leader for the whole team, as well as our offense."

Birdsong helped Byrd break the single-season receiving yardage and catches records as Byrd hauled in 933 yards and seven touchdowns on 74 catches.

There was no doubt that Birdsong was the type of player Satterfield wanted to be an example of what he was looking for from the new breed of Golden Eagle football.

"Coach Satt has done a great job of building our culture as a team," Byrd said, "and if anyone needed to see how to define our culture, they could easily look at Michael Birdsong. He displayed our team brand at all times: physical, disciplined, relentless, accountable, tough. He never missed any practices, no matter how banged up or sore he was.

"He knew that he was the leader and the team needed him. If he showed any weakness, it would affect the team as a whole. Most leaders lead by example, but Michael did both and he had a lot of experience to draw from playing at James Madison and Marshall, so the players around here automatically looked up to him, which was a good thing."

And to earn the honor, voted on by his teammates, means a lot to Birdsong.

"I showed my leadership and my toughness early on," Birdsong said. "I think that really instilled into this program and these guys and they started to catch a hold of it."

Now with his eligibility complete, Birdsong is currently working on earning a spot with a National Football League team with the 2017 draft coming up soon in April. Birdsong appeared in the 2017 Tropical Bowl earlier this month

"It's been going great," Birdsong said. "I've been training down in Atlanta with Chip Smith, who's one of the greatest in the biz and has been for a long time. I'm just working my tail off down there and hoping for the best."

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 season. He then transferred to the Baylor School in Chattanooga, where he earned three 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 in Cookeville, 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.

Since then, Tech's highest football honor has been awarded in his honor, presented annually to the player who makes the largest contribution to the Golden Eagles during the season and is selected by the players.

Birdsong is the fourth quarterback to win the award in the past eight seasons, and is the ninth to win the award in the 66-year history.

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
2015 Brock McCoin, WR
2016 Michael Birdsong, QB