Johnson Named C-USA Special Teams Player-of-the-Week
October 08, 2007 | Football
Oct. 8, 2007
IRVING, Texas -East Carolina senior Chris Johnson was named Conference USA Special Teams Player-of-the-Week league officials announced Monday afternoon.
Johnson, a native of Orlando, Fla., racked up an ECU single-game record 372 all-purpose yards in leading the Pirates past UCF, 52-38 on Saturday. He sparked a 28-point third quarter with a career-high-tying 96-yard kickoff return for a touchdown that cut into a 28-17 halftime deficit.
In all, Johnson scored four touchdowns (two rush, one reception, one return) - the most by an ECU player in a game since 2002, when Art Brown scored four against Houston (Nov. 9). He averaged 48.5 yards per kickoff return against the Knights (4-for-194 yards) and led the Pirates in both rushing (23-for-89 yards) and receiving (5-for-89 yards). On his record-breaking night, Johnson moved up to sixth on ECU's all-time scoring charts (192 points) and now stands third on the C-USA career kickoff return yardage list with 2,239 on 96 attempts. He also ranks fourth among C-USA's all-time all-purpose yardage leaders with 5,261 yards.
Johnson is the second Pirate this season to capture C-USA weekly honors following Patrick Pinkney (Sept. 10).
Joining Johnson as Players-of-the-Week were Trevor Vittatoe (QB, UTEP) and Andrew Sendejo (FS, Rice).
The Pirates will be back in action this Saturday when they travel Ell Paso, Texas to face UTEP in a clash matching C-USA divisional leaders at the Sun Bowl. Kickoff is scheduled for 9:05 (EDT).
