A&M-Commerce senior wide receiver Vernon Johnson capped off his stellar Lion career with All-American honors from the American Football Coaches Association as announced by the organization Tuesday morning.
Johnson, who is the second Lion in as many season to earn the award following in the footsteps of teammate Charles Tuaau who was a 2013 All-American, hauled in 77 catches for 1,258 yards and 12 touchdowns. He led the LSC in receiving yards and was sixth in the NCAA. He was also ranked ninth in the NCAA in yards per game.
With Johnson as a key cog, the Lion offense finished the season as the most explosive and best offense in the NCAA. A&M-Commerce led the nation in points per game with 54.1 and total offense averaging 535.4 yards per game. The Lion offense will also go down as the best scoring offense in the 83-year history of Lone Star Conference after averaging their 54.1 points per game and scoring a total of 649 points both conference records.
Johnson will go down as the most prolific wide receiver in A&M-Commerce history after holding the records for receptions in a season with his 77 catches this season. He also held the record for touchdown receptions with 13 in 2013, only to see that record fall to teammate Ricky Collins in 2014. In Johnson’s final game with the Lions, he caught just four passes but covered 191 yards including a dazzling 71-yard touchdown catch. He also scored on the Lions’ first offensive play of the game; a 61-yard strike that saw Johnson blow by the opposing defenders something A&M-Commerce fans had become accustomed too. In just two seasons playing for the Blue and Gold, Johnson caught 147 passes and tallied a whopping 2,608 yards.
After his 1,345 yards in 2013, the A&M-Commerce single-season record, he became just the second receiver in Lion history to surpass the 1,000-yard receiving plateau. He became the first player in school history with back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons when he repeated that feat in 2014.
Johnson is the 224th All-American in A&M-Commerce school history and the 68th to earn a first team nod. He is the seventh Lion to be recognized by the American Football Caoches Association, arguably the most prestigious with only a first team selected and picked by the NCAA head coaches. A&M-Commerce was one of only seven schools to be represented in 2013 and 2014.
The five teams now chosen for each AFCA?division evolved from a single 11-player squad in 1945. From 1945 until 1967, only one team was chosen. From 1967 through 1971, two teams, University Division and College Division, were selected. In 1972, the College Division was split into College I and College II. In 1979, the University Division was split into two teams — FBS and FCS. In 1996, the College I and College II teams were renamed Division II?and Division III,?respectively. In 2006, the AFCA started selecting an NAIA-only team.
From 1965-81, a 22-player (11 offensive, 11 defensive) team was chosen. In 1982, a punter and placekicker were added to the team. In 1997, a return specialist was added, giving us the current 25-player team. The return specialist position was replaced by an all-purpose player in 2006.
The AFCA’s Division II?All-America Selection Committee is made up of three head coaches from each of the AFCA’s nine districts, one of whom serves as a district chairman, along with another head coach who serves as the chairman of the selection committee. The coaches in each district are responsible for ranking the top players in their respective districts prior to a conference call between the district chairmen and the committee chairman on which the team is chosen.
Members of the AFCA Coaches’ All-America Team receive a plaque commemorating their selection to the team.