Richard Johnson from Sports Illustrated is the 2022 winner of the Edward Aschoff Rising Star Award.
Johnson, 29, has been a national college football writer with SI since the fall of 2021.
“It is always an honor to be given an award from your peers!” Johnson said in a statement. “This is the only field I’ve ever wanted to work in, and it’s incredibly validating to be recognized.
“I count all my experiences in this field as continued education and there are too many editors and writers to name who have made me better and helped me along the way. I grew up reading many of them as a lifelong college football fan and it’s been incredible to get to know them as I grow in journalism.”
This is the third year the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) has presented the award in honor of Aschoff, following David Ubben (2020) and Grace Raynor (2021).
Ubben and Raynor are both with The Athletic.
Aschoff covered college football for ESPN and died on Christmas Eve 2019, his 34th birthday, from stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma that had developed in his lungs.
Like Aschoff, Johnson graduated from the University of Florida.
After his graduation in 2015, Johnson joined ESPN before making his way to SB Nation and eventually Sports Illustrated.
“I remember when the FWAA announced this award a couple years ago,” Johnson said. “I immediately knew that I wanted to win it, and I guess it’s time to move past my jealousy of past winners David and Grace — I kid as they’re both great reporters who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting on the road the last few years.
“Ed is a prime example of how representation matters. There are unfortunately too few Black people covering this sport, and for as long as I’d known him, seeing Ed on television or his byline on the website was proof positive that he’d made it in this industry and that I could too.
“You could say I basically followed his blueprint from UF’s journalism school to covering the Gators all the way to ESPN, and it was an honor to shout him out during my first season on the SEC Network.”
