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Vols' Johnson, Randolph Named Yahoo! Freshman All-Americans
Tennessee
freshmen A.J. Johnson and Brian Randolph were named to the Yahoo!
Sports Freshman All-America Team on Monday. Johnson earned first-team
honors while Randolph made the second team.
Johnson, who was one
of four SEC All-Freshman selections on the Vols, posted one of the best
rookie seasons in Tennessee history. UT's starting weakside linebacker
racked up 80 tackles, the second-most by a UT true freshman all-time,
second only to Eric Berry's 86 in 2007. The Gainesville, Ga., native
led all SEC freshman in tackles and finished second to Austin Johnson
(81) on the team.
He became the only true freshman in Tennessee
history to have three double-figure tackle games in his debut season as
he piled up 10-plus tackles in three consecutive contests. That trio of
games came against No. 1 LSU (11 tackles), No. 2 Alabama (career-high
13 tackles) and No. 14 South Carolina (12 tackles), compiling 36 total
tackles in that span.
Johnson was named SEC Freshman of the Week
for his performance against Alabama. He had 13 tackles, the second-most
by a true freshman Vol in history in a single-game. In 2011, Johnson
also had 4.5 TFLs, two fumble recoveries and a forced fumble playing in
all 12 games with 10 starts.
Randolph was also named to the SEC
All-Freshman team earlier this month. With Randolph's 55 tackles, the
Vols had three of their top five tacklers as true freshman -- the only
team in the nation to make such a claim. The safety played in all 12
games, starting eight and finished the year right behind Maggitt, with
the fifth-most tackles by a true freshman in Tennessee history.
A
native of Kennesaw, Ga., Randolph notched a career-high 12 tackles and
a TFL in the season-finale at Kentucky (Nov. 26). Randolph recorded an
impressive stretch with 23 tackles against three Top 15 teams in
October. Randolph posted nine tackles vs. No. 1 LSU (Oct. 15), eight
stops at No. 2 Alabama (Oct. 22) and six tackles along with a forced
fumble vs. No. 14 South Carolina (Oct. 29).
With these two honorees,
Tennessee has now had 38 all-time Freshman All-Americans dating to
1977. Last season, offensive lineman James Stone was recognized by
three outlets as a Freshman All-American.
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