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 10^th all-time in Tech history in passing yards, 12^th in rushing yards, and 6^th 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