John Gibbs Jr. won a pile of awards this year, so many that he might have to buy a sturdy bookshelf to showcase them all. The recognition poured in from all over the country, with the Alcorn State quarterback racking up enough All-America nods and offensive awards to sustain a lifetime of stories for grandchildren and humble brags to friends.

Then he got his own day.

From now on in Houston, Dec. 16 has been declared John Gibbs Jr. Day.

And you thought you had a good year.

With a row of Houston city councilmen watching inside Reliant Stadium, Gibbs threw three touchdown passes and rushed for 132 yards in a dominant 38-24 win over Southern to claim Alcorn’s first Southwestern Athletic Conference championship in 20 years.

Ten days later, the councilmen honored the Houston native by giving him his own day.

“They all loved the performance. They said they haven’t seen an exciting college game in a long time. They were happy and excited to see an exciting game,” Gibbs said. “I got a day in my own city. I guess all the support and everything, the city just showed love.”

With the way Gibbs played this season, he might deserve his own week.

The junior threw for 2,482 yards and rushed for 1,006 more as he led Alcorn to its best season in recent history. He was named the national Player of the Year by Boxtorow — a media organization that specializes in covering Historically Black Colleges and Universities — and SWAC Offensive Co-Player of the Year, with his name gracing more All-America lists than grocery lists.

It was all a surreal ribbon to wrap an unbelievable 2014 season, one of the best in Alcorn football history and one that serves as a springboard for the Braves as they build on the foundation laid by players like Gibbs.

“You could really see the hunger in everyone’s eyes, not just the coaches. Coaches can only want it for the players. The players have to want it for themselves. They made us want it,” Gibbs said. “That’s what it was. They made us want it, and the team really came together and finished and gelled this whole season. This is the best season I’ve had since I’ve been here at Alcorn.”

The 9-3 season that ended with a championship didn’t just materialize. Gibbs put in hundreds of hours of work over the years as he grew from a wide-eyed freshman in coach Jay Hopson’s offense in 2012 to a confident dual threat offensive machine in 2014.

“The longer you’re in the system, the more you’re able to understand it, the ins and outs of it,” he said. “I just feel like this past season, I was able to understand offense a lot better.”

It helped that the Braves felt they were slighted in the preseason after coming off a 9-3 campaign in 2013. That chip on the team’s collective shoulder motivated Gibbs and company to power through the SWAC schedule and hold up the trophy in Houston in the end.

“We weren’t picked to win the SWAC. We weren’t picked to win the East. We just felt like we had to play for something,” Gibbs said. “Every game we tried to prove everybody wrong. The doubters, the haters, everybody.”

Gibbs will be back next season, hoping to navigate Alcorn State to a repeat of its legend-inducing 2014 run. There’s plenty of motivation to pick up where they left off, especially due to the fact that he was named Offensive Co-Player of the Year instead of winning the award outright.

“It means a lot knowing that the past two years Alcorn has had the co-Offensive Player of the Year, but it would be nice to just have the title by myself,” he said. “That’s something that I look forward to working for next year.“