In the minutes following the University of Charleston's 65-21 win over West Virginia Wesleyan, where he broke the Golden Eagles' single-game passing record in about 2½ quarters, quarterback Jeremy Johnson felt good about his performance, but felt even better for the teammates on the other side of those passes.
"Honestly, I'm mostly happy for the receivers that scored," said Johnson, who threw for four touchdowns against the Bobcats. "It does my heart good to see the joy on their faces when they score, because they've worked just as hard to score. All I'm doing is delivering it.
"The passing record is a blessing, to accomplish that. But it's more of a blessing seeing other players score so we can succeed as a team."
Johnson made plenty of people happy Thursday night, throwing touchdown passes to four different receivers - Rashawn Dickerson, Joey Augustin, D'Andre Brooks and Andrew Flohr. His 301 passing yards broke the old record of 286, set by Corey Isner against Wesleyan in 2005. He surpassed that mark with 12:07 left in the third quarter with his 29-yard scoring throw to Dickerson.
The sixth-year player from Silsbee, Texas, who had stops at West Virginia, Lamar, Blinn Junior College and Houston before arriving in Charleston, has helped make everyone around the UC program pretty happy these days. The Golden Eagles (8-1, 8-1 Mountain East), are ranked 23rd in the country and third in Division II's Super Region One and have won seven straight games.
He's been known as a dual threat since his high school days, but UC coach Pat Kirkland said Johnson's passing skills might get overlooked by some opponents.
"He's just seeing the field better now in the passing game," Kirkland said. "He did a better job of staying in the pocket and making great decisions. He's a great runner, but it's nice to see we have the ability to do both."
And Johnson knows that ability doesn't shine without help from an MEC-leading run game, a powerful offensive line and dynamic receivers.
"You can't do anything by yourself, in life or in sports," Johnson said. "To be fruitful, you have to be fruitful with people. Through my experience, the most important thing I've learned is the life of others. We don't look at individual success. We look at everybody succeeding together."
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Among the many areas of improvement for the West Virginia State football team this season has been pass protection. The Yellow Jackets tied for last in the MEC in 2014, allowing a hair over three sacks per game. Entering Saturday's game against the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, though, State had cut that average down to about two sacks per game.
The Yellow Jackets (5-4, 5-3 MEC) had their problems with UNC-Pembroke, though, allowing a season-high five sacks in a 45-21 loss.
State coach Jon Anderson said the reasons for the Braves' pressure began with the skill of their defensive front.
"They had some really good defensive linemen that had really been getting good pressure all year long," he said. "I think we, for whatever reason, held onto the football sometimes a little bit too long. We've got to continue to make good decisions back there as we have all year long."
The Braves are tied for 33rd in Division II, collecting 2.75 sacks per game. Seven Pembroke players had a hand in the team's five sacks.
Anderson said that, up until Saturday's game, the Yellow Jackets had done a good job of getting rid of the football, that the quarterbacks' internal clocks have helped keep defenders off of them. He expects the offense to bounce back in that regard.
"Sometimes throwing the football away is better than taking a sack," Anderson said. "You've got to do that sometimes, and we have. We've done it all year long."